This is relatively old news by now, but if you are unfamiliar with Lindsay Shepherd and the episode at Wilfrid Laurier University, you may want to read up on it to better grasp the context of my remarks in this post.
She recorded an interview that went viral that you can listen to here. A few months after this Lindsay recorded this short video (below) stating “what I want to get across is that I, in no way, want to be associated with what the left has become.”
Goodbye to the Left – Lindsay Shepherd
At about the 1:22 mark she begins making a list of what defines a “Leftist”.
They are pro censorship.
They are victimhood culture.
They are all about moral righteousness.
They’re taught that claiming to be offended results in a moral victory. There’s a victimhood mentality.
They don’t believe in personal responsibility.
They are completely intolerant of diversity of thought.
They are humorless people. They want to make society boring, and they want to make it so that no one can do so much as make a joke.
If you are not on their side one hundred percent they will slander you mercilessly.
As I listened to this list I thought how each of these accusations could just as easily apply to the “Right”.
I believe the focus on “Left” or “Right” misses the real point. Labels tend to categorize and thereby create division, putting people in classes of “us” vs “them”. The polarization itself is the real enemy. When the name calling begins, no matter what side of the invisible fence you think you are sitting, intelligent and open discussion is closed.
We must allow people to say things we disapprove of, disagree with, resent and wish were never said. Tolerance has no meaning if we only permit things we like to be done, said or thought. The meaning of “tolerance” is to permit what I absolutely disagree with to be “tolerated.” I don’t have to love it, nor do I have to approve it. I only need to “tolerate” it.
I appreciate Lindsay’s remark at the 3:20 mark: “I want to talk about those ideas neutrally. I don’t have an agenda to push when it comes to that”
This, I would agree, is a healthy position to take.