SOCIAL JUSTICE EVOLUTION

This home page presents a basic intellectual framework for understanding the larger cultural landscape and a lens for approaching the works included in this site. Please follow this link to read about "Our Commitment to the Principles of Social Justice". This site is for all people including those who identify as progressive, liberal, moderately conservative, libertarian or nonpolitical – who are interested in human rights and equality and in learning about the growing influence of contemporary social justice scholarship on society’s institutions in general, and on education, the social sciences, human rights work and activist and spiritual communities, in particular. Educators, policy-makers, human rights activists, developmental psychologists, social justice advocates, and peace activists will find this pro-social justice site useful in understanding the current trends in social justice, its positive developments, and the critiques around its excesses.

For the latest blog posts about the use of language in social change, the problem of ideological conditioning, and other issues related to the modern Social Justice Ideology (SJI) movement, please click here.

With the advent of the internet’s great expansion in the early 21st century, the world of ideas has become far more accessible to the average reader than we could ever have thought possible just a few decades ago. This has brought about a crisis in sense making, in which we must contend with competing information and an untold number of frameworks in making sense of a world in which tribalism and the culture wars are escalating alongside the steep rise in readily available disinformation and propaganda.

There is much at stake for the planet and its inhabitants in the 21st century, so it has become increasingly important for thought leaders, elected officials, and everyday people to grapple with the big questions, moral aims, and potential outcomes of the frameworks that we are considering in our efforts to make sense of the world and to act in accordance with the sense that we have made.

This is no easy task. In their remarkable essay, The Mimetic Tribes of Culture War 2.0, authors Peter N. Limberg and Conor Barnes deftly point out that the political landscape of the digital world can no longer be understood in the traditional terms of left versus right, but rather as an arena in which people “across the political spectrum… are cloistering themselves in tribes” that “are defining themselves against the tribes closest to them”.

Some of these tribes, such as the Transmodernists and the Metamodernists, posit frameworks that attempt to transcend and include other frameworks into a larger, integrated whole, while others champion the modernist frameworks they believe have already been successful by deepening our understanding of Enlightenment values. Still others are warning us against the incomplete worldview of the pre-modernists and the distortions that have arisen under the influence of the most zealous of postmodernists with the aim of bringing culture back into the fold of reason, egalitarianism and less reliance on totalist ideology.

My Apostasy from the Church of Critical Theory

Having presented a very basic outline of some of the larger cultural frames we have encountered in the post-postmodernist era, we will narrow the focus back down to the frame of human experience on the individual and collective level in the here and now. In the pages that follow, we will examine the influence on that experience by policies and cultural norms that have been inspired by postmodernist conceptions of social justice.

It will be helpful for visitors to this site, to begin with the distinction between the Civil Rights movements of the 1950’s and 60’s, -which were inspired by the principles of universal liberalism- and contemporary Social Justice movements, which draw upon a different set of principles including social constructivism and group identity. For a concise examination of these differences, we recommend the essay, “Identity Politics Does Not Continue the Work of the Civil Rights Movements”.

It will also be helpful to understand the distinction between the general principles of social justice -which most people rightly support- and the specific ideology that we are calling Social Justice Ideology (SJI). For a brief primer on this distinction, we recommend this short essay called “Can Social Justice Be Distinguished from Social Justice Ideology?”.

While most of the sources linked to on this site are secular and non-theistic, we have chosen to include this essay by a theologian, as it offers a useful contribution in the study of social justice ideology and its impact. As with all of the sources chosen for this collection, the views expressed in this essay (e.g. the writer’s views on gender) will not be in perfect alignment with the views of readers. However, for those who are concerned about the modern forms of social justice theory and activism, the general thrust of the essay will resonate.

We also recommend this article, Escape the Echo Chamber which explores the differences between echo chambers and epistemic bubbles. This piece goes into some important details about the impact of us-against-them ideologies that are kept firmly in place by a lack of diverse information networks (epistemic bubbles) and the pre-emptive discrediting of all other sources of information, including the character and trustworthiness of individuals, groups, and beliefs systems that are seen to be one-dimensional, malevolent “enemies” (echo chambers).

Though the article above focuses on far-right echo chambers, we believe the insights are relevant for an understanding of social justice echo chambers, many of which, have fallen into an increasingly adversarial mindset that has not only increased polarization in Western societies, but threatens to further embolden opposing forces who are not likely to advance their causes for the good of all.

Alongside the development of these echo chambers and epistemic bubbles, a kind of reformation has emerged over the past few years to champion the freedom to step beyond ideological conditioning and to diagnose the world’s problems and promises in concert with others, including those who may appear to us as adversaries.

Though there is no centralized “reformation” in the world of social justice, a growing number of people are recognizing the emergence of a canon of thinkers, reformers, and dissidents who are questioning some of the central tenets of what can be reasonably called an orthodox Social Justice Ideology (SJI) and who offer an alternative vision that is more balanced, egalitarian, and multi-dimensional. This site aims to provide a portal into this emerging canon to help people navigate the sometimes muddy waters of social change, ethics, ideology, public policy, culture, and institutional control.

This page was set up as a resource for people who are committed to the general principles of protecting human rights and working for a socially just world in which all can thrive free from fear, inequity, and oppression. We want that outlook to be protected and to succeed, which is why we aim to critique those elements that we feel are interfering with this vision.

We recognize that mass movements can often deteriorate into mobbing behaviors that bring fear, violence and cruelty into the world and that this can occur across the political spectrum. We want to focus on the movements and frameworks that claim to speak on behalf of empathy, human rights and social justice because the troublesome patterns that have been arising over the past few years in the world of social justice are likely to escalate if these patterns are left unchecked.

We also recognize the growing pattern of heresy-hunting and the constant search for hidden beliefs and motives that the more ideologically-driven adherents of SJI engage in. Therefore, we want to assert that none of these resources are so-called right-wing or part of an elaborate plan to put social justice in a bad light in order to maintain “the status quo” and protect the power or perceived advantages of any demographic group.

We simply wish for other perspectives, frameworks, and experiences to be considered in the overall dialogue around society, human rights, civilizational progress, and social change -knowing that dialogue, access to diverse viewpoints, and the active consideration of those viewpoints has always been the way forward for progressive societies.

In these pages and posts, we have archived a collection of what we consider to be the best and most fair arguments for a reformation of the beliefs, culture and practices in modern social justice movements. We also explore the subject of ideological conditioning and the patterns of fanaticism, mobbing, and bullying that have been occurring with increasing frequency over the past few years in social media, mainstream media outlets, on the college campus, and in our institutions.

These resources will also be helpful for people who are being negatively impacted by the misapplication or abuse of social justice theories and don’t understand what’s happening to them. Important topics are covered that can help targets to discover not only what is happening to them but why.

If any of these resources speak to you or help you understand or heal, please share them on your social media accounts, emails and in private conversations with friends and acquaintances.

There is a better world in our midst populated by people with a humane ethos and a pro-intellectual and pro-inquiry stance that does not shy away from engagement, debate, and thoughtful analysis unrestricted by ideological commitments. These are people who are willing to see things as they are, without romanticism or fear. Above all, these are people who are confident and self-respecting enough to listen to other perspectives without suspicion and without over-reliance on ideological frameworks that tend to create distance between people.