Trying to deal with absolutists

Preamble

Looking back over the last ten years of my activism, there's a definite theme emerging. Namely, having to deal with absolutists who are so wedded to their beliefs, they cannot tolerate the thought of anyone disagreeing with them, let alone challenging them. Their response to anyone who has the temerity to question their beliefs is to blank them and refuse to engage at any level. Seemingly all too often, it goes beyond blanking into abuse and worse. To clarify, I've no problem with someone having strong beliefs and convictions if they're prepared to defend them and to engage and debate with their critics. It's when the blanking, cancellation, abuse and sometimes threats start that my tolerance for those with absolute beliefs starts to wear pretty thin.

Over the decades I've been an activist, I've learned to take a step back, assess a situation on its merits and to apply some rational thinking to try to get to the truth of the matter rather than trying to squeeze the facts into an ideological straitjacket in order to reach the 'correct' conclusion. I'll admit that I've not always called it right but, when I've called something wrong and subsequently realised it, I've done my level best to try and learn from my mistakes. As I get older, I realise that taking this approach is far more honest than trying to fit everything into a ideological straitjacket while rejecting those facts that contradict the conclusion I'm expected to come to. It's an approach that has lost me a few 'friends' along the way, has led to more rows and slanging matches than I would have liked and ultimately, has left me politically homeless.

It started with gender identity politics...

So, when did the run ins with the absolutists start for me? I'd say that the turning point was around 2016 going into 2017 with the issue in question being gender ideology. Historically, I've never had much time for identity politics, seeing it as a source of conflict and division when what was needed was unity and solidarity. Gender identity politics wasn't really on my radar until about 2016 - the reason being that at that time, my focus was very much on community activism. When it really did come up on my radar with the 'events' at the 2017 London Anarchist Bookfair, suffice to say, I had quite a steep learning curve in front of me in order to get my head around some pretty complex issues. All of these travails and more are detailed here in this piece: Why do I do this to myself? 12.4.23. This is what I had to say about what unfolded at 'that bookfair':

These doubts massively accelerated after the ill fated London Anarchist Bookfair in 2017. An event that was disrupted by a mob of trans rights activists angry with the organisers allowing the presence of gender critical and radical feminists. The organisers of the bookfair were happy to have the gender critical and radical feminists there because they wanted to foster an open discussion about the issues with gender identity politics. As far as the trans rights activists were concerned, those issues were not up for debate or discussion. That's why they were harassing and confronting anyone at the bookfair, including the organisers, they felt were facilitating the presence of the gender critical and radical feminists.

In the mid 2010s, with my focus on community politics, I was operating at a bit of an arm's length from the anarchist movement. As such, I probably wasn't as aware as I should have been at how central gender identity politics was becoming to a fair chunk of anarchist thinking. Which is why after the 'events' at the 2017 London Anarchist Bookfair, I was somewhat taken aback as to how the position on gender ideology seemed to have been pretty much written in stone without any meaningful discussion. Even though, I was operating at a bit of an arm's length, I was still keeping tabs on what the anarchist movement were saying and would have been aware if there had been any significant discussion and debate around gender identity politics. There wasn't any meaningful discussion or debate... To this day, I'm left wondering how the heck the position that the majority of the anarchist movement seem to have adopted emerged and then became set in stone.

With regard to gender identity politics, it's not just the anarchist movement that has adopted it wholesale, the same can be said of much of the left as well. Which sadly means that pretty much anyone questioning gender ideology runs the risk of being branded as a 'fascist' as eloquently articulated by Dr. Kathleen Stock in her acerbic review of Judith Butler's latest book: What is Judith Butler afraid of? Kathleen Stock | UnHerd | 12.3.24.

Though at times the author feigns charitable curiosity about some of her argumentative targets, the attitude never lasts. A sentence about gender-critical feminists that starts with “To be fair” ends up, a mere clause or two later, talking about their supposed affinities with “fascist politics”. There isn’t a single objection lodged against opponents that does not come freighted with the implication of moral taint and/or stupidity. Of course, painting one’s intellectual enemies as cartoon characters is a known tactic of modern transactivism; still, it is shocking to see it done so crudely by someone who retains a high reputation in many quarters.

The Covid 'crisis' and falling into lockstep

Moving on from the toxic minefield of gender identity politics, my next run in with the absolutist tendency in anarchism and also, the broader left, came with the Covid 'crisis' and the subsequent lockdowns. I'll freely admit that for the first few weeks of this 'crisis', I went along with many of the restrictions and guidelines. However, it soon became increasingly obvious to me that too many things weren't adding up and I started to ask some pointed questions about what was being done to us and more importantly, why it was being done and what was the agenda informing this. As soon as I started articulating those questions, the accusations of being a 'conspiracy theorist' started to come my way. This is what I had to say about that in this piece: Why do I do this to myself? 12.4.23

The differences over the immediate impact of the lockdowns and restrictions were bad enough. It was when I started to look at how the Covid 'crisis' was being leveraged to accelerate the implementation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) a.k.a. the 'great reset' that things started to get really weird. Weird in that I was left wondering what the f**k happened to what was supposed to be the questioning spirit of anarchism? Weird in that anyone writing anything about the way the crisis was being leveraged to bring about the 4IR was being labelled a 'conspiracy theorist'. Weird in that so many 'anarchists' fell into lockstep with a lot of the narrative that was being pedalled to keep people complying with the restrictions, the (anti)social distancing, the masking and dutifully getting a jab of a experimental mRNA. Weird in that not only did they buy into the narrative, the f**kers were actively enforcing it and shaming anyone who didn't comply. 'Anarchists'? Maoist zealots would be a lot closer to the truth with some of them.

With something as unprecedented as the Covid 'crisis' and the subsequent lockdowns, restrictions and insane pressure to take multiple shots of an experimental so called 'vaccine' you would have thought that any self respecting anarchist would have started to ask a few pointed questions. For the vast majority of anarchists and also, the broader left, that didn't happen. Everyone seemed to fall into lockstep with the restrictions, with too many anarchists too eager to call people out for not masking, associating with people outside of the bubbles we were supposed to be in at the time and for refusing to take an experimental 'vaccine'. There was absolutely no room for any discussion or debate about what was being done to us and why it was being done.

Here's the weird bit... For all of the zealous falling into lockstep with the restrictions and calling people out that was going on in 2020, 2021 and through into 2022, we now have something quite different. Namely that hardly anyone in anarchism or across the left talks about the Covid 'crisis' any longer. It's almost like it never happened and that their zeal for calling out anyone transgressing the 'guidelines' and restrictions we faced in 2020 and 2021 was some strange aberration that really needs to be swept under the carpet and forgotten about. It's like a form of collective amnesia which is only punctured by vindictive bastards with a grudge such as myself pointing out the way these f**kers simply capitulated to the doom laden messaging we wee being bombarded with at that point in time.

Trying to get through to the 'liveable neighbourhood' zealots

When it comes to dealing with absolutists who won't listen to anyone disagreeing with them, my latest and still ongoing battle is with a number of so called 'greens' in Bristol and Bath advocating for 'liveable neighbourhoods' and 'fifteen minute cities'. In response to their fanatical advocation of liveable neighbourhoods without placing them into the overall context of a planning and transport strategy for the region, I've been referring them to the numerous posts I've written on the issues involved: Posts on movement. Seemingly to no avail as they point blank refuse to engage in any dialogue, despite my willingness to have a reasoned discussion with them: Nuance, grey areas and actually listening 28.2.24

I hope that having got to this point, you'll see that we're trying our level best to take a nuanced position on the contentious issues surrounding liveable neighbourhoods and fifteen minute cities. If that's not enough, there's an ever growing list of pieces we've published around these issues and more that you can read through at your leisure: Posts on movement. We're putting it on record always up for an honest, open dialogue on the issues surrounding liveable neighbourhoods and fifteen minute cities. However, given the smearing and insults coming from at least some of the supporters of these initiatives, I honestly don't think there's much chance of that happening.

While it's not yet happened to me, other people in the Avon region who have legitimate concerns about the way liveable neighbourhoods are being implemented have been on the receiving end of some pretty tedious and childish attacks on social media. Yet again, the tired old cliché of being a 'conspiracy theorist' is being thrown about. Which to my way of thinking, is little more than a sneaky way to avoid any reasonable debate - namely, call your opponent a 'conspiracy theorist' and use that as a justification to refuse to engage in any way with them. Utterly pathetic behaviour which will do nothing to solve the obstacles we face when trying to get around our cities, towns and countryside.

A very brief conclusion

That's almost ten years of activism with three major examples of how an absolutist climate is making it almost impossible to have reasoned debates on complex issues. After what I've had to and continue to put up with from these absolutists, I sometimes find it hard to believe I'm still involved with any form of activism! The thing is, when issues have a direct impact on me, the community I live in and my family, I have no choice but to stick around, even though there are more than enough justifications for me to call it a day. Also, I don't like surrendering to absolutists who resort to smears, vilification and the bullying of anyone has the temerity to question their beliefs.

To my way of thinking, the more complex an issue is, the more the grey areas and nuances need to be recognised and acknowledged. Like it or not, the world is a complex place. Life cannot always be broken down into black and white, there will always be grey areas and doubt. To take an absolutist, black and white view of the world is naïve and intellectually dishonest. When debate is shut down in order to validate the feelings of those with an absolutist take on an issue, we all lose. We lose because with no debate and discussion, reaching a nuanced understanding becomes pretty much impossible. Without a nuanced understanding, working out possible solutions to the problems we face simply isn't going to happen. So, rather than moving forwards, we all end up moving backwards. This is why absolutists need to be challenged at every step.