Whose back yard? (For "left," read liberals)

Comment published on New York Times blog in response to opinion essay by columnist Brett Stephens, “Groupthink has left the left blind,” November 16, 2020:

The closed-minded intolerance often found on the left is not in fact specific to it. It has more to do with corporate liberalism than left-wing intellectual traditions, which are popular among many people in the arts and humanities because of their rigor in developing theories that usefully illuminate our world.

Contributing factors in our political culture include: 1) our distinctive multicultural pluralism combined with a representational politics that makes expression the means of liberation; (2) the deep authoritarianism of our society, whose usual alternatives involve not democratic discussion but the liberty to go elsewhere or do what you like in your own private space, where you mind your business.

Universities prepare people for lives in the corporate world, and are run on the same general values. Corporations are usually liberal, and they promote 'diversity' and 'woke' awareness so that all their employees will be content, because no one will be insulted, at least not in terms of their most essential property in today's America: their given identity by race or nationality, religion, or gender and sexuality. Businesses promote liberal tolerance to avoid lawsuits.

Many of us on the left want better social services, an end to police violence and mass incarceration, and other goods that do not require abolishing freedom of opinion. Liberalism has a different agenda, which it substitutes, replacing opposition to social inequality and oppression with the right to representation, visibility, respect, and inclusion.