In an article published by the Free Press of Bari Weiss on Oct. 2, Freddie DeBoer, a devout Marxist, explains why he feels the contemporary Left has betrayed its fundamental values. Ironically, in doing so, he exposes the superficiality of those values.
Hopeful that the workers of the world might still unite in toppling the tyranny of their Capitalist oppressors, he is outraged that “intellectuals” who pretend to share his “moral” perspective have accomplished so little in improving the plight of America’s working poor. His recently published book, appropriately, is entitled: How Elites Ate the Social Justice Movement. Their obsession with Identity Politics, he suggests, represents a perversion of his Marxist ideals. Hence, for example, the recent tendency amongst advocates for the LGBTQ+ community to distance themselves from Gay White Males because their Color and Gender grace them with too much Privilege to really be considered part of the “noble suffering.” As evidence of this trend he cites a 2017 essay by one Gabriel Arana entitled: White Gay Men Are Hindering Our Progress as a Queer Community. The rationale of demonizing people based on their Gender or Color is, DeBoer says, without any “moral logic” whatsoever. But one cannot help but wonder, is the Neo-Marxist narrative which demonizes the Wealthy, in any significant way less superficial then the Identity Politics he finds so abhorrent?
Generalizations about any designated group, however valid, are utterly irrelevant to the moral/intellectual status of any given individual. As I said in a recent blog, perfectly rational criticisms of various contemporary Islamic regimes in no way entitle one to pre-judge any Muslim individual, millions of whom are also appalled by those regimes. But DeBoer’s Marxism is anchored in stereotypes of no more “moral logic” than today’s Identity Politics, the demonization of the “wealthy” as “oppressors” of the poor being an ignorant ideological construct which flagrantly denies the complexities of the human condition. Quite literally, Leftist “intellectuals” who subscribe to the notion that the gap between the rich and the poor is a “moral” abomination, have no understanding whatsoever of the concept of “Morality.”
Of course there are Capitalists motivated by greed who abuse the powers granted by their wealth. It is an unequivocal fact that the species is rife with both decent people determined to always do the right thing, as well as self-centered jerks for whom morality is the concern of suckers. But this applies to the working poor as well, millions of whom are no doubt the victims of their own failure to confront life’s challenges with any degree of integrity. That it is the Inner Life of Man rather than his Material Circumstances which determines his socio-economic fate, is validated by the success of millions who have managed to overcome the poverty to which they were born. The wonderful Candace Owens, whose Black parents were challenged by both racism and poverty, attributes her success to their insistence that she approach life with a willingness to both learn and work. Here in Canada, countless Indigenous have managed to prosper in the very same way. If White Canadians are indeed genocidal monsters, they definitely need to improve their game.
My point is simply that the Materialistic Determinism preached by Marx is grossly simplistic, DeBoer’s denunciation of Identity Politics ironically exposing the superficiality of his own world-view. If being White or Male doesn’t necessarily make you Evil, being Poor doesn’t necessarily make you “noble” in your suffering. Sadly, such sentimental notions have become the dominant informing convictions of our contemporary Leftist culture, a culture which, to use DeBoer’s own phrase, is rooted in no “moral logic” whatsoever!