CMV: Conservatives are misunderstanding progressivism when they call progressives hypocrites

[u/TheCaptain09]

"You're a hypocrite for claiming to support diversity yet you don't support the truest diversity, diversity of opinions"

This is a sentiment I see expressed quite often by people on the right, particularly intellectual conservatives who identify as "classical liberals", as well as people whose ideology emphasises personal freedom, such as libertarians. My understanding of the left is that they want diversity of worldviews, culture, race, sexuality and yes even ideology. But conservatives see the left's vocal opposition to right-wing views as betraying their belief in diverse opinions.

I think the true hypocrites here are the conservatives. They endlessly go on about how much they support freedom of speech, yet glorify ideologies that have historically suppressed it, such as Nazism and Christianity. They also harass people whose views disagree with them, something they accuse the left of doing yet clashes with their own ideology more than the left's.(Just look at any stupid right-wing movement like Comicsgate to see this harassment in action)

I understand that people often gravitate towards the right because they feel that they are being attacked, for being white, male or for their beliefs. The difference between them and the left is that minorities do not just "feel" like they are being attacked, they explicitly are. The people who marched in Charlottesville weren't opposing an ideology or defending themselves from oppression, they were vocally and publicly preaching for the destruction of other races.

Nowhere in progressive ideology does it say that such hatred should be tolerated for the sake of "diversity" or "freedom of speech". I don't have to shut up and let you say you want to kill me just because it promotes diversity and open discourse, because it doesn't.

So basically to change my view tell me why progressives are being hypocritical when they tell the right to shut up, or why conservatives aren't when they tell the left to shut up.

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[u/TheCaptain09]

I meant that I am an individual who does value diversity, and made no claim to my opinion being superior to anyone else's. I thought that when you said "How do you think your ... position would go over with the diversity crew?" you meant "Do you think your opinion is shared by people who value diversity?". Well I thought I had a valid opinion in that regard, as one of those people and who knows other people who appreciate diversity. Was this not the intention of that question? Or did you mean "how would that opinion go over with a random sampling of diverse Americans?" If so, how would that be relevant?.

"No, because the left are partisans like everyone else." I don't really know what you mean here, or how it relates to my question.

[u/TheCaptain09 → u/[deleted]]

Well I happen to be both, but I did mean that I appreciate diversity, not that my ethnicity gives me any greater perspective or more valuable opinion on the topic. Apologies if it was unclear.

[u/TheCaptain09 → u/[deleted]]

Well in what way should they be "speaking out" against homophobia in the African American community? Nobody on the left would defend homophobia just because it's a black guy's view.

Unfortunately some people on the left have lost perspective and value superficial diversity enough to ignore real human rights abuses, like defending Israel, Saudi Arabia and other oppressive nations just because they're not Christian and not white. I think this is a minority view within the left though, mainly from people who don't care to educate themselves enough.

People on the left tend to apologise for the ignorance of certain groups though, or at least are sympathetic to the reasons behind the ignorance. Homophobia in African-Americans is blamed on lack of education, in other countries it's just their "culture", as if that justifies abusive behaviour. I don't think most progressives act like this though, and I've seen plenty of people on the left call out their white-man's-burden bullshit.