Who are these people? Without giving the quiz game away, here are some characteristics of people who belong to a political movement (or wing if you like) that a writer (named below, don’t look) puts forward in an essay published earlier this week (see below, don’t look). See if you can identify those that belong to that movement:

• A dismissal of rational standards for interpreting facts and values
• Appeal to a traditionally powerful identity as a source for truth and a narrative of victimization and resentment demanding its return to the top of the social hierarchy
• A contradictory and reactionary political ideology
• (They) deploy hyper-modern media to promulgate their political ideology
• Once in power, (they) actively crack down on other identity groups. Uniquely, this includes those who hold other epistemic and meta-ethical standards in order to preserve the hollow integrity of the victim narrative and its consequent political ideology. This leads to the perpetuation of the post-modern culture, which birthed them in the first place. It is also coupled with calls for the effacement of traditional institutional and ideological barriers to the realization of (their) political program.

The hardest thing is to see yourself as others see you, right? Or is that left? Because it seems that this observation also applies to political movements, judging by the essay in merionwest.com by Matt McManus, no relation to ACTU boss Sally McManus except by politics. McManus claims he is describing postmodern conservatives.

McManus also reminds his readers “I have written extensively on the topic of post-modern conservatism (simultaneously rejecting objective truth while promoting right-leaning attitudes) and its emergence as a populist force with political heft.”

And, hilariously un-self-aware, this: “Post-modern conservatism implicitly rejects even the possibility that there could be such a thing as factual truth or objective values which can be ascertained by any objective means.”

There is more, and if you don’t believe me, read his entire article.

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