Climate Org Inspired by Greta Thunberg's School Strike Calls Itself 'Racist,' Disbands
For years now, the radical left has ruled over activist circles with an iron fist. While most of the attention is rightfully focused on their external engagements, that doesn’t mean there isn’t internal strife among leftists.
Sometimes, that dirty laundry even makes headlines.
Take School Strike 4 Climate, for example. According to National Review, School Strike 4 Climate is a collection of local student-led movements, inspired by Greta Thunberg, that all aim to battle climate change.
Except for the chapter in Auckland, New Zealand, apparently.
The Auckland chapter announced in a Saturday Facebook post that the group would be “disbanding as an organisation.” The reason? Because it’s racist at its core, apparently.
“BIPOC communities are disproportionately affected by climate change, so the fight for climate justice should be led by their voices and needs, not Pākehā [white New Zealander] ones,” the organization said.
“We are disbanding because, since 2019, SS4C AKL (as well as the wider national group, though we can’t speak on their behalf) has been a racist, white-dominated space,” it continued, asserting that there is an “urgent need to decolonise the organisation [that] has been put off for far too long.”
The chapter lamented “the hurt, burnout, and trauma caused to many BIPOC individuals” as well as “the further trauma caused by our slow action to take responsibility. We recognise that this apology can never be enough to make up for our actions on top of years of systemic and systematic oppression.”
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The group also “fully discourage[s] any future and current Pākehā-led groups from occupying the space we leave behind.”
I’m sure the Aucklanders expected to receive universal praise and acclaim for this decision. After all, in the philosophy of Woke, the telos — or purpose — of a white person is to make a flagellant out of themselves.
However, while the group did receive some support, many of the Facebook comments were openly hostile — and the hostility wasn’t coming from conservatives.
“As all children are legally obliged to go to school in NZ it seemed like a smart idea to have one group for all children — as the future — rather than a lot of smaller groups. We might not all be about to go under water due to climate change but it’s certainly effecting everyone on this planet and climate change doesn’t care (discriminate) about skin colour or cultures. I didn’t think SS4C did either,” one person commented.
“This is so dissappointing. This is identity politics gone mad. Capitalism is eating the world and you are stopping! You need the politics of solidarity in the movement, to keep trying, keep listening, keep doing better but stopping — shortsighted, damaging to a movement and the wrong move. There is a world to save. Every action, every voice is needed and valid. Begging you as a mother not to stop,” another progressive added.
At play, we see the divide on the left between modernists and postmodernists. While both apply critical social theory, they do so very differently.
The modernists, represented by the hostile commenters, are primarily concerned with the development of capitalism as a political-economic system. They apply historical and cultural context in their analysis, with a focus on combatting authority and injustice, which they see as intrinsic within capitalism.
They usually don’t have an interest in woke nonsense, and legitimately seek to unite people. As I am a capitalist and a conservative, and not an orthodox Marxist, I completely disagree with them on most matters. That being said, it is a position I can at least respect.
On the other hand, you have the postmodernists. Their interest is in what is often termed the “crisis of representation.” They critique our contemporary society, which they consider to be post-modern, and relentlessly attack anything that can be considered universal, including modernity and reality itself. This is where identity politics and critical race theory come from.
Naturally, postmodernism is nonsense, as those who worship it dogmatically assert their ideas while simultaneously arguing that truth does not exist, and the divide between it and modern critical theory can be seen clearly.
I use one, invented word to describe this phenomenon, in which the left eats itself with its own theory: cannibaliberalism. Hopefully, the Auckland chapter’s decision inspires other leftist organizations to do the same.
It would only make things easier for us.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
