Successor_ideology
Successor ideology
Political concept attributed to essayist Wesley Yang
"Successor ideology" is a term coined by essayist Wesley Yang to describe what he sees as an emergent ideology within liberal or left-wing political movements in the United States, Canada, and to a lesser extent other Western countries, centered around intersectionality, social justice, identity politics, and anti-racism, the rise of which, Yang argues, is degrading conventional liberal values of pluralism, freedom of speech, color blindness, and free inquiry.[1][2][3] Proponents of the concept link it to an alleged growth in the intolerance of differing opinions, to cancel culture, wokeness, social justice warriors, and to the far left;[4][5][6] Yang himself describes it as "authoritarian Utopianism that masquerades as liberal humanism while usurping it from within."[4]
The thesis garnered support from some commentators around 2020-2021, with Roger Berkowitz linking it to a broader retreat of liberalism worldwide that is challenged from the left in the form of the successor ideology and from the political right in the form of illiberal democracy,[7] and with Matt Taibbi calling the ideas of those he associates with the ideology "toxic" and "unattractive".[8][3] The concept has also come under criticism, with some commentators arguing that the term does not accurately describe trends within left-wing movements and others considering it a reactionary concept.[2][3]