Ideology Is Utopia

Something that irks me with the recent political turmoil in the United States, is how aggressively leftist movements and spaces foresake those who refuse to partake in ideological infighting. A prime example for me is the recent allegations placed against Luigi Mangione, who is by no means a pure little leftist. The moment his politics came out I witnessed multiple left leaning political people and spaces foresake him and move on, refusing to engage someone they view as "problematic", or to use a more inflammatory language "tainted".

Because that's what it is, isn't it? Someone does something, displays any signs of ideological failures, and they are removed from the discussion. They challenge the utopia that people believe in, so they have to be removed.

Utopia Is A Bad Thing

Utopia is in my opinion, a fundamentally fascistic concept. In order to achieve ideological perfection, those that are not pure must be removed. It is frankly disgusting, alienating, and I would say dangerous if leftists didn't predominatingly focus this hatred at each other. How can you rally a bunch of laborers and workers while simultaneously casting them out for any infraction?

One may say that this is hyperbolic, and that most leftist spaces are not like this. While I don't have any proof one way or the other, that doesn't mean this exclusionary practice isn't damaging to the whole. If 5% of leftist spaces and people are loud enough, they alienate people from the whole. Forget not the full phrase "bad apples spoil the whole bunch".

I do see improvements to this as larger social and economic movements are trying to organize around simple concepts, such as labor or social status, but the online landscape of leftist politics is still horrific in my view. Chasing utopia is a horrible practice, and that's all ideology is good at describing. That doesn't make it useless, but when it becomes the movement it becomes very dangerous; Or at best destructive internally.

How Come Fascists Can Do It, Then?

The answer is simpler than one might expect, and already stated in a different context: They keep it simple. If you want to be a part of the alt-right mainline movement in the USA, all you need to be is: White, Straight, and Christian. They're even willing to make exceptions for conveniences sake, or as deflection points. Whether or not you want to admit it, that is a very easy foundation to build a platform on.

Fascists are overwhelmingly childish literalists, much like the modern anti-intellectual and evangelical movements. They can only operate on reductive, blunt interpretations of the world. That also allows for a lot of people to fold in because, frankly, a lot of adults in this world can be reduced to childish literalists with any little -ism or enemy. Hate is more powerful than most leftists want to admit.

Then What Is Ideology For?

To me, ideology is a navigational star, and importantly one of many. The ideas of a perfect, anarchistic society is appealing to me; But that doesn't make it something that is readily applicable at scale. One might point to AANES in Syria as a counterpoint, but that foregoes the large amount of issues they face. And no, I'm not just talking about Turkey.

Utopia is false, imaginary and ideal; And so are ideologies. That does not make them useless, but it does mean they cannot be treated with the same childish literalism that fascists rely on to push their own utopias. The ocean of economics, social issues, and politics is extremely wide and deep, and we need every navigational star we can get. But we need to understand them as just that, guides, not destinations.

I don't know if this is able to be enacted across leftist spaces, but I hope the more recent labor and social movements in the US can snap some ideological purists out of it. There is so much to be done, so that armchair needs to be thrown into the fire of the progressive movements that are stirring, not sat on.

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