A Quick Note on Progressive Responses to Christo-Fascism

Progressives mistakenly belief that fundamentalist beliefs are social and/or political. They're not.

I honestly think that one of the reasons why progressives seem so impotent in the face of creeping fascism is because they fundamentally don't understand this kind of all-or-nothing kind of thinking. They falsely think that there is room for discussion, for an exchange of ideas. Having lived the fundamentalist life, knowing the kind of unwavering epistemic certainty that is demanded of the believer, I can say, (ironically, perhaps) w/ a level of certainty, that Christo-fascists can't be reasoned with.

This is to say that Christo-fascists don't only have <beliefs> about gender identity (or sexual orientation, or whatever), they believe that their beliefs are epistemically accurate & fixed in place. To confuse matters, they don't only believe that their beliefs are epistemically accurate, but they also hold *this particular belief about their beliefs* as epistemically certain.

In other words, Christo-fascists don't only believe their beliefs, they believe that questioning their beliefs is just to question what is clearly real, where 'what is real' is largely self-referential.

Progressives, by contrast, usually exhibit a healthy level of curiosity towards the epistemic accuracy of any given belief. That is, while they hold their beliefs as reflecting reality about the world, they will often look to supplement or change those beliefs based on new info. They're (usually) willing to consider a variety of angles, & make adjustments to their beliefs, as necessary. This isn't always the case (I've met my fair share of left-wing fundamentalists) but, having been on both 'sides,' progressives are generally open to intellectual change.

Their blind spot, if you will, is that they a) don't understand how people can be so rigid in their beliefs, and therefore b) fail to take statements like the one above seriously. Instead of seeing it as a statement about the very nature of epistemic reality, they take it as a political statement that can be subject to change. But that's not what's happening here. The Stuckey comment about pronouns is not, at its core, political. It's epistemic: it's about having a certain knowledge of an accurate reflection of reality, as it actually is.

---

If you want to see more original, short-form content like this, please let me know by commenting here or by sending me a note at peter (at) peterthurley.ca