Buzzfeeding The #RegressiveLeft

By Lalo Dagach

Just over a year ago Sam Harris found himself face to face with Ben Affleck on Real Time with Bill Maher where he stated,

“The crucial point of confusion is that we have been sold this meme of Islamophobia, where every criticism of the doctrine of Islam gets conflated with bigotry towards Muslims as people, and that’s intellectually ridiculous. I’m not denying that certain people are bigoted against Muslims as people, and that’s a problem.”

To this Ben Affleck immediately, and quite absurdly, responded that what Harris had said was “gross and racist”. There was no word at the time to describe Affleck’s position. He was not a right wing conservative, nor was he a devoutly religious republican, but he was clearly opposed to any criticism of the illiberal values or actions being committed outside of what we traditionally call "The West". However, in recent months a new term coined by British anti-extremist activist and author Maajid Nawaz, has popularised on social networks, ‘The Regressive Left’.

The term Regressive Left, though in no way a compliment, wasn't intended to be a simple insult. It describes a particular mentality that has festered in bowels of blind multiculturalism and toxic PC environments. If one holds faith in liberal values (equal rights for all races, genders and sexualities, freedom speech and freedom of choice, etc.) then one should not compromise those values simply because someone is of a different skin colour, ethnicity, nationality, or religion. This is straightforward and clear enough in theory, but many liberals find themselves confused when confronted with, for example, being accepting of traditional forms of dress, versus women being obligated by law to cover their head and/or face. Another example is the various traditions of marriage preformed around the world, versus accepting child marriage as a form of "culture”.

It was of course to be expected that there would be push back from the Regressive Left, and it was also quite evident that this push back would come in the form of accusations of racism, bigotry, and an alignment with the right. Yesterday Buzzfeed posted an article by Joseph Bernstein titled 'The Rise Of The #Regressiveleft Hashtag’. Here Bernstein unabashedly makes the usage of the hashtag #RegressiveLeft, seem as though it were a Trump-like mob of xenophobes and closed-minded bigots.

Bernstein writes that #RegressiveLeft "has become wildly popular among the alt-right”, and makes ludicrous guilt by association fallacies. For example, that the popular YouTuber Sargon of Akkad, is an “alt-right men’s right activist”. Sargon is an outspoken critic of the far-left, and does not consider himself a MRA but a human right's activist, who is currently promoting a campaign for women's rights started by the Amazing Atheist. Bernstein also tries to generalise the use of #RegressiveLeft as mostly negative by finding less than a handful of tweets by unpopular twitter users. One even using the hashtag to deny the reality of climate change, all the while Bernstein self-professing these tweets to be “typical” of the entire movement.

Compare Bernstein’s examples to more popular Twitter users who received dozens or thousands of shares.

#AmericanMedia#Circus#RegressiveLeft#Islam#ISIS#ParisAttackspic.twitter.com/GGRM7XMjHn

— Faisal Saeed AlMutar (@faisalalmutar) November 23, 2015

People who throw out bigot, racist, homophobe and sexist like it's candy suddenly don't like labels now that #RegressiveLeft is sticking.

— Dave Rubin (@RubinReport) January 19, 2016

#RegressiveLeft Those who can't distinguish between ideas and people... pic.twitter.com/hW8JLchzcU

— Muhammad Syed (PBUM) (@MoTheAtheist) December 18, 2015

Imagine if people reacted to Catholic pedophilia in the same way the #RegressiveLeft reacts to Islamic atrocities. Those kids had it coming!

— Michael A. Sherlock (@sherlockmichael) March 16, 2016

As a header, in Bernstein’s post, he places a quote by Sam Harris covered in blood, which was designed by the artist AmericanDreaming (the same artist who created the Maajid image at the top), who felt that the intention of the image had been manipulated by Buzzfeed.

@RubinReport@Bernstein As the creator of this image, I did not intend it to be used for this purpose. Not surprised, though.

— AmericanDreaming (@AmericnDreaming) March 16, 2016

Bernstein ends by claiming Bill Maher, Maajid Nawaz and Sam Harris, have a "cable news–appropriate Western values–traditionalism” and this "can flow through the substations of the alt-right internet.” Are equal rights, freedom of speech and choice, “Western Values”? Or are they basic human rights of which all people are deserving? If it is the latter, then as liberals we ought align with all people fighting for those rights despite ethnicity or nationality, and never let “It’s their culture” be a shield to justify oppression. As Richard Dawkins said, if any cultural beliefs are discovered to be an impediment to human rights, the response from any liberal should be “Well, to hell with their culture”.

Unlike Bernstein, I won’t demonise the Regressive Left as being evil bigoted right-wingers, but in fact they are liberals who are inconsistent in expecting these rights, they already have themselves, for others. By countering the term Regressive Left with fatuous claims of “alt-right”, Bernstein is feeding the opposition’s narrative that makes change and reform an impossibility.

Lastly, listen to Maajid Nawaz, who is not just a "British commentator" as Bernstein describes him, but is an Ex-Radical Muslim who spent years in an in Egyptian prison and now works as reformer of religion with the Quilliam Foundation. Here Maajid describes what the Regressive Left mentality is, and see if you can find anything “alt-right” about it.

The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Ora Media, LLC, its affiliates, or its employees.