Thread by @politicalfubol

Thread.
Those of us positioned on the left of British politics have problems enough at the moment and can well do without tearing ourselves limb from limb...

However, we need to talk about the 'woke left'....

1/14

'Woke' is probably not the best description but 'soft left' is already taken. Ideologically, they're as hard-left as they come. They're kind of full-on radical, smash the state, 'literally a communist' types.
And that's a breath of fresh air....
2/14

But...
They bring with them a paradox. While being ideologocally hard-left, they understandably seek to distance themselves from the image of the 'old' hard left. But in doing so, they fall into the baited trap left by those who have always opposed the left in any form.
3/14

They've fallen into the old 'Leftie activist' stereotype. The idea that left politics is ethereal, theoretical, sixth-form debating society bullshit divorced from reality. Their shrill, voulable, denounciations of any opposing opinions or dissenters feeds that narritive...
4/14

You know the one? The Millie Tant? The baa baa white sheep, loony left, GLC, student politics stereotype that got blown up out of proportion and gave the right and centre space to claim the Labour Party in the 80s & 90s?
It's happening again and the woke left are feeding it.
5/14

In antisemitism and transactivism we see the woke left at their very worst.
Here they set themselves up as gatekeepers of the debate. An internal task force to deflect outside criticism. They then police debate to such an extent that one view becomes 'right' and one 'wrong'.
6/14

Debate is key to understanding. These issues are new to many, poorly understood and/or recognised. You cannot change people's minds, thoughts or behaviours by attacking their opinions as wrong or by accusing them of bigotry.
7/14

Transactivists need to understand that their cause is, to many people, new and counterintuitive. Perhaps it takes generations for genuine widespread acceptance. It certainly can't happen overnight or when you choose to ostracise people who hold a contrary opinion. 8/14

Because it is just that. An opinion. Until something is proven conclusively, one way or the other, then that's where debate lives. Shutting it down is tantamount to saying 'my opinion - my feelings - matter more than yours'.
This matters in the A/S debate too..
9/14

By silencing those who question the scale and veracity of the problem, you are blocking any hope of getting to the truth. You might be proven right, but we'll never know if you steer the debate away and accept all charges. This Momentum letter is out 'Liam Byrne' moment.
10/14

If we issue a mea culpa just to appease, then we hand our political enemies a stick to beat us. We cement the narrative by our own hand and indebt ourselves with a stain that we can never wash away.
This is not the price to pay to make this matter go away. 11/14

We can only do that by standing up and fighting back. This might make us look insensitive, uncaring and massively un-PC but that will only be the case until the truth comes out. Until the evidence surfaces and opinions coalesce into facts. 12/14

And this is the true paradox of the woke left. They fight so hard, harder than anyone in fact, to avoid fighting. They fight to avoid debate, confrontation, or to meet trouble half way and it weakens us as a whole. 13/14

We don't have to roll over and keep the peace for the sake of the bigger picture. After all, what's the value in getting to your destination when the road is littered with the bodies of those you jettisoned to get there.
14/14.

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