Under-accomplished and dyspeptic malcontents

From Trapped by Philosophy's worst features by Lorenzo Warby.  The subheading is Critical Constructivism—popularised as “wokery”—cuts off any route to what works.  Worth reading in whole.

The urge to maximise contrasts between products of a blighted past and the splendours in progressive heads leads to both cartoon history (history simplified to the point of serious distortion) and caricature history (history distorted by activist processes of selection and exaggeration). The 1619 Project of The New York Times was an exercise in cartoon and caricature history.

A purely imagined thing — without any grounding in what works, any test against the structures of reality — becomes a benchmark for judging everything that exists, or has existed, and every action people do, or have done.1 This both motivates and justifies the ruthless criticism of all that exists.

Having declared existing society oppressive — it lacks the moral perfection of the imagined future and is blighted by sins (real or alleged) in its past — anything that can be held to “support” the existing society, to be part of its history, can be declared oppressive, and so illegitimate. Science is part of existing society, so it is illegitimate. It’s a cis-heteronormative, patriarchal, hegemonic mechanism of white supremacy.

Any mechanism or methodology part of existing society becomes complicit in oppressive mechanisms. This, of course, includes any mechanism developed over the centuries for critically assessing claims, so all the exits from Philosophy. All forms of critical thinking are to be replaced by cultivation of a critical consciousness, legitimised by a commitment to the transformational future and rejection of existing society.

[snip]

The politics of the transformational future is also fundamentally committed to conflict models of society. The more society is seen as a series of fights, the more it can be de-legitimised. This sharpens the contrast with — and means the greater the moral urgency of — an imagined, harmonious future. It has great appeal for those who don’t attempt to make things work, who don’t have to wrest value from physical reality, who don’t engage in serious martial arts, who don’t provide physical goods or services. In other words, it’s for folk insulated from the consequences of their decisions.

To make things work requires an epistemic humility — a deference to the reality of structure, to the wants, wishes and perspectives of others — that is incompatible with the grandiose moral narcissism that the politics of the transformational future generates. In terms of genuine understanding — and of human flourishing — it’s a toxically useless philosophy that appeals and empowers toxically useless people: folk that modern academe, bureaucracies and non-profits give employ, thereby inflicting their toxic uselessness on the rest of us.

These people are prone to the curdled envy that Nietzsche labelled ressentiment. Or, as Peter Boghossian says, they’re under-accomplished and dyspeptic malcontents.

Expanding bureaucratisation increases the number of people who are isolated from the consequences and costs of their decisions. Managerialism applies a layer of moral arrogance to this process. The products of Theory — such as Diversity, Inclusion, Equity — given form, status and increased social leverage to the moral arrogance.