Thread by @BriannaWu

1/ This will upset some, but it needs to be said.

People keep asking when the right will wake up and denounce their worst reactionaries.

It’s not same scale, but progressives have a similar challenge. When will we stop letting our most reactive, anonymous people define us?

2/ I am a progressive. I’m so much of a progressive, I ran for congress on universal health care, working class economics, addressing structural racism, and completely legalized marijuana and sex work.

The difference isn’t in our ideals, it’s in our behavior.

3/ I literally do not know a single person doing actual work on the left that it's at their wits end about the crazies.

I literally do not know a single person doing actual work on the left that doesn't have some degree of trauma from abuse by our own side.

This is not tenable.

4/ Here’s the truth. Your behavior has destroyed the mainstream perception of progressives. We’re not seen as champions of the working class.

We’re seen as a bunch of self-righteous assholes. You are in the business of division, not subtraction, and over the most petty nonsense

5/ Every single person on the left I know with actual power I know is tired of your bullshit. I’m inviting you to grow up.

There is not going to be a moment where you scream and people on the right and center have an epiphany and realize you are right and they are wrong.

6/ If you are serious about change, you have to work for it. The same way every other successful progressive movement in history has worked for it.

You say you want a glorious revolution, but it's the normie Democrats showing up to canvas and phonebank. It's why they win.

7/ Another thing. We need to learn to let things go. Every difference in perspective is not a crisis. We amplify every minor disagreement like it’s a moral failing.

Politics is about addition, not subtraction. We have to work with people who see the world differently.

8/ My hand are not clean on this. I've certainly done my share of reactionary, non-constructive bullshit on Twitter.

But, I also think that gives me credibility to publicly say, "This is not working. We have to do something different."

9/ And here’s why I’m speaking up now.

I think you are vulnerable.

I think people are tired of the drama, the bullshit, the moral indignation over small differences. This is the moment we can have a culture shift if people speak up.

10/
The left has always had to work twice as hard as the right. We have to be twice as strategic, and we’re punished twice as hard for mistakes.

This Twitter activism bullshit is cancer. And I am done being bullied into silence over it.