Thread by @Gwynnion

It's true that everything is political. However, some people's lives are more vulnerable to political whims than others and they are correspondingly more conscious of how politicized their identities are, whether they are black, women, disabled, trans, or what have you.

Ultimately, the aim of progressivism-liberalism is to stop treating politics as a zero sum game where some identities win at the expense of the rest and to work toward a social order where everyone enjoys fairness, equality, safety, and a decent standard of living. Bare minimum.

The American right is explicitly about zero sum politics on behalf of straight cis white men, especially rich white men, and this has necessarily defined the progressive movement as one of other, vulnerable identities and our straight, white, and/or male allies.

Reducing poverty and economic inequality have and will always be an important part of progressivism, but it's important to recognize that poverty and inequality disproportionately affects marginalized groups and that class is not the only or an irreducible social identity.

Historically through the modern day, however, there is an unfortunate tendency for left and labor movements to flatten myriad social identities into a single working class or proletariat construct which is elevated above all others and which is functionally white populism.

White populism in the United States and elsewhere is essentially white supremacy in the guise of an economic justice movement, and it tends to agitate for a herrenvolk democracy that centers white and male social and economic interests over everyone else.

Trump is both a fascist and a white populist. The two go hand in hand because racist whites expect the authoritarians they've put in charge to wield power against immigrants, minorities, women, etc. to restore their cultural dominance and protect their economic standing.

Like I said, though, this impulse is not exclusive to the right nor it is even exclusively right-wing. The brouhaha over "horseshoe theory" boils down to the fact white men will use any tool, any rhetoric to advance their interests and maintain cultural and economic dominance.

(It's not an exclusively white male issue either, as white women are some of the strongest supporters / enforcers of white supremacy, and in other cultures, you can substitute the dominant ethnic or religious group in place of whites. I'm speaking mainly about the US, though.)

For that matter, white men and women have no qualms about using the center-left Democratic Party to that end as well, consciously or not, which is why I'm critical of candidates and their supporters who put on white populist airs or extend olive branches to the right.

I'm not perfect but this criticism does not come from a place of ignorance, favoritism, disunity, trolling, or opposition (e.g., "centrist neoliberal shill"). On the contrary, I'm extremely concerned with people's lives and the health of the progressive movement in general.

I'm not the Democratic Party's biggest fan because, let's face it, Democrats can be disappointing, all too often because white and affluent folks have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. But neither am I beholden to Marxism-Leninism and other cliques on the Left.

I'm ultimately agnostic on capitalism vs. socialism, although I lean toward "more socialism is better." I don't think it particularly matters at this juncture compared to addressing climate change and the many lives at stake because of bigotry, fascism, and inequality.

I point this out because my criticism is restricted to bad faith actors across the left-liberal spectrum, who take advantage and manipulate others to enrich and empower themselves at our expense or who support white male supremacy, kneecapping progressivism in the process.

I also criticize ideologies like Marxism-Leninism which are historical failures and trend toward bad ends, as well as the people who blindly or disingenuously support them, many of whom actually are trolls, not because I hate socialism (I don't care) but because they don't work.

I recognize that's somewhat a matter of opinion, and if you want a cookie for being more radical than me, well, treat yourself, I guess. I don't care.

Rest assured, I have strong feelings and an active imagination for what I'd like to do to the fascists in our midst, but I bite my tongue on social media because, honestly, it's self-indulgent and we don't need anymore tough-talking pseudo-revolutionaries.

In any case, Left discourse about the various flavors of socialism and communism is largely irrelevant to the problems at hand, and any talk of an imminent proletariat or workers uprising to bring such about is fantasy. Feel free to prove otherwise. Seriously.

It's worth noting that the vast majority of self-identified leftists / socialists / progressives have rather vague ideas about what it all means, though. Most favor a kind of "vulgar socialism" indistinguishable from well-regulated capitalism with a strong welfare system.

That's not socialism, that's a liberal social democracy and essentially the same thing as what Democrats want. (Or say they want. What Democrats do is a different matter. I said political engagement is important, didn't I?)

"Actual" socialists, communists, anarchists, etc. are comparatively few in number, although they have a vocal Twitter presence. (Hi, guys.) And the arguments they have about political and philosophical minutiae are endless and largely nonproductive, in my opinion.

These arguments have gone on a long time. The point being that there is no "true" leftism, merely people with various degrees of initiation and education who identify with the term and its ideological subsidiaries.

The Left is a muddle, in other words, held together by a few points of basic agreement, and that's what makes it appealing to reactionaries / white populists / white supremacists. They need only adopt the rhetoric and jargon to take advantage of people's righteous anger.

So when I point out, as I did in a previous thread, that bad faith actors take advantage of the Left, that's what I mean, not that leftism or socialism or your particular flavor of ideology is "wrong." Merely that the movement as a whole is extremely vulnerable to exploitation.

(I also called out libertarianism, which is a huge steaming pile of bullshit specifically designed to give cover to reactionaries and white supremacists, but I digress.)

My point is there is no version of the Left, progressivism, or liberalism which is altogether immune to infiltration and exploitation by reactionary white men, and the whole point of an intersectional and international view is to keep an eye out for just that sort of malfeasance.

I'm extremely skeptical of any left-liberal movement led and controlled by straight, white, and/or male people because their privilege easily blinds them to the needs of others, encourages inaction and narcissism, and subtly guides them down the path of white male supremacy.

There are undoubtedly quite a few well-intentioned and knowledgeable leftists, progressives, socialists, and even libertarians who understand this. I count myself as part of the Left if not any particular ideological clique.

So when I call out bad actors, grifters, posers, and useless or counterproductive organizations, I'm not indicting the Left as a whole. I'm not talking about you specifically. (Unless I am. In which case, fuck you.) I might have a problem with your faves, though. Deal with it.

I will say some of you have made class warfare and socialism / leftism too much a part of your personal identity to accept even mild criticism, though, which is a problem. Not everything is a personal attack.

If you want to push Democrats further left during primaries, more power to you. Come the general, though, we need to work together and I WILL call you a selfish asshole for voting third party under this system. You can't talk me out of that one. I'm right. You're wrong.

If you attack "identity politics" after everything I've just said, I'm going to call you an asshole, and probably a racist and a sexist piece of shit as well. White, male, straight, and cis are all identities themselves.

Likewise, I have very little patience for candidates who use dogwhistles and make kissy faces at Trump supporters and social conservatives (i.e., bigots) in the name of populism, "bridging the divide," or "economic anxiety." That gets zero support from me.

I am up front about my skepticism and disdain for people like Greenwald, Taibbi, and Tracey and groups like Justice Democrats, DSA, the Young Turks, Chapo Trap House, and others. If you like them, that's a red flag, but I'm not attacking you specifically. Not yet anyway.

I'm not a fan of Bernie or Our Revolution either, for that matter.

That said, I'm not always right. I don't know everything. I'm open to new ideas. There is room for disagreement. So it's bizarre when people take my disapproval personally, as if it's heresy to question Bernie or Buttigieg or whomever, as if it's the end of progressivism itself.

Get over yourselves.

I think most of us, most Americans even, can get behind a Democratic Party and a progressive movement that works against inequality, provides healthcare, works against hate and injustice, even if we disagree on how exactly, because it's not like all that will happen overnight.

I have no illusions about how difficult this all is. It's an uphill battle. We have to turn out the grifters, fascists, white supremacists, and milquetoast do-nothings in our midst. We have to focus our fire on the right. We have to fight, some of us for our lives.