Infiltration, subversion, coercion

From Intersectionality and Popper’s Paradox by Sumantra Maitra. An interesting argument on the gramscian march through our institutions of the various forms of postmodernism, intersectionality, critical theory, deconstructivism, multiculturalism, etc.

Separate from the argument that Maitra is making is the mechanism of transmission he proposes.

Conservative rationalist Karl Popper wrote in The Open Society and Its Enemies that “unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance.” In a society that tolerates intolerant forces, these forces will eventually take advantage of the situation and bring about the downfall of the entire society. The philosophical foundation of this belief can trace its roots to Plato’s ideas of the republic or Machiavelli’s paradox of ruling by love or fear, and a practical example of this in action is jihadists taking advantage of human rights laws. Nothing should be absolute and without reasonable boundaries, not even freedom. In light of this, there are three observable, identifiable ways in which this latest fad of intersectionality is taking advantage of and destroying the rational enlightenment roots of Western academia from within. The approaches are, namely, infiltration, subversion, and coercion.

Not sure I have seen the transmission strategies articulated in such a fashion but at first blush it appears an interesting insight.

Infiltration - the action of entering or gaining access to an organization or place surreptitiously, especially in order to acquire secret information or cause damage.

Subversion - the undermining of the power and authority of an established system or institution.

Coercion - the practice of persuading someone to do something by using force or threats.

Perhaps the categories are too large to be meaningful, but it feels like for any particular policy/fad of postmodernism, intersectionality, critical theory, deconstructivism, multiculturalism, you can trace its progress in the targeted institutions such as academia, media, government, entertainment, by vectors of infiltration, efforts at subversion (and displacement), followed in the late stages by blatant coercion.

Will be playing with the concept to see if it really fits.