Coleman Hughes and Critiques of the Left: An Open Letter to McManus

“Although the line seems quite clear as to when right-wing ideas have gone too far, the same clarity just isn’t there for when left-wing ideas go bad.”

Recently, when a colleague of mine and fellow writer, Matt McManus, asked me to pen a piece in critique of the modern Left that he could respond to—in an effort to expand the often disjointed and hostile discourse that marks modern politics—it wasn’t obvious to me that I had much to offer to the conversation. After all, I would consider myself a progressive on both paper and policy, and much of my criticism of the Left stems from a concern that the excesses of the Left are galvanizing the excesses of the Right. This is, of course, nothing that hasn’t already been written about in Quillette or any number of heterodox publications.

Part of the problem with these broad sweeping labels is that the ground beneath our feet is always shifting, and what qualifies as being either on the Left or Right has transmogrified significantly, particularly over the past couple of years. But upon reflection, I decided to put together this piece, in part because of the honor it is to be asked to do so by someone I look up to—but also because I feel my experience might lend itself to an honest and good faith criticism of the Left that could be of use to a curious reader. This also feels like an important undertaking for another reason: although the line seems quite clear as to when right-wing ideas have gone too far (i.e. associating national identity with skin color, justifying societal inequalities with appeals to bootstraps, clinging to tradition to numb social change, free market fundamentalism etc.), the same clarity just isn’t there for when left-wing ideas go bad, short of invoking the Soviet Gulag or Maoist China (though I’m sure my interlocutors will bristle at this claim). I’d like to attempt to sketch out the contours of that line—or at least clarify where it might be. This involves delineating the strains of Left-leaning thought that run the risk of turning off fellow travelers, while also obscuring potential solutions to complex issues. To do so, I will be drawing heavily from the work of the writer and Quillette columnist Coleman Hughes among others.

The Politics Of Identity

Critiques of “identity politics” have become a staple of right-wing media. But this line of attack has become so muddled and distorted that it hardly carries any meaning anymore. If we were to ask a pundit of this particular mould to present an exact definition of identity politics, the critique will likely begin with Black Lives Matter and end with pink vagina hats, leaving a rather incomplete picture as to what constitutes human identity. It is hard to take the criticism in earnest when it has completely ignored the rise of white identity politics, and it’s hard to knock progressives who have become desensitized to such appeals. But I’m afraid this numbing effect comes at a cost; beneath the tropes and dog whistles, the concern over a growing identitarian strain in mainstream left-wing politics is indeed well-founded.