The Political Activist-Ideologue: A Profile

If the last General Election taught us anything about how most people make their voting decisions, it’s surely that extremism doesn’t pay. Particularly when that extremism is allied with the distinct whiff of lack of patriotism.

Now I for one am very pleased and mighty relieved about this but there are a small but vocal percentage of folk who are not pleased; not at all!

So, who are they, how do you spot them and how should you engage with them?


What is an Activist-Ideologue?


Political activists tend to be ideologues – it sort of goes with the territory, since you have to have really hard-line, even extreme & closed-minded views about something to become a fully-fledged activist.

Very simply an ideologue is someone who believes very strongly in a set of principles; and that’s fine, nothing wrong with that at first glance. 
Except that most ideologues (and certainly in socio-political areas) believe so strongly in their ideology that they have closed their minds entirely to any other way of looking at things.

In effect these activist-ideologues close their eyes, cover their ears and shout, “la, la, la, I’m not listening” continuously until the person putting an alternative viewpoint or asking difficult questions gives up and goes away. Either that or they organise a mob to shut them down, which is all too frequent.

These activist-ideologues would see objective open-minded, critical thinking as: ‘unnecessary’ (because I’m right); ‘weak’ (because I’m righteous & strong); ‘dangerous’ (giving the enemy a chance to make their case); ‘treacherous’ (I may have to leave my beloved tribe); ‘humiliating’ (how stupid am I if I’ve been wrong all these years?); ‘frightening’ (I’ll lose all my friends if I alter my views even slightly).

So they keep their minds firmly closed.


How to spot an Activist-Ideologue

When you read/hear what they say you will note that there is never any attempt to look at both sides of an issue, or at best they throw up an extreme straw-man of the opposing view, just so they can easily tear it down. 

We all acknowledge that there is always more than one way of looking at important issues - activist-ideologues don’t acknowledge that or at least, they believe there is only one ‘right’ way to look at important issues – their way.

So there is little, if any, nuance in their views. It’s usually just one tub-thumping assertion after another. There is little by way of reasoned argument.
If they give evidence at all, it’s usually from a like-minded opinion source. 

As Andrew Doyle said recently,

“Ideologues always quote other like-minded ideologues to support their existing prejudices. Nothing new here.” 

That your opinion being backed up by someone else of the same opinion is NOT compelling evidence doesn’t seem to occur to them.

When you analyse what they say/write you will get some of the following attitudes, and if you’re (un)lucky, all of them! 

Massively judgmental, morally superior, finger-wagging, self-righteous, aggressive, closed-minded, angry, bitter, resentful, condescending, patronising, supercilious, dismissive; coercive - and I could go on but I won’t as it’s too depressing.

Of course, the thing that binds all these traits together is a staggering lack of self -awareness. 

They all practice hypocrisy – defending (or ignoring) people in their own tribe for the same behaviour as they constantly attack those in other tribes for.

There’s absolutely no place in their thinking for forgiveness or giving someone a second-chance or the benefit of the doubt, unless they are of their own ideological tribe, at which point these merciful traits often miraculously appear; (though not always, as feminists of the 1960s and 1970s are finding out from trans-gender activist-ideologues).


What do these Activist-Ideologues hope to achieve from their judgemental, morally superior closed-minded rantings? 

Well, it depends what their purpose is. 
If they are simply preaching to the choir just to make sure everyone in their tribe knows they’re still onboard the ideological train, then I imagine it works very well.

However, surely the point of activism is not just to feel good about yourself & get applauded by those who already think the same way as you, but to persuade those who don’t agree with you. 

Yet aggressively asserting your views and saying that anyone who disagrees is either stupid or evil, obviously won’t achieve that. Or at least it’s obvious to all but Activist-Ideologues.

But in fact, they’ve moved away from attempts at reasoned argument and persuasion to the nastier and more blatantly authoritarian tactics of coercion (e.g. censorship); bullying (e.g. organised Twitter/Press mobs); harassment (e.g. anonymous threats & false complaints); propaganda (‘facts’ either made-up, distorted or ignored to suit); and moral blackmail (claiming victimisation/oppression) to get their way.


Activist-Ideologues then are partisan extremists. 
Dictators in the making is another way of perceiving them.

As Bo Winegard said recently, “As fun as it might be to anger your political foes, it generally accomplishes little more than transient satisfaction. Long term change requires broad consensus and compromise, two things that are anathema to extremists and partisans”.

We can safely say that broad consensus and compromise is NOT how activist-ideologues think. 

You see, they don’t see themselves as extremists or closed-minded and of course, if you can’t see a problem, you ain’t gonna be able to fix it. 
We all know that to rectify any deficiency in ourselves we first need the self-awareness & humility to recognise it as such. 


Activist-Ideologues are lacking in either self-awareness or humility.

So, if people who constantly and consistently espouse very hard line, very judgemental & apparently simplistic black & white views don’t see themselves as extremists or closed-minded ideologues, how do they see themselves?

Well, clearly, they have a firm and unwavering view that they are ‘right’. Now his can lead to, shall we say, unfortunate behaviour but sadly it goes much deeper than this. 

The reality is that their political ideology has become like a fundamentalist religion. So, they believe not simply that they are ‘right’ but ‘righteous’

And of course, the ‘righteous’ can do no evil; they wouldn’t be righteous if they could, would they? 
And thus this circular reasoning brings them to the conclusion that whatever measures they need to take to make their particular ‘Righteous Kingdom’ come into being, is not just acceptable but necessary. 

Boy, do you give yourself plenty of rope to hang other people with when you rationalise your thinking like this!


How to spot Activist-Ideologues

Look for heavily politicised posts. Usually boldly or aggressively asserting things with no evidence or citing someone, or a press opinion, from their own tribe. 

Look for barely controlled anger and often rudeness, (e.g. calling those who disagree ‘stupid’, ‘evil’, 'fascist' or 'nazi' etc). Look for demands and extremely simplistic nuclear option solutions (e.g. sackings; law enforcement action on their opponents etc).

When responding to an Activist-Ideologue & politely disagreeing or asking reasonable questions, look for evasion, waffly ideological generalisations, dismissive/rude/aggressive language, ignoring any question or point they can’t answer etc.


To engage or ignore Activist-Ideologues?

Of course, we can ignore them but I think we must be braver than that because the activist-ideologue, with their lack of self-awareness and humility, simply sees no opposition as an acceptance by everyone that they are right; victory! 
It simply encourages them in their ‘egotistical righteousness’.

So, I try to ask questions, point out flaws, make suggestions and generally try to encourage them to think more deeply & openly about their position.

The key things are: ALWAYS be polite. ALWAYS keep your temper and NEVER stoop to aggression, dismissiveness or name calling.

Now, of course, this rarely gets them to change because if Activist-Ideologues were open-minded, reasonable and capable of altering their views, then there would be no such thing as Activist-Ideologues and I wouldn’t need to write this blog warning against them!

However, and very importantly, it does remind them that not everyone agrees with their narrow, simplistic and jaundiced view of the world, and even that small check on their ego is better than nothing.

Summary

Here is another quote from Bo Winegard which sums-up the Activist-Ideologue.


“It's quite easy to disguise our demons as avenging angels of righteousness and thus to celebrate our cruelty as a justified retaliation or a necessary pre-emptive strike against a sinister enemy.”

And finally, after I finished this piece (honest!), I read an article by Andrew Doyle which almost brought me to tears so in tune with my thinking is it.

The whole piece is so worth reading for anyone tired of the angry closed-minded mud-slinging. Andrew Doyle on the need for critical thinking