The Toronto Star is a decidedly Leftist newspaper whose parent company, Torstar, bought my local newspaper, The Hamilton Spectator, in 1999. In July of last year, The Spec published a lengthy article by a young academic named Karmvir Padda who identifies as an “extremist researcher.” The “extremism” under scrutiny in her extensive article is the pervasive Misogyny which she maintains has become a “gateway drug” for violence against Women. She cites as her motivation an incident at the U. of Waterloo 2 years earlier in which a young male had invaded a gender studies classroom and stabbed the professor and 2 students while destroying a Pride flag in the process. A manifesto was subsequently discovered in which he outlined the reasons for his actions.
Of course this assault, as is any such act of violence, was inexcusable. But what Padda does throughout her article is imply that misogyny is an inherent aspect of contemporary conservatism. Claiming to have examined the manifestos of over a hundred violent extremists, she says loathing for Feminism and LGBTQ Rights is their most common characteristic. Clearly she was being very selective in her reading inasmuch as there must be hundreds if not thousands of manifestos expressing hatred of Whites, hatred of “Straight” Society, hatred of “Privileged Karens”, hatred of the Wealthy, hatred of Christianity, etc., etc.. But what is truly appalling is Padda’s utter failure to confront the fact that the many features of Conservatism she so inanely associates with violence against Women are rooted in Reason and simple Common Sense! Relying on mere vague generalizations, she insists that misogyny is “often entangled with white nationalism, anti-LGBTQ-plus hate and anti-government sentiment.”
A simplistic tenet of the contemporary Left is the notion that Western Civilization has always been grossly Patriarchal and that any celebration of its past is therefore implicitly Misogynistic. As a well-educated student of that Civilization, I could destroy that fallacy in 30 seconds. The world was radically different 1000 years ago and, for a host of reasons, it made perfect sense for Males to assume a dominant role in the socio-political dynamic. Yet my reverence for the ever-evolving culture of which I am a product is simply dismissed by Padda as “white nationalism,” the implication being that it is not only implicitly misogynistic but racially motivated and rife with hatred for “the other.”
Conservatism is rooted in the respect for Reason which emerged from the European Enlightenment 300 years ago. Of the dozens of conservative commentators I admire, both Male and Female, not one has ever uttered a truly misogynistic sentiment. Yes, they may have mocked radical Feminists who insist Men and Women must achieve statistical parity in every socio-economic realm, a notion that utterly ignores the irrefutable biological/psychological differences between the Sexes. But criticism of such nonsense is simple Common Sense, not Hatred. And yes, they may be critical of Trans Ideology being inflicted on kids in elementary school, but again, is this not simple Common Sense?
Padda’s basic ploy, then, is to pretend to blame the “far right” for the supposed upsurge in violence against Women, while in fact citing mainstream Conservatism as its source. Among the “extremists” she deplores are those who see “universities as battlegrounds in a supposed culture war,” those stoking “fear of cultural Marxism” and even “disdain for liberal elites.” But these are in fact the concerns of all intelligent, rational Westerners for whom there is most definitely a Cultural War in which creeping Marxism is threatening the very Freedoms upon which our Democracies were founded while absurdly being championed in many universities by our “academic elites,” those who would never dare say anything positive about Capitalism!
That Padda suggests there is no ongoing Cultural War presently dividing the West, is absurd. That she suggests the creeping Marxism denounced by conservatives is but a figment of their imaginations, is equally so. But the notion that Misogyny is the preeminent cause of political violence here in the West is just plain crazy. Her article is steeped in Ideological Bias and makes no attempt to distinguish the validity of the Mainstream Conservative World-View from its perversion by those consumed by racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc.. Perhaps nothing better illustrates the superficiality of her perspective than her insistence that loathing for the LGBTQ community is implicitly misogynistic. While I empathize with those born into Gender Ambiguity, I absolutely reject the right of biological Males, who now claim to be Females, to compete in Women’s athletic competitions. My reservations with the agenda of the Trans community, in other words, actually entail a defense of the Rights of Women! It’s a fairly obvious fact yet one apparently too subtle for Padda to acknowledge given her addiction to gross generalizations and simplistic conclusions!