The Liberal Inequality Fighters

Liberals love to bemoan the extreme right -- seeing them as allergic to critical thinking, representing the fortress that blocks enlightenment. But this conversation is not only arrogant; it is shortsighted in that it can blind liberals to the shortcomings on its own side.
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Liberals love to bemoan the extreme right -- seeing them as allergic to critical thinking, representing the fortress that blocks enlightenment.

But this conversation is not only arrogant; it is shortsighted in that it can blind liberals to the shortcomings on its own side.

A term coined by writer Nicholas Flugga, "Inequality Fighters," best describe this illustrious group on the left.

Inequality Fighters are individuals who take up a cause, be it racism, sexism, homophobia, elitism, etc., to view the world exclusively through their limited vision.

In their world, assumption is greater than fact, difference of opinion is synonymous to being adversarial, and truth rests exclusively within their domain. Their allies are those who see the world with the same limited cataracts, championing similar trite outcomes.

They possess the uncanny ability to transform phrases such as "Good Morning" or "Happy Birthday" into a racist, misogynistic, homophobic elitist soliloquy of hate.

It is a group that touts some form of intellectualism, but just below the surface lie a toxic foundation of haughtiness, fear, and ignorance. In spite of their protestations to the contrary, they do not seek change, only retribution, opting instead to remain in the cocoon of their alleged cause rather than seek the difficult work of transformation.

Like their counterparts on the right, Inequality Fighters are infected with a similar disease, an aversion to nuance. Somewhere along the way nuance became a dirty word, in portions of the political left and right, shades of grey is no longer fashionable, black and white is now in vogue.

There is something rather attractive about a leadership style that places emphasis on certainty, where ignoring the facts; it is tantamount to thumbing one's nose at the status quo.

But Inequality Fighters are merely part of the growing faction that naively believes the profoundly un-American edict: Only uniformity of thought produces progress.

Inequality Fighters seem are unaware of Reinhold Niebuhr's timeless warning: the choice is not between good and evil but rather between evil and more evil.

We recently witnessed this behavior by some who publically criticized members of Emmanuel AME church, who immediately following tragedy that left nine murdered in their sanctuary faced the alleged perpetrator and forgave him. These particular Inequality Fighters took a myopic and erroneous definition of forgiveness to state why they could not forgive without retribution.

In doing so, they missed the power of forgiveness. In that one simple act of forgiving the perpetrator of a most gruesome undertaking, the members of Emmanuel AME church dramatically changed the moral compass of many who mere saw the Confederate Flag as a symbol of southern heritage.

Forgiveness, at least in the theological perspective that members of Emmanuel embraced, is not about the acts of the other person but an inward commitment not to be defined by absurdity. It doesn't mean you're okay with the other person, or somehow like or accept what they did, but it is a tough determination not to be shackled by the evil committed.

Moreover, those who said they could not forgive had the luxury to do so. The members of Emmanuel AME church who forgave Dylan Roof possessed no such luxury. They were confronted with a barbaric evil and sought the power of their faith to confront it, and in doing so transformed a nation.

But the type of certainty by those critical of the members of Emmanuel for their public display of forgiveness, run the risk, no matter how well it is presented, of having critical thinking becoming its sworn enemy.

I support of many, if not all, of the causes put forth by Inequality Fighters, but their haughtiness, overconfidence, claims of vaunted superiority, and egotism will invariably render them on the ash pile of irrelevance, watching change from the sidelines bemoaning why they weren't taken seriously.

The tragic irony is that through their efforts they risk becoming unwitting allies of the side they overtly oppose. Just as Bull Connor and his infamous use of police dogs and fires hoses in Birmingham in 1963 became a key ally that changed hearts and minds during the Civil Rights Movement, Inequality Fighters risk a similar outcome.

Perhaps this is why they are best kept on the fringe so that conservatives can take delight in their antics.

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