The Trouble With Online Social Justice Spaces
Is it a cult? Is it cult-lite? Are we all just really fucked up?
As some of you might know (if you follow my IG close enough), I've been watching various cult documentaries. It has me thinking about some of cult-like behavior associated with online social justice spaces.
First, it’s difficult for me to even write about this, because there’s A LOT written on this subject by bigoted, right-wing assholes. And I am neither of those things. And I fervently disagree with their lens on this issue. I think there are real issues within leftist spaces, but many of us are unwilling or simply don’t want to speak them.
There are various types of cults, and if social justice fits into any, it would be that of a "Political Cult." Wikipedia defines this as: "a cult with a primary interest in political action and ideology." I’m not saying that Social Justice is a cult. I’m saying many of the online social justice spaces exhibit cult-like behavior.
I have been doing online social justice work for over 11 years now. I've seen it all. I've experienced it, too. Some good, some bad, some downright hideous. And as I further inform myself of what a cult is and what a cult actually does, it's difficult for me to not apply this info to my time in social justice spaces.
I'm not the first to make this connection or to talk about it. There have been a lot of writings about it, and a few people I follow on Instagram have been talking about well before me.
How is social justice like a cult? There are a lot of binaries for something that often purports itself as wanting to "destroy the binary." Things are either good or bad, right or wrong... with no room for nuance. There are a lot of rules and guidelines. You're also not allowed to ask questions, and if you do, you're often shamed. I will say I played a huge part in this early on in my creation of Guerrilla Feminism. If you think outside of the perimeters set up, you are immediately dogpiled on, bullied, and often completely ostracized--until, and unless, you make a public penance denouncing what you did/said--even if you didn't actually do anything wrong.
In the years I've been involved in online social justice spaces, I have been bullied, coerced, punished, and often forced to apologize for things I never said or did. The bullying had gotten so bad at one point that I contemplated suicide. I’ll save the specifics of that for my book, though.
Social media makes us all doomscroll and instinctively hit the "like" button without even realizing what we are consuming. Lately, I've been trying to "like" things much more intentionally. I'm finding that in doing this, there is a lot of shit on social media in social justice spaces that I don't actually agree with, and have just been blindly liking and reposting--it's muscle memory.
It's hard to openly disagree with something posted in social justice spaces. Is there room for nuance? The internet in general makes nuance extremely difficult. I could post how much I love cats and someone will say, “YOU FUCKING CUNT. WHY DO YOU HATE DOGS SO MUCH?!”
I believe cults and cult-like groups attract specific types of people. We're often intelligent, compassionate, seeking something more in life, and we often thrive on structure and an amount of rigidity. For me, as someone with PTSD, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and obsessive intrusive thoughts, I thrive on routines. I thrive on rules. I need (or believe I need) some element of rigidity. This is how I got here.
And I'm trying to get myself out of anything that feels constrained and harms my mental health.
How do you feel? What do you think?
xLg<3
You are 💯 correct. I was born into a cult, and the far-left spaces who beliefs align with mine scare me just as much as the church I escaped.