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m Removed a sentence that misrepresents what Sarag Joeng said in the article cited. She was quoted as referring to Yang's term, when in fact she was referring to something else.
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Removed a section that misrepresents what Osita Nwanevu says. He did not argue that the "successor ideology" is "a reactionary concept." The word "reactionary" appears nowhere in his article.
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==Criticism==
==Criticism==
[[Sarah Jeong]], writing in ''[[The Verge]],'' has argued that there is no such thing as a 'successor ideology,' saying the term "seems to only muddy the waters since the thing that [critics of the 'successor ideology'] are concerned about isn’t actually a concrete ideology but an inchoate social force with the hallmarks of religious revival."<ref name="The Verge"/>
[[Sarah Jeong]], writing in ''[[The Verge]],'' has argued that there is no such thing as a 'successor ideology,' saying the term "seems to only muddy the waters since the thing that [critics of the 'successor ideology'] are concerned about isn’t actually a concrete ideology but an inchoate social force with the hallmarks of religious revival."<ref name="The Verge"/>

Writing in ''[[The New Republic]]'', Osita Nwanevu has likewise argued that the successor ideology is a [[reactionary]] concept.<ref name="NR"/> He contends that, counter to the narrative that the successor ideology is fundamentally [[illiberal]], it is actually those who are identified with it who are "protecting—indeed expanding—the bounds of liberalism," while it those who oppose it—the "reactionaries"—who are "most guilty of the illiberalism they claim has overtaken the American Left."


== See also ==
== See also ==

Revision as of 20:57, 21 June 2022

The successor ideology is a term devised by essayist Wesley Yang to describe an emergent ideology within left-wing political movements in the United States centered around intersectionality, social justice, identity politics, and anti-racism, which he claims is replacing conventional liberal values of pluralism, freedom of speech, color blindness, and free inquiry.[1][2][3] Proponents of the concept link it to an alleged growth in the intolerance of differing opinions, to cancel culture, "wokeness," "social justice warriors" and to the far left;[4][5][6] Yang has summarized it as "authoritarian Utopianism that masquerades as liberal humanism while usurping it from within."[4]

The term has garnered support from some commentators, with Roger Berkowitz linking it to a broader retreat of liberalism worldwide—challenged from the left in the form of the successor ideology and from the right in the form of illiberal democracy[7]—and with Matt Taibbi calling the ideas of those he associates with the ideology "toxic" and "unattractive."[3][8] The concept, however, has also come under criticism, with some commentators arguing that the term does not accurately describe trends within left-wing movements and others considering it a reactionary concept.

Origins

The term was coined by political writer Wesley Yang in a March 4, 2019 Twitter thread discussing diversity in college admissions and among the professional–managerial class; following a tweet arguing that the end-point of an emergent racial ideology is "critical race theory", Yang stated, "This successor ideology has been a rival to the meritocratic one and has in recent years acquired sufficient power to openly seek hegemony on campuses and elsewhere."[9] He expanded on the term in further tweets in May 2019[10] and in a 2021 blog post,[11] and has appeared on podcasts by The Wall Street Journal and the Manhattan Institute to promote it.[12][13]

Criticism

Sarah Jeong, writing in The Verge, has argued that there is no such thing as a 'successor ideology,' saying the term "seems to only muddy the waters since the thing that [critics of the 'successor ideology'] are concerned about isn’t actually a concrete ideology but an inchoate social force with the hallmarks of religious revival."[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ Douthat, Ross (12 June 2020). "The Tom Cotton Op-Ed and the Cultural Revolution". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  2. ^ a b Jeong, Sarah (10 July 2020). "Social media and the end of discourse". The Verge. Archived from the original on 28 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  3. ^ a b Nwanevu, Osita (6 July 2020). "The Willful Blindness of Reactionary Liberalism". The New Republic. Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  4. ^ a b West, Ed (23 June 2020). "As a conservative, I mourn the loss of liberalism". Unherd. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  5. ^ Fonte, John (25 June 2020). "The Vanguard of Record". The American Mind. The Claremont Institute. Archived from the original on 2 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  6. ^ Sullivan, Andrew (12 June 2020). "Is There Still Room for Debate?". Intelligencer. New York Magazine. Archived from the original on 16 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  7. ^ Berkowitz, Roger (18 June 2020). "The New Orthodoxy". The Hannah Arendt Center for Politics and Humanity. Bard College. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  8. ^ Taibbi, Matt (June 20, 2020). "Matt Taibbi: The press is destroying itself". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021.
  9. ^ Yang, Wesley (4 March 2019). "Tweet". Twitter. Archived from the original on 8 August 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  10. ^ Yang, Wesley (24 May 2019). "Tweet". Twitter. Archived from the original on 23 July 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2020.
  11. ^ Yang, Wesley (June 14, 2021). "Welcome to Year Zero". Year Zero.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. ^ Baker, Gerry; Yang, Wesley (June 13, 2022). "The Successor Ideology and the Threat to Our Freedoms". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 16, 2022.
  13. ^ Douthat, Ross; Hughes, Coleman; Yang, Wesley; Salam, Reihan (August 6, 2020). "The Successor Ideology". Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
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