Part 11. Critical Theory’s dangerous derivatives of Critical Race Theory and Critical Gender Theory

So that is the explanation of what’s so very wrong and dangerous about Critical Theory, which, as I will now describe, means its offshoots of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Critical Gender Theory—and their manifestations of ‘Identity Politics’, ‘Woke’ ideology, ‘Cancel Culture’, and the ‘Great Reset’ of society—are also very wrong and very dangerous.

The question that arises is how was Critical Theory—that so dangerously decided we have no choice other than to artificially impose cooperative and loving behaviour on science’s supposed finding that we are naturally selfish creatures living in a naturally competitive and selfish world—actually going to be implemented? The answer to this question is that once it was decided we had to stop looking to science for guidance, we were free to assert whatever we liked, and that’s exactly what happened.

To impose a new world of love and kindness between ethnic groups or races, it was simply asserted that it was philosophically sound to claim that there is no difference between races; and further that any contention that there were differences was just a dishonest, manipulative, racist, artificially invented device used to oppress and ill-treat certain races. Essentially, there was no recognition at all that humans are involved in a grand project that has inevitably resulted in everyone and every related group of humans being differently upset by their inevitable different encounters with that upsetting grand project (see F. Essay 28). No human condition to find understanding of, just dogmatically ‘change’ our behaviour, as Marx said. The product of this thinking was CRITICAL RACE THEORY (CRT) which is described as an ‘intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical Race Theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans’ (https://www.britannica.com/topic/critical-race-theory; accessed 19 Jul. 2021).

And furthermore, while feminism tried to impose equality between the sexes by in effect denying that any real differences existed between them, Critical Theory sought to reinforce that idea by inventing a philosophy that supposedly firmly established that there weren’t any meaningful differences. To do this it was asserted that while there are physical differences between the sexes there is no significant psychological differences between them; and it was asserted that any argument that there was, was simply a dishonest, manipulative, sexist device used to oppress and ill-treat one or other of the genders, but women particularly. Basically, any suggestion was denied that in the human journey a different role for men would have inevitably resulted from men being the group protectors and as a result being most responsible for taking on the immensely upsetting human-race-defending job of defying our condemning instincts in the all-important search for knowledge—and that a different role for women would have inevitably resulted from women being the bearers of offspring and not as responsible as men for the immensely upsetting human-race-defending job of defying our condemning instincts, with their focus having to be on the next generation, of giving birth to them, suckling them, sheltering them from upset as much as they could, and nurturing them with as much upset-free, unconditional love as they can manage in an extremely upset world (see F. Essay 27). Different roles for men and women, and the different psychological effects those roles have, and the different psychological strategies that men and women could adopt to cope with the potentially extreme agonies of their situations, were all denied. The product of this thinking was CRITICAL GENDER THEORY, where ‘critical gender theorists attack the assumption that every human being naturally belongs to one of two discrete gender categories (masculine or feminine), which is determined by biologically-given sexual characteristics (male and female). Rather, according to critical gender theory, there is no necessary connection between biological sex and a person’s gender presentation. The ways in which men and women present themselves as gendered individuals are social constructs, learned performance, and “a social accomplishment.” Biology has no causal influence on gender…​According to critical gender theory, while one may be born a sexed being, one is not born gendered. One must learn gender presentation’ (Terry S. Kogan, ‘Transsexuals and Critical Gender Theory’, Hastings Law Journal, 1997).

Since a completely sound philosophical foundation had supposedly been established for these critical theories, any deviation from them was supposedly illegitimate and thus to be admonished and shut down, cancelled or eliminated or removed, which is what is referred to as CANCEL CULTURE. Further, since these critical theories were supposedly based on solid philosophical foundations, if you didn’t subscribe to them, you were in effect still ‘asleep’ living in an obsolete paradigm; you weren’t WOKE and part of the great awakening to a cooperative and loving new world; you weren’t part of the supposed GREAT RESET of humanity from living in a competitive and aggressive condition to BUILDING BACK BETTER to living in a cooperative and loving one that was free of that supposedly immensely divisive and wrong behaviour. And IDENTITY POLITICS developed where those suffering most from the great battle humanity has actually been waging to find understanding of the human condition could supposedly legitimately demand ‘equity’ of recognition, ‘inclusion’ in material prosperity and ‘diversity’ of representation. There was no recognition of the human race’s great, heroic project to find the knowledge that would actually liberate us from our corrupted condition, and actually awaken us from our 2-million-year long trance from having to live in the ‘50 feet of solid concrete’ (as R.D. Laing described our situation in par. 83), soul-dead, psychotic state of denial of our corrupted condition, and there was no recognition of how involvement in that great, heroic project unavoidably created various states of upset and functionality—where, for example, those presently most functional under the duress of the human condition, and the gender most responsible for searching for knowledge, namely white males, had to and have succeeded in finding the liberating understanding of the human condition, as all the great thinkers mentioned in this book evidence. So it has not been a case of unfair white privilege, especially unjust WHITE MALE PRIVILEGE as critical theorists are teaching, but rather a case of fulfilled white male responsibility. The ‘pale, stale males’ are actually the ‘heroes, legends and saviours’—and there was a much greater need than ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ which was for ‘capability, responsibility and leadership’! There’s been much talk in California about paying ‘every black resident’ ‘up to $US1.2m’ as ‘reparation’ for ill-treatment, which in total ‘could top a trillion dollars’ (The Australian, 4 May 2023). Well, all the money on Earth wouldn’t be enough payment to white males for saving the human species from extinction; for saving the lives of all races and genders! (See F. Essay 28 and chapters 8:16E-F of FREEDOM for an explanation of the differences in alienation between races which—now that the redeeming explanation of the human condition has been found—is able to be safely and responsibly acknowledged.) Instead of such truthful analysis of our situation, there’s just been Marxism’s dogmatic and deluded demand that everyone behave cooperatively and lovingly—such that, supposedly, as is being said by its advocates, ‘You’ll own nothing and you’ll be happy.’ What an outrageously dishonest fraud! How could we possibly ‘be happy’ living without the psychologically redeeming, reconciling and healing understanding of our 2-million-year corrupted condition that our minds have so desperately needed and have so heroically sought! What deluded madness to claim that our world is being ‘built back better’ when in fact the human race is being taken headlong to a state of terminal denial/​alienation/​psychosis and extinction! Instead of bringing about a ‘woke’ world where everyone has awoken from alienation, the culture of the Left is killing the human race stone dead! What totally deluded madness!

And all that the Right have had to stand against this outrageously dishonest attitude of the Left of ‘What could possibly be wrong with everyone being cooperative and loving?’ has been the biologically false and thus flimsy argument that ‘Since it’s human nature to be competitive, selfish and aggressive, it is unrealistic to try to pretend it doesn’t exist, which is why the imposition of Marxist idealism destroys human incentive and motivation to be successful in, and to actively participate in, a competitive, must-reproduce-your-genes, survival-of-the-fittest world, and as a result never has and never will work.’ Yes, in all the discussions and arguments between the Left and the Right, you only ever hear the false justifications given for the idealistic philosophy of the Left and for the realistic philosophy of the Right—such as these extracts from interviews with the prominent American right-wing political commentator and professor of Classics, Victor Davis Hanson. To the question from an interviewer of ‘What would you say to the notion that the woke are just people trying to be kind, and to look after other people, and awaken themselves to racial and gender inequality?’, Davis Hanson replied, ‘The woke progressives do believe that their ends are so noble and that they’re on the right side of history that any means necessary to achieve their ends is justified…​They are hard core revolutionary idealogues’ (‘Trump Indictment’, GB News YouTube channel, April 2023). And in another interview, Davis Hanson similarly said, ‘The Left feel that they’re morally superior because they believe in forced egalitarianism, in making everyone equal…​But they also realize that that is contrary to human nature…​so it requires a degree of force…​so they don’t trust democracy…​The biggest money in America for the last 30 years has been on the Left, and they have systematically added to their control of The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, NPR, PBS, and now they control social media, they control Hollywood of course, now they control K–12 in schools, they control academia, they even control Wall Street and the corporate board room…​even though their message repels people because they’ve seen what happens in history whether from the French Revolution through to the Marxist Bolsheviks…​so they need to force people to be equal and they use government to do it…they consider people who believe in human nature are always going to be selfish, right-wing…​So they don’t have confidence in constitutional government or democracy…​So they want to get rid of the electoral college…​pack the Supreme court…​it’s about power…​They don’t want free debate on both sides, they want to move it way to the Left’ (Sunday Night in America, Fox News Channel, 3 Oct. 2022). And from another leading right-wing commentator, a former Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich: ‘people on the Left are out of touch with reality…​they live in a fantasy world…​these are folks who saw the Lion King and thought it was documentary. They think lions and zebras [and humans, who he is inferring also have savage instincts like other animals, can be made to] dance and sing together. They are shocked to discover that terrorists wants to kill you, murderers want to murder you, rapists want to rape you. It doesn’t fit their vision. That’s not the Disney movie they want’ (Hannity, Fox News, 20 Dec. 2021). Basically he’s saying humans live in a ‘red in tooth and claw’, ‘must reproduce our genes’ ‘reality’ like other animals, and it is ‘a fantasy’, ‘Disney movie’ to pretend our savage nature doesn’t exist and that we can impose a cooperative and loving world on it. However, as was emphasised earlier in paragraph 112 when talking about Ayn Rand’s and Jordan Peterson’s similar immensely brave but biologically false defence of the right-wing, our ‘human nature’, our born-with instinctive orientation, is to be cooperative, selfless and loving, not competitive, selfish and aggressive. Our brutal behaviour is due to a psychological condition as a result of a clash between our instincts and our conscious mind. As was emphasised in paragraph 113, it is only now that we have the real defence of the Right and the real reason for why the Left is so wrong and dangerous that the Right can be properly defended and the madness of the Left can actually be stopped!

Writing about how ‘The Left is waging a full-fledged cultural revolution against traditional America’, Davis Hanson recognised how destructive the culture of the Left is when he asked, ‘Why are our government, corporations, and popular culture colluding in mass suicide?’ (Daily Caller, 25 May 2023), but his above mentioned answer that ‘they consider people who believe in human nature are always going to be selfish, right-wing’ was biologically so very wrong and thus a hopelessly feeble counter—but no longer is the human race powerless against the Left because we have the real biological explanation for why it is ‘colluding in mass suicide’!