Thread by @ErikLoomis

Certain leftists saying the Supreme Court was not a reason to vote for Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump should make them persona non grata for any politics for the rest of their lives.

Just on sheer stupidity.

Why would you listen to someone who doesn't even understand or care about how the American government works when trying to transform the American government?

The most important thing in politics--the single most important--is to understand what it is that you are doing.

Stupidity is the worst possible thing to bring to the table, except for intentional dishonesty. And with some of those people, it was a combo of the two.

This is also not a "punching left" thing. I don't care who you are or what your positions are--knowing what it is you are talking about is the single most important thing.

Lots of leftists know exactly how the government work and move to change that according to that knowledge. But for too many prominent people, the satisfaction of watching liberals lose is the actual politics, not achieving goals that make people's lives better.

And now, here we are, with the most extremist Supreme Court since the early 30s, legal abortion mostly gone, worker rights disappearing by the year, and much, much, much more to come.

Of course, there are lots of idiot mainstream Democrats too--Manchin, Leahy, Feinstein, Sinema--who don't want to understand what is happening. Tons of criticism to go around here.

Naturally, the biggest criticism goes to the Republican Party, for whom Mussolini is a bit too far to the left these days. But we have to respond to our enemies, not to empower them. And that's what we do way too often--empower fascists because of infighting.

Another key takeaway--politics are around to make you feel good. Your RBG tattoos or your not voting for Hillary, wherever your stand, too much of wanting personal validation through politics than hard-nosed realism about what matters. Including from Ginsburg herself.

I blame superhero culture to some extent here. But it's part of a broader combination of the extreme individualism of neoliberal capitalism combined with cultural desires to have a strong leader who will save us and we can idolize.

And we all live in the reality of neoliberal capitalism, including people for whom neoliberalism is a pejorative. When your politics are like your tattoos, defining you and demanding that your personal boxes get checked off, solidarity goes out the window.

Sadly, today Solidarity means "Do what I want you to do to support my cause" rather than "I will be there for you even if it is not my cause and will engage in mutual sacrifice to build for the future."