"Action Will Be Taken": Left Anti-intellectualism and its Discontents

"Activistism" combines the political illiteracy of hyper-mediated American culture with all the moral zeal of a nineteenth century temperance crusade.

“All this theory without action is pointless,” said the activist in the vicinity of thinking. “We’ve got to do something.” It’s a common refrain today in leftist spaces, as it was in 2002 when Liza Featherstone, Doug Henwood, and Christian Parenti wrote “‘Action Will Be Taken’: Left Anti-intellectualism and its Discontents.” Anti-intellectualism is typi…