THREAD. I'm continually surprised at how many people I meet in elite spaces like journalism and academia who have formed very confident views about the world without 1) studying left texts or 2) participating in any kind of real struggle against power.
For example, it's rare to meet a journalist or scholar who has actually engaged with radical texts but who isn't a leftist, and even more rare, e.g., to meet a journalist or scholar who has engaged in any kind of struggle against power and who supports more money for cops.
I could be wrong about it, but many well-meaning people seem to be basically unaware of the transformative power of exposing yourself to radical ideas and working in struggle with people being targeted by power. They don't get how such experiences might undermine their certainty.
This lack of humility distinguishes (often well meaning) progressives from most people working in social movements. The latter engage with liberal ideas/institutions b/c they're all around us. But their understanding of power and strategy is deeper b/c they have done *more.*
It's rare to meet a liberal/progressive elite person who criticizes the left but who even realizes this information asymmetry: they mostly haven't even bothered to engage with the theoretical ideas that they criticize.
Ironically, it's often progressive/liberal elites who (I think b/c of a concept similar to David Graeber's idea of "moral envy") accuse "activists" of lacking "humility." This is backward: it takes humility to expose yourself to ideas that explode your worldview.
And it takes even greater humility and courage to actually put something on the line to stand with the most vulnerable people who are trying to build power to fight against the institutions targeting them with state violence.
So, to be concrete with one example, when a well-meaning elite progressive person criticizes "defunding police" or reducing police budgets or any other demand of a radical social movement, ask them a few questions:
-What radical texts have you engaged with on theory and history of police/prisons?
-Which texts by people targeted by state violence?
-What struggle for liberation have you engaged with, what forms of mutual aid do you practice?
-What have you meaningfully put on the line?
-Which texts by people targeted by state violence?
-What struggle for liberation have you engaged with, what forms of mutual aid do you practice?
-What have you meaningfully put on the line?
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