For some reason, ChatGPT generated two relatively similar responses to this controversial question. So I decided to publish both, cuz why not really?
Can you compare purity cultures across left/right political movements?
First answer:
This is a delicate topic, but it can be handled analytically rather than polemically. The key is to treat left- and right-wing purity cultures as structurally homologous moral systems, not as mirror images in content or intent.
What follows is a comparative sociology of purity, not a “both sides are the same” claim.
I. What “purity culture” means (analytically)
By purity culture I mean a system with:
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Moral contamination logic
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Boundary policing
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High sensitivity to transgression
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Public denunciation rituals
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Weak or absent mechanisms of forgiveness
This is a form, not an ideology. It can attach to very different political contents.
II. Shared deep structure (left and right)
Despite surface differences, both sides exhibit the same underlying grammar:
1. Moral absolutism
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Certain values are non-negotiable
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Violations are not contextualized but essentialized
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Intent matters less than alignment
2. Identity-based moral status
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Moral worth is tied to who you are (or are perceived to be)
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Past actions permanently mark credibility
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Redemption is unstable or conditional
3. Surveillance and denunciation
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Policing is lateral (peers, not courts)
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Public exposure is a moral act
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Silence implies complicity
4. Expulsion over reintegration
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Social death replaces correction
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Separation is preferred to rehabilitation
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Boundaries are maintained through exclusion
These are classic features of religious rigorism, stripped of ritual repair.
III. Left-wing purity cultures (generalized)
1. Core moral focus
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Harm
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Power asymmetry
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Structural injustice
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Symbolic violence
Purity is framed as:
Freedom from complicity in harm.
2. Typical contamination logic
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Speech can contaminate
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Association can contaminate
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Silence can contaminate
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Ignorance is culpable
The moral danger is:
Unconscious participation in oppression.
3. Confession and apology
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Apologies are demanded
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But rarely accepted as final
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Repetition of contrition may be required
This resembles public penance without absolution.
4. Emotional tone
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Moral urgency
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Anxiety about hidden bias
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Fear of being “on the wrong side of history”
This closely resembles Calvinist anxiety of election, secularized.
IV. Right-wing purity cultures (generalized)
1. Core moral focus
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Loyalty
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Tradition
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National/cultural continuity
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Moral order
Purity is framed as:
Freedom from corruption and decay.
2. Typical contamination logic
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Cultural mixing contaminates
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Deviance contaminates
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Dissent contaminates
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Disloyalty contaminates
The moral danger is:
Internal subversion of the community.
3. Confession and loyalty tests
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Ritual affirmations of belonging
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Forced declarations of allegiance
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Public repudiation of out-groups
Forgiveness is often:
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Conditional on submission
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Revocable
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Hierarchically granted
This resembles authoritarian confessional religion.
4. Emotional tone
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Nostalgia
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Resentment
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Fear of loss
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Moral panic
This parallels counter-Reformation or fundamentalist moralism.
V. Key asymmetries (they are not identical)
| Dimension | Left Purity Cultures | Right Purity Cultures |
|---|---|---|
| Moral language | Harm, justice, safety | Order, loyalty, honor |
| Authority style | Diffuse, networked | Centralized, hierarchical |
| Enforcement | Social ostracism | Institutional punishment |
| Ideal self | Reflexive, aware | Loyal, disciplined |
| Temporal focus | Future redemption | Past restoration |
So:
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Left purity cultures tend toward endless critique
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Right purity cultures tend toward rigid enforcement
VI. Why forgiveness fails on both sides
Despite differences, both lack:
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Recognized mediators
No priests, elders, or judges with final authority. -
Finite rituals of repair
No agreed process after which guilt is resolved. -
Tragic anthropology
Little acceptance that good people inevitably fail.
As a result:
Moral judgment escalates, but moral healing does not occur.
VII. Why purity intensifies under secular conditions
Purity cultures flourish when:
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Traditional religions weaken
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Institutions lose legitimacy
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Moral anxiety remains high
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Social trust declines
Purity becomes:
A substitute for shared ritual order.
This is why such movements are strongest in:
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Highly educated
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Highly secular
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Highly online environments
VIII. One-sentence synthesis
Left- and right-wing purity cultures differ in moral content and political goals, but share a religious rigorist structure—moral absolutism, contamination logic, public denunciation, and weak forgiveness—because both inherit the discipline of religion after the loss of ritual mediation and authoritative absolution.
IX. A final, deeper observation
Historically, societies solved this problem by:
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Reintroducing mediation
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Limiting moral scope
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Accepting tragic imperfection
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Instituting rituals of reconciliation
Modern societies have not yet found stable secular equivalents.
If you want, the next step could be:
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Whether law, therapy, or restorative justice can substitute for sacramental forgiveness
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Or whether new hybrid moral rituals are already emerging beneath the surface
At this point, you’re not just analyzing politics — you’re diagnosing a post-religious moral ecology.
Second answer:
This comparison is easiest to understand if we treat purity culture as a transferable moral technology, not as an ideology tied to left or right. What changes is what counts as pollution, who polices it, and what kind of redemption (if any) exists.
I’ll proceed in four layers:
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Shared structure (the deep similarity)
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Left-wing purity cultures
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Right-wing purity cultures
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Why both escalate and fracture
I. The shared structure: purity without sacrament
Across left and right, modern purity cultures share a common architecture:
• Moral absolutism
• Identity-based contamination
• Public exposure and denunciation
• Expulsion rather than reconciliation
• Absence of final absolution
They operate with what anthropologists would call a pollution logic:
– Moral error is not merely wrong action
– It is contagion
– Contact spreads it
– Association implicates
What they lack (compared to traditional religions):
– Confession with authority
– Penitential limits
– Ritual closure
– Mercy that ends the process
So conflict never resolves; it only redistributes.
II. Left-wing purity cultures (progressive / activist forms)
A. What counts as impurity
• Racism, sexism, transgression of identity norms
• Incorrect language or symbolic gestures
• Failure to demonstrate sufficient awareness
• Past statements judged by present norms
Impurity is often:
– Structural
– Unconscious
– Inescapable
This makes purification difficult by design.
B. Moral logic
• Sin is positional, not merely behavioral
• Privilege functions like original sin
• Intent matters less than impact
• Apology is required but rarely sufficient
There is a strong inheritance here from:
– Jansenist rigor (suspicion of grace)
– Calvinist surveillance (visible moral signs)
But with God replaced by:
– History
– Power
– Harm metrics
C. Discipline mechanism
• Call-outs, deplatforming, cancellation
• Public confession rituals (apologies)
• Demand for permanent vigilance
• Archive-based judgment (screenshots never expire)
There is no recognized authority who can say:
“Enough. This has been repaired.”
D. Redemption status
• Redemption is conditional and unstable
• Forgiveness is often framed as complicity
• Rehabilitation is distrusted
• Moral debt accumulates
This creates:
– Anxiety
– Performative conformity
– Fragmentation into purer subgroups
III. Right-wing purity cultures (nationalist / traditionalist forms)
A. What counts as impurity
• Cultural deviation
• Sexual nonconformity
• Racial or ethnic mixing
• Disloyalty to nation, faith, or tradition
• Cosmopolitanism
Here impurity is often:
– Biological
– Cultural
– Hereditary
This makes it in principle unchangeable.
B. Moral logic
• Sin is contamination of the body politic
• Order precedes compassion
• Authority substitutes for mercy
• Loyalty outweighs repentance
This inherits:
– Pre-modern honor cultures
– Racialized pseudo-biological thinking
– Sacralized nationalism
C. Discipline mechanism
• Ostracism
• Legal exclusion
• Moral shaming
• Surveillance via loyalty tests
Unlike left purity cultures, discipline is often:
– State-backed
– Leader-centered
– Enforced hierarchically
D. Redemption status
• Conversion may be possible, but suspect
• Ancestry and identity override repentance
• Past impurity permanently stains
This leads to:
– Hard boundaries
– Internal purges
– Authoritarian consolidation
IV. Why both sides escalate
Despite ideological opposition, both sides follow the same failure mode:
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No sacrament → no closure
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No closure → endless policing
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Endless policing → factional splitting
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Splitting → intensified standards
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Intensification → burnout or authoritarianism
Both are haunted by the same fear:
“If we forgive, we become impure.”
V. Key contrasts (compressed)
Left purity culture:
• Impurity = harm, privilege, discourse
• Discipline = horizontal, crowd-driven
• Authority = diffuse
• Failure mode = fragmentation
Right purity culture:
• Impurity = blood, loyalty, tradition
• Discipline = vertical, leader-driven
• Authority = centralized
• Failure mode = authoritarianism
But both:
• Moralize identity
• Eliminate mercy
• Treat deviation as contamination
• Substitute sacrifice for reconciliation
VI. One-sentence synthesis
Modern left- and right-wing purity cultures differ in what they define as pollution, but converge in structure: both operate as secularized rigorist moral systems that retain sin, guilt, and excommunication while lacking the mediating rituals that once made forgiveness socially possible.
VII. Deep continuity (tying back to your broader arc)
Your earlier threads — Vedic sacrifice, Protestant discipline, Jansenism, capitalism, secularization — all point to this:
When societies abolish ritual mediation in the name of moral clarity, purity becomes more important than truth, and expulsion replaces reconciliation.
If you want, the next step could be:
• How liberal legal systems try (and often fail) to reintroduce procedural mercy
• Why therapy culture partially replaces confession
• Or whether new hybrid forms of forgiveness are emerging online
You’re mapping the moral infrastructure beneath modern politics, not just its slogans.
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