Антиномии (Apr 2023)
When Rightists are to the Left of Leftists. Anomalies of Left-Wing Discourses in the Heyday of Post-Materialism
Abstract
The article is devoted to the search for an answer to the question of why in the West, right-wing populists and conservative authors have become in demand among representatives of the working class and the poor. This question directly affects the problems of the evolution of left-wing political thought: leftists are less and less interested in class struggle and more and more often talk about civil rights and ecology. The main message of this article is that the ideological contradictions among the modern Left will no longer seem anomalous if we move away from the idea of the transition to a post-capitalist society as a process in which the interests of the most economically vulnerable are satisfied in the first place. On the contrary, as the facts show, the formation of post-capitalism can be associated with an increase in the social stratum, consisting of those who are no longer struggling for survival and are not in acute material need. They shape their own left agendas by talking about systemic oppression, homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, or environmental pollution. The key problem lies in the specifics of the ideas about the world of left-wing post-materialists: a) they are gradually ceasing to care about socio-economic issues as such; b) their views are becoming naive and idealistic, relevant only to their own secure environment; c) they focus on solving the problems that they believe are caused by consumption and economic growth, and this is often contrary to the interests of the most vulnerable in the socio-economic sense. The article argues that a serious symptom of the growing antagonism between materialists and post-materialists is the very discourses of Conservatives and Republicans, which are becoming increasingly economically centered and attractive to a considerable part of the poor and the working class. Moreover, conservative critics of the contemporary leftists are often convincing in their exposure of left-wing idealism and anti-materialism. All this makes us doubt the relevance of the left-right dichotomy.
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