the modern self

 It is good that challenging understandings of CT are espoused on Reddit; for example, a user stated “My understanding (albeit very limited) has always been that CT as a project tends to actually be skeptical of . . . universal or transcendental conceptualization, opting for particular, immanentist, and historical outlook that's anti-metaphysical (maybe post-metaphysical is more accurate)” As a response on Reddit comes the following claim: “in the context of right-wing communities where everyone shares a distorted view of the subject, one that usually rests on actually the anti-racists/anti-oppression/anti-fascists are actually the racists/oppressors/fascists, so basically the Uno reverse card. The criticisms serve more as an attempt to build up a strawman that those communities can all agree on” It is true that right-wing communities have these understandings of CT and CRT.  It is with limited resources they do present CT and CRT as worldviews and as theories that promote the oppressor/oppressed paradigm as being the essence of CT and CRT. These communities do see CT as anti-metaphysical; it needs to be taken into consideration that the aforementioned Reddit posts and conservative (so-called right-wing) understandings are diametrically opposed. Scholars know the relationship between CT and Marxism, but that just muddies the waters of understanding for all parties involved in this argument about CRT and CT. If CT and CRT are anti-metaphysical and Marxist or about oppressor/oppressed, then Marxism takes the day. Consider the quote by Stuart Sim “Entire cultures can be put under the microscope of Marxist theory. It forms a paradigm of the way in which any critical theory in general works. Cultural artefacts are tested against the given projection of the world as it is, or should be, constructed” Constructed world, that is what “they” (the Left) want you to believe, just as the idiot philosophy professor I had in college said, “it’s all made up.” But, whether or not CT is against metaphysics is something I will return to at a later time.  The take-away from the Reddit posts that I want to focus on is the reference to “the subject.”  This is an important thing to look at because we often in the West in conservative circles talk about the subject in a way that causes the Left to identify our understanding as the distorted way of understanding the subject.  The “subject” of the “West” is centric, which fits quite well with the Uno reverse card movement mentioned above.  The non-distorted version of the Reddit poster is, I surmise, the decentred subject, and this subject is the one we are dealing with here on out in the future of talk about theories.  If one considers the deconstructed subject or decentred subject, to be the undistorted subject then one has to consider any centric and focused subject as distorted.  This decentred subject seems to be a bit of a distortion to us, but it is the centric subject which racism is built on.  Racism is built on a subject (self) that can be harnessed for its purposes.  A decentred subject or decentred self is the self of deconstructionism which in turn puts NO VALUE on the subject or self. This self is understood as something that is unstable, yet of MUCH VALUE, because it cannot be harnessed.  This self is seen through a blurry lens and therefore is nondescript, or difficult to discuss.  It is in Western discussion that the subject or self comes into formation, and it can be harnessed or, better yet, to become enslaved.  This is the point exactly, when the self is seen as that which can be harnessed, there is, among those Conservatives who are uneducated on the matter, they must come to an understanding of the self as absent and decentredness. The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolution, by Carl R Trueman and Rod Dreher, is the most ridiculous book.  That book lives in the 1980’s, and has two ridiculous themes: one that there is a instantiated self and two an obsession with sex.  Couple of dirty old men; stereotypical of the Conservative. Come on Conservatives, let’s listen to the cry for a decentred subject. This blurred subject is the BASIS of critical thought, CT and CRT.  A decentred subject cannot be harnessed into racist and homophobic sentiments.   There is no triumph of the self, but rather a decline and demise of it. Come on and get on the CT training, study and understand. The self of individualism is the STRAWMAN set-up and attacked; when the real problems of critical thinking have arisen. Two scripture that apply here are Colossians 2:8: See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.  AND the text of the Kenotic Gospel: Philippians 2:6-7 But He emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.