The CRT Cult

I first became acquainted with Critical Race Theory  (CRT) in the 2000s when attending Education school. It was the prime focus of one of the course that we were required to complete as part of the High School teacher training program. Teaching for me was a second career (the first was in the Engineering profession) so I was a bit older than the most of the program’s student body and carried with me enough life experience to immediately recognize CRT for what it was - a radical ideology that has almost all of the characteristics of a religious extremism or indeed a cult. Like these other pathologies Critical Race Theory (CRT) comes dressed in the trappings of betterment but is far more sinister for it it seems to be gaining accelerated buy in from the Neo-liberal and Progressive Establishment and by extension the Democratic Party in the United States.

To understand the harshness of this assessment we need to look at CRT's origin which has its genesis in legal studies and goes back to the 1970s. Its initial intent was to provide a counter view to liberal approaches to race and racism. Proponents of CRT believe that differing racial outcomes are largely a function of a flawed system that has been specifically designed and continues to support the interests of a privileged White grouping. It borrows heavily from the various schools of critical theory that emerged after World War Two. These all attack the foundations of society through the lens of a power dynamic and borrow heavily from Marxist critiques of Liberalism. In CRT class has been replaced with race following similar revisions associated with the Frankfurt School. 

Its ultimate focus is a deconstruction of the network of the power hierarchy and a reset in its own image based on a specific interpretation of justice. Since then it has spread significantly and now impacts virtually all areas of the humanities and social science and indeed is making its presence felt in the hard sciences as well. It has infiltrated both the corporate world and the military as well. To call it a cancer (or a mind virus) would not be an overstatement for its ultimate impact on societal cohesion is deleterious. In reality it pits groups of people against each other to facilitate a transformation of power. It is also no longer just an intellectual theory but is now a Movement with a dangerous forward momentum. 

So how then is  CRT  similar to the cult like nature of religious extremism that are present in not only various segments of  the Abrahamic faiths but exist  in several of the Eastern and New Age Belief systems as well?  Well to begin with CRT has an ideal which in its case is a variations of a definite 'ought' that is  crafted in the image of its intellectual priesthood. Like other extremes of religious belief its God is indeed a jealous one tolerating very little dissent towards the idealism of its social justice inspired Earthly heaven.

However God is not the focus here, what is germane though is the methodology of belief, its epistemological underpinnings and its modus operandi of application.  So lets look at this as the uncanny similarities between CRT and Religious Extremism/Cultism for they are eerily disturbing.

 Here goes:

• Each posits an overriding ill associated with Western civilization – Decadence and Alienation  in the case of most  Religious Extremists, Systemic Racism for CRT advocates. Complex multifaceted issues are reduced to single problem factors ;
• The ideological constructs favour group dynamics over that of the Individual. CRT faces an added challenge in that it has not resolved the Essential versus Anti-Essentialist debate centering on the most appropriate unit of analysis. This further complicates when one adds in Intersectional factors;
• Both ignore conclusions based on Empirical evidence that invalidate their belief although they will cherry pick data when it suits them or ignoring that which doesn’t (black-on-black violence for example). The cart sits in front of the horse for both with all attempts at falsification summarily dismissed by a shifting of the goal posts;
• Each is openly hostile towards Western Liberalism but not averse to using the mechanisms of political democracy that exist in the system to consolidate its power outreach;
• Both are focused on winning the hearts and minds of the youth whatever way necessary (including and especially the undermining of the Educational system);
• The two all too often play the victimhood card when subject to blowback or resistance – all too often standing up for their own rights that they would appear to deny to others should they actually have the office of power;
• Both take a dim view of the gains of the Enlightenment and are inherently non-Scientific. Complex Language and the redefining of words is often used to couch the beliefs in a type pseudo-scientific rationalism that can only truly be interpreted by those in the ‘know’; 
• Each twists common understandings of right and wrong.  The phrase “All Lives Matter” which is a key to  liberalism and in my opinion a shared decency becomes somewhat of a hate statement when marinated in CRT ideology; 
• Appeals to emotion often frame the arguments of both – with subjective reality (standpoint epistemology or 'naming one's own reality') and various moments of personal revelation taking precedence over objective realities derived through scientific rationalism and empiricism; 
• Each use historically flawed  mythology to frame their arguments in the popular realm – Think of the 1619 Project or various metaphysical creationist narrative; 
• Both are extremely hostile to the outsider and non-believer, with foot soldier adherents often targeting opponents for cancellation, gaslighting, heretic  isolation, doxxing and Ad Hominem abuse; 
• Both tend to have a priestly elite that had maintain a status safeguarded by walls of overstated credentialism;
• The priestly elite of both are extremely adept at personally enriching themselves both financially and socially; 
• Each is not afraid to pressure governments and corporations to do their bidding and offer up Danegeld; 
• Both rarely if ever entertain the notion that they can be wrong (Heaven forbid!!). Each is particularly intolerant of humour or satire directed at them; 
• When attacked on dogma of belief both tend to resort to the No True Scotsman Fallacy or accuse others of misinterpreting their beliefs which can be conveniently covered for by language games and sliding definitions;
• At their core each has no qualms about discriminating against those outside its belief system using asymmetrical application of free speech protocols (good for me but not for you), it is also not uncommon for both to project their own personal bigotry onto the other; 
• Each relies on the good will of people (often the naive well meaning naive) to further a sanitized version of their message, although woe betide such an individual who deviates too much from the script; 
• Both use guilt to sell their message. CRT makes tremendous headway from White guilt. Religious extremism uses the guilt of sin. For CRT in the American context, Slavery is the Original Sin; 
• Both have a tendency to support, condone or turn a blind eye to violence that furthers their aims;
• Semantic overload is key to further the outreach of related. As shown with this line of reasoning......No good person can disagree with the statement Black Lives Matter therefore taking issue with the BLM organization whose name is depicted with those words implies opposition to the statement and indicative of a bad person. Islamists do the same when they routinely equate their ideology as encompassing the core of authentic Islam so that by definition opposition to them must be Islamophobic;
• There are logical flaws in the arguments of both that one notices from the onset . For religious extremists this presents itself for example with the problem of why misfortune impacts the most pious. CRT proponents are at a loss to explain why Asians or indeed even Nigerian immigrants (in Houston for example) perform better than whites in a system that has been specifically designed to benefit whites. There are numerous others; 
• Both are well versed in the art of projection accusing others of the same bigotry that they espouse. Religious extremists often denigrate opposing religions while at the same time accusing the other of disrespect. CRT advocates push a doctrine that is divisive along racial lines while often charging its opponents of racism if their dogma is questioned;
•  Each sets no limit on how far it is prepared to go and how it tends to manage the radical extremes of its own extreme ideology.

One can go further and I may still do so in the future but what is clear is that the pattern of overlap is  extensive. Each is affront to the rationalism and empiricism of the enlightenment that has ensured the success of Western civilization. It is also not a solution to a racial prejudice which at this point in Western History operates largely individual not the systemic level.

However what is most frightening is that Totalitarian thought process that underpins each and disguises its intent with well crafted Newspeak. The zealotry of its advocate is an affront to all free thinkers as is the buy in from many of the elites who have either been lulled into complacency, have lost all sense of reality or are grifting to save their own political skin.