Extended Secular Liberalism is a Solution to Wokeism and Islamism

Secular Liberalism Needs to be Updated to Combat All Toxic Ideologies Equally

In previous two pieces I had explained why neither secular liberalism nor Christianity could, in my view, save us from Wokeism and Jihadism. What could, then? Perhaps a certain healthy combination of Christian conservatism and secular liberalism, e.g., some kind of conservative liberalism or libertarianism?

Well, as a temporary solution it might even work, but it is not sustainable in the long run, however. Liberalism and conservatism are the exact opposites of each other, and they could not co-exist in peace for long. Yeah, they might temporarily unite against the common enemy - Wokeism and Jihadism, but after defeating it they would inevitably start fighting each other again, until one of them wins and our society returns either to Christian conservatism or secular liberalism. And none of them is a solution. Then what is?

I see one great way out of current Western ideological crisis. This solution is to update, or, more precisely, to EXTEND our secular liberalism so to include defenses against ANY religious ideology, NOT ONLY Christian one (and against Islamist ideology particularly!), and against ANY kind of secular mysticism as Communism and Wokeism as well. Thus we could arm our classic liberal ideology against new ideological enemies - Wokeism and Islamism.

To do it would not be as hard to do as it might seem now. Secular liberalism is already perfectly designed against EVERY religious ideology, only cultural and racial factors - e.g., our collective guilt before every 'non white' nation in the world which Muslims learned to exploit so well to shield their toxic religious ideology from any criticisms, along with our unfamiliarity with Islam - prevent us from using secular liberalism against Islamism. The solution is simple - familiarize yourselves with Islam (it's pretty easy with so many Muslim immigrants in the West!) and use secular liberal principles to restrain it. As for Muslims being a 'vulnerable minority', it's not true EVEN in the West anymore with really HUGE amount of Muslim immigrants there, and NEVER was true globally with Islamic countries including rich Gulf countries led by Qatar and Saudi Arabia being a significant political power with really MASSIVE populations as well. Hence, we could - and should! - arm our secular liberalism against Islamism.

We could do the same against Wokeism as well. In order to do it we need just to extend classic liberal principles to counter NOT ONLY religious but ALL kinds of mysticism, including secular one. ANYTHING which is NOT based on logic and science (including all Woke unscientific theories from Critical Race theory to queer theory) should be taken with a HUGE grain of salt. ANYTHING which could NOT be proven with data (like vague Woke terms 'systemic racism', or 'white privilege', or 'male privilege') should be taken with an equally HUGE grain of salt as well. Thus secular liberalism could be equipped for a war with Wokeism as well.

For now, I don't see ANY better way to combat Wokeism and Islamism than this extended secular liberalism. Yeah, it would require a lot of courage and commitment from 'true', old-school Western liberals, but it could be done. After this, however, I believe we need to learn to live without using ANY ideology as a crutch. Extended secular liberalism could be our path to this ideology free happy future, by shielding us from the dangers of ANY ideology, either religious or secular.

What is so great about secular liberalism in my view that it is not an ideology per se even. It does not cloud human brain with all kinds of irrational unproven bullshit like pretty much EVERY other political or religious ideology. But secular liberalism is rather a credo, not ideology. 'Live and let others live' - its essence could be best expressed in this idiom. What could be SIMPLER and DEEPER at the same time? That's why I love it so much.

That's why I still believe that secular liberalism should be our future, NOT Christian conservatism and even LESS SO Woke Communism or Islamist Jihadism. Secular liberalism was just not perfectly designed against EVERY irrational ideology. Extend it to include ALL those ideologies, and you'd fix this mistake, and secular liberalism would help us to defeat BOTH Wokeism and Islamism just as it helped us to defeat Christian fundamentalism. Amen to that!