Elitism and Sterile Intellectualism: What the Establishment Left and the “Alt-Right” Have in Common
Here’s an amusing question — what do Barack Obama and Milo Yiannopoulos have in common?
“Umm… literally nothing!” is the response any rational human would expect to hear.
Look to the left, and you’ll struggle to find anyone willing to compare their suave person-of-color-idol Obama to someone who basks in so-called hate speech and calls feminists cows. Look to the right, and you’ll squint to make out anybody willing to compare such an avid fan of free speech as Milo to such a smooth talker and skilled bullsh***er as Obama.
But, beneath it all, there is one glaring commonality between Obama and Yiannopoulos, between the establishment left and the up-and-coming “alt-right.” What is it? It is an undercurrent of elitism and sterile intellectualism.
Speaking strictly from the partisan lines, it can be tricky to see how both sides are elitist. From the far right, there is much talk about “the elites,” from the lukewarm left “inequality” and “injustice.” The former group often makes it a point to destroy elitism of all varieties, hailing their brand of politics as “populist revolution.” The latter group claims to seek to “level the playing field” and address the root of any supposed elitism. On paper, the establishment left and the alt-right seem worlds apart. But these two groups really aren’t that different. Elitism has wriggled its way into both.
On the left, there is the now infamous “deplorable gate” scandal. In a 2016 presidential campaign speech, Hillary Clinton offhanded that half of Donald Trump’s supporters fall in a “basket of deplorables.” Last time we checked, half of 74 million people is a pretty significant number of “deplorables.” It is one thing to be dismayed, but it is another thing entirely to drag tens of millions of citizens beneath you. Beyond this incident, there is the left’s obsession with secularism and its so-stubborn-as-to-be-naive adherence to science. When everything is made “equal” in the name of “reason” and “science,” the establishment left is little more than a technocracy (rule of the scientists, tech companies and the maniacally smart) masquerading as an even-handed democracy.
On the “alt-right,” we have a more insidious elitism. The far right’s elitism is shrouded in colorful memes and trendy terminology. Beyond the cringingly childish obsession with “Pepe the frog,” there are terms like “non-player character (NPC)” and “midwit.” The far right addresses the left’s absurd denial of innate intelligence as a platform upon which to launch a startling IQ-centered obsession. These folks practice a form of “IQ reductionism,” through which all aspects of life and society are reduced to differences in intelligence. The far right fights anger with anger, as it fails to formulate a mature ideological solution for our increasingly divided society.
The far right has failed to realize that IQ-based elitism will inevitably devolve back into crony capitalism and big tech-style oligarchy. These people claim to have found a lasting solution to the rampant elitism of the left, but they’ve fallen into the very same sterile intellectualism as their enemies.
