My friend Carter and I started a podcast a few months ago on his Unsafe Space channel, called Deprogrammed. It started as a result of an interview he did with me where we talked about my path away from SJW ideology over the past two years or so and why it might have happened. You can watch that interview here if you’re interested:

The goal of the podcast is to help untangle the SJW belief system, not only for myself, but for those who may be caught up in it, for others who have left it or are in the process of leaving it, for those who have lost friends and family to it, and for those who are just now being exposed to parts of it and are wondering what it’s all about.

I’m getting a little better at describing it, the more time that I spend reading, writing and talking about it, and the more time that I spend OUT of it. Here’s my latest attempt, which happened in a conversation with a very well-meaning Christian father who is just learning about “intersectionality” from his daughter:

Intersectionality (or SJW ideology) is a newer form of Marxism organized around power and identity (group membership) instead of class. This neo-Marxism, just like the Marxism of the 19th and 20th centuries, is based on collectivism rather than individualism. They posit that the best way to view the world and to interact in the world is through a lens of power. And they define power not based on an individual’s ability to exert force, but based on “identity” or how many “marginalized” (oppressed) or “privileged”(oppressor) groups to which one belongs. Power is what is valued most in this belief system, not equality, not peace, not justice. When SJWs pass away, their surviving “allies” don’t say Rest in Peace. They say Rest in Power.

SJW ideology functions very much like a cult or religion — in fact it WAS my religion for almost 20 years — and I preached it like one. I was indoctrinated in college, like most of the believers my age, though people are now being indoctrinated online, in elementary school and through the media, by my peers who went on to work in academia, journalism, tech and entertainment. If your college aged daughter is coming home telling you about this new concept called intersectionality, you should know that it’s nothing new. It’s just centuries old Marxism warmed over.

I say all of this as a rambling preamble for what I think was one of the most interesting conversations we’ve had on Deprogrammed thus far! This was a conversation with Dr. J.R. Miller, Dean of Online Learning & Instructional Technology and Professor of Applied Theology & Leadership at Southern California Seminary in El Cajon, CA. We talked about SJW ideology, racism, sexism, and Christianity, all in the context of Dr. Miller’s recent article, “I choose not to combat racism by becoming a racist.”

“There’s no such thing as sexism against men. That’s because sexism is prejudice + power. Men are the dominant gender with power in society.” — Anita Sarkeesian, Feminist Frequency “…it is impossible to be truly racist against white people.” — Tiffanie Drayton, DailyDot.com

SJW ideology MUST redefine racism and sexism. It’s essential to getting well-meaning people to go along with racist and sexist behavior and speech. ‘Racism and sexism are okay now guys, because they’re no longer considered racism or sexism! Here, let me share the new definition with you.’

I learned the Racism/Sexism = Prejudice + Power redefinition at a “Dismantling Racism” training I attended in college with other Amnesty International student leaders. It was then reiterated and accepted as truth in my Women’s Studies and Critical Theory classes. I have pages upon pages of embarrassing feminist message board posts from my early twenties, where I proselytized to non-believers who still defined racism and sexism as prejudice or discrimination based on race or sex. I find it kind of amusing now when new converts try to explain it to me. I understand it perfectly fine, thank you, I just reject it.

There are a multitude of problems with the SJW redefinition of racism and sexism. For starters, even if you accept their definition that -ism = Prejudice + Power, they have also redefined power. Because of course they have. :) According to this belief system, power is not determined by an individual’s ability to inflict force, but by their identity, which is determined by how many “marginalized” (or oppressed) versus “privileged” (or oppressor) groups they check off. In other words, you can be one of the most powerful individuals in the world, but supposedly *not* have the power to inflict any prejudice you may hold if you check off enough of those “marginalized” boxes. Conversely, you can be living on the streets with few options, but if you check off enough “privileged” boxes, well, at least you still have the immense power to inflict any prejudiced views you might hold on others, right?

Secondly, people who have accepted these new collectivist definitions of racism and sexism have been told that redefining these words is necessary in order to talk about institutionalized or systemic racism and sexism. But it’s not. We already have terms for institutionalized and systemic racism and sexism. Those terms are: institutionalized and systemic racism and sexism.

SJWs tell us that what we know as racism is now simply racial prejudice, and that what we know as sexism is now simply sex based prejudice. They claim that without the institutional or systemic power to inflict this prejudice, then it’s not real racism or sexism. Let’s use their terms for a moment to pose a few questions:

At what measurable end goal in the future will this kind of racial prejudice and sex based prejudice be wrong again? And, once we as a society have met that measurable end goal, how do you propose we roll back what we’ve pressed into the minds of several generations? ‘Hey guys, um, we’ve reached that end goal now, let’s try and step it back a bit. These things are now considered racist and sexist again, ok?’

Redefining racism and sexism in order to claim it’s impossible to be racist towards a particular race or sexist towards a particular sex necessarily invites prejudice towards that race or that sex over time.

One must ask: in the context of what we’ve learned from history, can you think of any possible negative repercussions of convincing people that racial prejudice against one race is not racist or that sex based prejudice towards one sex is not sexist? Can you project that out a few generations and see what it might reap?

Lastly, many who have bought into SJW ideology like to claim, “reverse racism isn’t real!” Or, “there’s no such thing as reverse sexism.” On this we agree.

There’s simply racism and sexism. And they are not the cure for themselves.