From shaming to intellectual challenge

[timelets]

I see a beginning of a pragmatic shift within a more farsighted academia: away from shaming alt-right ideologues to challenging them intellectually. Shaming works only as long as the society is unified in its cultural norms. Once the norms fracture, one has to find a deeper cultural background for discussing ideas. For example, the tag "alt-right" itself is a misnomer akin to "horseless carriage." That is, it denotes what the thing is not, rather than what it actually stands for. This is a sign of an early-stage innovation where the future is highly uncertain and open to interpretation. No wonder it attracts amoral opportunists like Trump and Co.

Comments

[timelets]

It does feel like a step back into darker times. But ignoring the phenomena intellectually would be a mistake because the perceived agreement on basic social norms doesn't seem to work well enough to produce expected results.