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White men have been using the Left and libertarianism as cover for their reactionary beliefs in part because both sets of ideologies impart the illusion of a moral high ground and involve a lot of goalpost shifting.
Because they are ultimately aligned with the status quo of white male supremacy, they adopt the parts of left-liberal thought which benefit them personally (e.g., gay rights for gay white men) while appropriating it to attack the rest of us for insufficient ideological deference.
In other words, the conceptual vagueness of liberty and socialism in the modern American consciousness gives them cover under which to promote their particular brand of white male supremacy and illiberalism. Most of their stated beliefs are bullshit.
Wealth and white male supremacy are the right's bread and butter so these pseudo-leftists/libertarians rarely attack them except when religious elements or neocons threaten them or their favorite dictators.
Again, it's important to recognize most of what they say in public is nonsense, and they will often equivocate on their actual political beliefs because of it. You can see this with Glenn Greenwald, for example, who refuses to identify with libertarians, the left, or anyone.
Likewise, Matt Taibbi strikes a righteous pose these days but his catnip is white male privilege run amok and he'll gleefully bash Democrats all day long. Black and women Democrats particularly. Oftentimes defending Trump and Russia in the same breath.
Russia is their BFF because it represents unchecked white male supremacy, illiberalism, and opposition to the West and America (read: diversity and other liberal values). Coded language has grown up around the anti-war, anti-imperialist movement to try and obfuscate this.
Also, those with Russian support like Assad, although anyone who thumbs their nose at America will do. They're anti-war only to the extent of protecting those regimes. They're not so much anti-imperialism as they are opposed to the spread of liberal social values.
They never throw their weight behind religious groups or regimes, though, because they see religion as ruining their fun. Hence a lot of Islamophobia and "Russia is fighting the War on Terror in Syria" type nonsense.
They're not anti-capitalist, no matter what they say. Their complaints about banksters, neoliberals, and globalists, aside from being antisemitic, are about the feeling they haven't received their due as white men, which is all their "economic anxiety" argument ever was.
They're not pro-immigration, diversity, or equality either as they see those as diluting their power, though they may take a tepid public stance to deflect criticism. Their anti-immigrant beliefs may be reflected in support for Brexit or right-wing populist movements in Europe.
So we're talking about a class of white male journalists and influence peddlers who eschew labels but have been adopted by the white left as standard bearers. They are narcissistic, belligerent, pro-Russia, pro-Trump, and opposed to Democrats and liberals, especially women.
Although probably the easiest way to identify them is their jovial appearances on the Tucker Carlson show.
I mention all this because these guys are banging loudly on the "no collusion" drum right now, partially to defend Trump and Russia but mostly so they can claim they were right all along (like I said, narcissists), and they're getting a lot of undo attention because of it.
The fact is we've been outmaneuvered in media by the right and this fifth column of left/libertarian white guys, who are the tip of the ice berg in terms of the white male dominated media, and we're in danger of losing the narrative on Trump completely.
Incidentally, many of these same guys are trying to foist white men on the Democratic base of women and PoC in the form of Bernie, Beto, Biden, or whomever, and their rat fuckery will go into interstellar overdrive if and when a woman like Harris wins the primary. Count on it.
So we need to be alert to this shit and we need to be loud. Louder than them, not only but especially at the ballot box because 2020 is the last, last chance for so many of us. And we need to turn out the shills wherever we find them.
