rant for the day:
it is becoming apparent to me that liberals actually enjoy talking about or even defending to far right much more than they do the far left, presumably, because it heightens rathe than threatening their sense of moral superiority 1/
it is becoming apparent to me that liberals actually enjoy talking about or even defending to far right much more than they do the far left, presumably, because it heightens rathe than threatening their sense of moral superiority 1/
I keenly remember meeting an old acquaintance of my wife, an (Israeli?) leftie at an art fair in '17 & he immediately asked all about the current state of Brexit. I said I was bored of Brexit, it was a sideshow anyway, & started listing proposals in the Labour manifesto ... 2/
... that he presumably didn't know about (new forms of ownership, etc). He arrogantly shut me up, telling me I was obviously too close to the scene to understand what was really important (i.e., what he was presumably reading in the news like everyone else) 3/
though supposedly left-wing, he had zero interest in the fact a major party was trying to develop real left-wing policies that might even get enacted, he wanted to only talk about the initiatives of the right & resistance to them. This was so obviously part of the problem 4/
I can't help but see a connection here with the fact that despite the fact there's an explicitly feminist revolution in N Syria, most Western feminists seemed far more concerned with the rights & fates of ISIS wives, than leftist Syrian feminists literally fighting patriarchy 5/
many who have strong opinions about Shamima Begum seem to be genuinely unaware of the Kurdish or other Syrian feminists' existence. And not just because it affects them: UK-born feminists, Kurdish or English who joined the SDF face arrest on return to barely a peep of protest 6/
why is it Western leftists & peace activists seem to be so much more likely to know who Hamas is, a far-right organisation, & speak of the wrongs committed against them, than the PYD, a libertarian socialist organisation inspired by the ideas of Murray Bookchin? 7/
in any one case there are numerous factors but it's hard not to see a pattern: it's easy for a liberal to support a right-wing person who's been wronged, because it allows them to feel morally superior to both sides - & moral superiority is ultimately what they're all about 8/
to have to think about, or act in solidarity w/, someone who shares your own avowed commitment to human liberation, but inevitably has somewhat different ideas about how to go about it, is less safe, e.g., you have to listen to & seriously engage with what they have to say 9/
even having to hear about Momentum & their vision rather than Brexit in 2018 fits this pattern; solidarity, even critical solidarity, requires 1000x more work than obsessing on the machinations of the right from a haughty or even concerned distance 10/
(on reflection, speaking out against injustice to far right people allows a *triple* sense of moral superiority, doesn't it? 1. to the oppressor. 2. to the victim, 3. to anyone you can accuse of being unsympathetic because the victims are far right. So for a liberal it's perfect
