[@ChrisWillx] Political Violence & The Lunatics of Your Own Side - Andrew Doyle

Link: https://youtu.be/ki-CQv3J1lY

Short Summary

This YouTube video features a discussion on the state of political discourse, particularly the perceived rise of authoritarianism on both the left and right. The speakers explore topics such as cancel culture, free speech, gender ideology, and the increasing intolerance for dissenting opinions, highlighting specific examples and the potential dangers of these trends. They advocate for a return to liberal values, emphasizing critical thinking, free expression, and reasoned debate within the rule of law.

Key Quotes

Here are five direct quotes from the provided transcript that represent valuable insights, interesting data points, surprising statements, or strong opinions:

1. "The left's greatest enemy is not the right, but the hard left. The right's greatest enemy is not the left, but the hard right. The lunatics on your own side make you look much sillier than the opposition ever could."
2. "What it's come to mean is a kind of catch all to dehumanize to say this person isn't really human. They are a kind of embodiment of evil. Some kind of it diabolizes them and that's the effect of it. And I think that's a very dangerous thing to do. I mean, you're seeing that really on the mainstream."
3. "...if someone disagrees with you, it is now widely taken to be a kind of attack. And I know I've looked into studies on this. Apparently, it's fairly natural uh for people when you disagree with them to take it. Your instinct in instinct is to take it as an attack. But that is amplified when your sense of identity is connected to a political viewpoint, you know, because you're not if you know if if your whole identity is wrapped up with a particular politics and someone says your politics is wrong, they're saying that you're wrong. They're saying that you're rotten. And there's something about you that is that is bad. And I think that's what's that's what's happened."
4. "I also fear that some of the smartest people of our generation have had their time taken up working out whether a man is a man and a woman is a woman."
5. "Violence comes about when you've lost the debate. Violence comes about when language doesn't work anymore."

Detailed Summary

Okay, here's a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript, presented in bullet points:

I. Introduction and Initial Remarks:

• The conversation starts with a reminiscing about a previous podcast recording at the speaker's (Andrew Doyle) home in 2018/2019.
• They transition to a discussion inspired by a tweet stating: "The left's greatest enemy is not the right, but the hard left. The right's greatest enemy is not the left, but the hard right." It suggests extremists within one's own political spectrum cause more damage than the opposition.
• Doyle agrees and notes that the overlap between the left and hard left is more significant than the overlap between the right and the hard right.
• He expresses shock at the extent of left-wing voices attempting to justify the murder of Charlie Kirk, noting the need for the left to disavow the "lunatics within its own house."
• The point is made that the mainstream needs to distance themselves from the extreme elements to avoid conflation in the public imagination.
• The normalization of violent rhetoric within certain activist communities (specifically citing a trans pride protest) is a concern.

II. Violence and Political Goals:

• The discussion shifts to polls showing younger liberal Americans are increasingly tolerant of violence to achieve political goals.
• They reference a study by FIRE (Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) which used to be the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education showing an increasing trend of tolerance/excuse-making for violence on both the left and, increasingly, the right on college campuses.
• This trend is attributed to increasing tribalism and the perception of disagreement as a personal attack.
• The discussion reinforces the idea that political violence should be an oxymoron. Politics should exist to avoid violence.
• The speakers reflect on the impact of Charlie Kirk's murder, because Kirk was promoting free speech and discussion with those who disagree. The murder felt like an attack on free speech itself.

III. Charlie Kirk's Murder and the Response:

• The speakers discuss whether the reaction to Trump being shot would have been as horrified as that to Charlie Kirk. The idea raised is that Kirk's death is perceived as worse because he was not a politician and was punished for his opinion.
• The "cherry-picking" of quotations to paint Kirk as a horrible person is criticized as a way to justify the murder.
• "Apology caveats" in tributes from the left are explored, acknowledging Kirk's humanity but clarifying disagreement with his positions. The purity spiral on the left may be causing people to add the caveat to protect themselves.
• The possibility that these tributes could be trying to critique the very idea that agreement or disagreement should make a difference is posited.
• Doyle takes exception to misrepresentations of Kirk's statements and a lack of basic research, especially in creating a "folk devil" image based on out-of-context clips. A specific example is Alistair Campbell falsely claiming Kirk supported stoning gay people.
• Doyle expresses being bothered by the inhumane, relentless, and explicitly malevolent response to Kirk's murder.
• One of the hosts tells of how they spoke with a military friend the day after the murder who informed them that Kirk was wearing a steel plate, the bullet hit him in the chest, and ricocheted up to his throat.
• The military contact of one of the hosts stated that Kirk would have likely been the future president of the United States.
• It seems like the guy that shot Charlie Kirk was in a relationship with a trans person, trans roommate, and had said that hateful comments, dad was MAGA, had brought it up to the dad over the dinner table that he was hateful and that his comments about blah blah blah.

IV. The Decline of "Woke" and Its Implications:

• The video discusses Doyle's book "The End of Woke," clarifying that he's not claiming it's over but that its decline has begun and it will never have the power that it once had. The process of its decline has very much begun.
• He cites evidence of this decline: economist report on wokeness, the Cass Review in the UK, the UK Supreme Court ruling on biological sex, rollback of DEI programs, and sports bodies' policies on trans athletes.
• Wokeness is described as the latest manifestation of authoritarianism, which will likely emerge again in a different form.
• Doyle suggests wokeness has a stranglehold in universities, corporations (though this is decreasing), and government departments.
• As wokeness declines, ideologues will become more defensive, aggressive, and extreme, potentially leading to violence, given how normalized violence and violent rhetoric has always been in that movement.
• Violence is often used when people realize they have lost the debate. This is true of the "woke" movement because even at its height it was endorsed by only 8-10% of the population. It was primarily an upper-middle class movement. The elites imposed it. It never caught on in working-class communities.
• Doyle states that woke ideas were never able to be debated and come out on top because they are all based on absolute nonsense.
• Cancel culture is used as a way for ideologues to ruin and destroy your lives. Intimidation is key. Some ideas spread because people are too scared to disagree. There is a an element of the intimidatory. It's a it's a movement that attracts bullies and sociopaths because they can inflict pain under the guise of compassion and love.

V. Deconstructing "Woke" Ideology:

• Doyle explains how woke ideology often attracts bullies and sociopaths who use it as a guise for cruelty. He compares them to clergy or paramilitary groups who can inflict harm and be praised.
• Weaponized empathy is a big part of it
• Many people are gled, hoodwinked, and bamboozled into believing the redefinitions of words. For example, they think all that woke means is being nice to people and not being racist.
• The culture war has always been about language and who gets to define the meaning of terms. When language is manipulated, people support things that contradict their beliefs.
• Doyle gives examples of progressive buzzwords that mean the opposite of what they seem to, as well as the hydra head nature of "intersectionalism". For each specific type of belief, there is an approval based on the adherence to all the rest.
• He notes that the speaker with the best and most effective chance of swaying others' opinions is not the loudest, but the one who listens the most and understands the other sides point of view so that he can then counter with real evidence.

VI. The Progressive Movement: A Steelman Case and Path Forward:

• Doyle provides a "steelman" (strongest, fairest) case for the progressive movement, emphasizing the persistence of racism and societal power structures that benefit white people.
• He explains the core argument of Critical Race Theory: racism persists because of deeply embedded power structures. He states that detecting racism where it doesn't exist is unhelpful and states that the liberal way of addressing racism is to identify it when it occurs and engage.
• When asked how he would coordinate left-of-center political culture, Doyle would advise jettisoning "woke" politics, which has abandoned class inequality and economic inequality, and has perverted Marxist ideas. He favors a return to the concept of means of production. The woke substitutes money for group identity.
• Doyle states that woke leaders are privileged, they attack the working class, and they create a system whereby only the super rich get to say what they think.
• Doyle draws a parallel between the economic inequality ideas and the ideas of Gary Stevenson.

VII. Gays, Wokeness, and Gender Ideology:

• The "woke" movement has normalized violence and violent rhetoric against women who believe there are two sexes. The speaker is bothered by the woke homophobia in the gays.
• The speaker says that the LGBTQIA+ group conflates people whose ideologies are antagonistic to gay rights. If you are a gay man you are not allowed to filter out women who identify as men on Grindr because they say that is bigoted. The speaker says that it is a hookup site that shames gay men for being gay. Sexual orientation is discriminatory.
• The premise of gay rights has always been that there is a minority in any population that is innately attracted to their own sex. The idea of a soul not matching with the body is not something that should be legislated on.
• Many gay people now hate the progressive pride flag and see it as a homophobic flag. The genderist movement has now become an anti-gay movement, and gay people really have to overtly reject and vocally reject the forced teaming with the QIA+
• The gay right's view is focused on who you are attracted to while the new gender ideology is around the idea of an esoteric sudo-religious belief system.
• In Australia, it is now illegal for lesbians to gather without the presence of men who identify as women. It is considered discriminatory to exclude those men. There is now even an issue that women have been having hormone treatment and surgery in the hopes of attracting gay men.

VIII. Authoritarianism in the UK:

• The host asks how authoritarian the UK is right now. While it is not fascism or despotism, it is deeply authoritarian.
• The UK has an authoritarian government that is ramping up censorship that the current government inherited. It is a cult war about left and right that came about under Tory rule, but that the Labor government has now taken up and made worse.
• He discusses examples of this: the online safety bill, the definition of Islamophobia, Kama, an American citizen arrested because someone found their Facebook post upsetting, 12,000 people arrested annually for what they say online, and non-crime hate incidents.
• The College of Policing instituted non-crime hate incidents on its own, and ignores government instructions to the contrary. The head of the college just wants to rename it.

IX. Free Speech and the Law:

• A two-tiered policing system exists in the UK, where rightist and leftist offenses are treated differently.
• The Brandenburg Test is referenced as a better standard for "incitement to violence".
• The host mentions the Americans reaction to British people being persecuted for their speech.
• After the arrest, 5 armed police officers arrested Graham Leahan for posting tweets.
• The UK is having a terrible state in regards to those willing to engage in censorship and control the thoughts and speeches of the public.
• Hatred defined as "hatred of any protected characteristics." These people shouldn't be able to determine our emotional responses and reactions.

X. The Divide of Right and Wrong:

• The host notes that it is hard to know what the future will bring. And the talk about the "Unite The Kingdom" rally and Trevor Phillips stating that it consists primarily of normal people.
• He states that those who are now considered far-right or racist will likely only grow their numbers in response to the labels.
• The discussion covers his idea of free speech as the primacy of truth, despite which direction you were coming from.
• The conversation returns to the premise that the end is not quite at hand. And that people should remember to remain vigilant in fighting for what is important, no matter which direction it may seem to come from.
• It isn't really the issue, but the adherence to personal rights and freedoms that is most important.

XI. On the topic of Purging the Opposition:

*The speakers discuss and break down the notion that all those who say the incorrect things must be purged from society. The importance in allowing other people to maintain their jobs as long as it isn't in direct conflict with the ideology of the job itself. *They debate what it actually means to be cancelled and the problems that may arise depending on which side is applying the pressure. *People who compile lists of those saying the wrong things and their desire to use power to erase those who said them are scary and should be avoided because it leads to atrocities in history. *The men argue that you must fight against this even when it is happening to those you don't agree with because there is always an aspect of truth to everything. *They argue that it is a failure of socialization that people get so threatened by a plurality of ideas and that it is important that all parties show some humility on all topics at all times.

XII. What's to Come:

*Andrew Doyle predicts a world with always emerging authoritarianism, which must be vigilantly guarded against. It is most important that people keep speaking up even when they know it may make others uncomfortable. He looks forward to returning to creativity.