Meghan Daum
If Not Now, When?
There’s nothing wrong with calling fellow liberals into account over needless, often opportunistic, identity politics
I’ve long had a penchant for writing about the absurdities — and counterproductiveness — of a certain kind of moral hyperventilation coming from my fellow liberals. Lately, I’ve been feeling feistier than usual. A few months ago, for this site, I published a polarizing essay suggesting that women were just as capable of “toxic” behavior as men. A few months before that, also on this site, I wrote about my growing disenchantment with the left, or at least the new left, and my attraction (wary at times) to many of the thinkers sometimes associated with the “intellectual dark web.”
Until recently, the kind of responses I got to these sorts of things fell largely into two simple categories: “agreers” and “disagreers.” The agreers would say things like, “Thank you for saying what I’ve been thinking but am afraid to say out loud.” The disagreers would accuse me of being shortsighted and reactionary (which is probably true sometimes) or of being a right-wing dog whistler (I can assure you I am not).
But in the Trump era, a third category has emerged. Let's call it the “not-nowers.” This contingent offers something a bit more…
