Scary thoughts here, Greg, but I tend to agree with you. The effort to cleanse society of all vestiges of the past - think Margaret Court Arena - displays the same fanaticism that animates the Taliban. Of course the SJW's are not as violent, but they have certainly demonstrated strains of violence. With the recent demonstrations over Trump's election we see their vision of justice as sitting rather uneasily with democracy. I think the full extent of Marx's influence is only now becoming apparent, and it places him as a founder of one of the great (secular) religions.

Simply put social inequity and injustice is like the petrol thrown on the fire attempting to put it out!

And radical Islam is especially gifted in using social injustice and inequity, wherever it finds it to serve its inherently evil purpose!

An open mind is an intellectual parachute! We can compare life with just stepping off into the unknown? The open mind (chute) controls the descent and a safe arrival at the destination.

Even so, the old saying, that it's not the fall that hurts, but the sudden stop (splat) at the bottom, a truism!

It's good to have an open mind on most things, but not so open that your brains leak out?

If life is a journey and it is, then the destination not nearly as important as the journey and the discoveries we make along the way, particularly those that build character!

And discernment, helped by the ring of truth that exists in every man! That small voice we all have that tells us this is not right or confirms that it is!

And as your soul sings, gives you those intense euphoric shivers and accompanying goose bumps all over. Like that you get when beautiful music, like the volga song, stirs your very soul, or similarly when a beautiful scene from nature does the same or when you hear an absolute truth for the first time!

Even more so, when it flies in the face of everything you were taught to accept as true?

Thus we can take the very best from all other philosophies and live by a common rule applicable to all. And that enrich us all!

All men are brothers, and do unto others as you would be done unto a common golden rule to live by. Or as my dad would have said, if you can't do a man a good turn, at least don't do him a bad one!

And that is where the brainless Taliban and Godless radical Islam fail with a capital F!
Alan B.

It is undoubted that Marx's secularism is at the base of today's confusion 'on the left'. However, 'the right' needs to take some responsibility too. Secularism and the later more militant Marxist exclusion of God from the public realm, are parts of the Western political tradition (whether we like that or not). Hence, the decision to instrumentalise the mujahadeen against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan played a decisive part in forming the current political malaise. It was a mistake of Schmittian proportions.
A new common dialogue needs to be forged politically, and I worry that it will not be while the ageing Cold War Warriors continue to lay the blame at each others' feet.

Séan from the Mournes,

Nice to see the accent on the "é", so many times we see Sean, which looks kinda 'old' to me!!

To get back to the topic

Alan B,

"And that is where the brainless Taliban and Godless radical Islam fail with a capital F!"

Radical Islam is anything but Godless, at least in their own eyes, and that's a big part of the problem.

Is Mise,
Mo chara, go raibh míle maith agat. Tá tú an-chineál.

My point is that we are at a historical juncture that has much potential (for good or ill) but we are struggling to realise it. Instead of reiterating the internecine spat between Western traditions, we should understand that the entire Western tradition is imperilled and that both left and right have contributed to that.

Hence, this should be thought of as an opportunity too.
Is mise le meas,
Séan

This article is rather strawmanish. SJWs aren't a homogenous group, and there's very little opposition to cultural appropriation from anywhere!