#especially radical leftists

[shaftking]

Super weird (read: telling) how radfems constantly talk about how aggressive they think men are but also are constantly trying to push men’s buttons in order to make them react. It’s almost like they are acting specifically in a way to confirm their bias about men being prone to violence and anger by intentionally provoking those normal human emotions to an extreme. Almost as if going out of your way to treat people like shit makes those people upset. They are literally using basic crybully techniques (read: methods of emotional abuse) to make people lash out and then frame themselves as the victim and the other person as evil when it happens.

[madamtrashbat]

If I see one more thing that says "hey please don't vote for Trump it would be really bad" and the response on it is "oh so you support genocide? You expect me to vote for an old warmongering fascist? Joe Biden is a fucking murderer and you hate Palestinians how does the boot taste Zionist must be nice to only care about poor widdle white Americans asshole" I'm gonna start throwing ninja stars.

[fvckw4d]

Really depressing to watch so many cool trans people fall for reactionary dumbshit disguised as "trans feminism" or whatever in real time.

[cakemoney]

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

[radelenagreco]

i'm #newtoradblr i've spent so much time these past two weeks scrolling through radfem blogs i knew i had to make an actual radfem side of tumblr blog for my own sanity. the way i "peaked" is kinda funny 3-4 months ago i liked a radfem post without realizing and all of a sudden i had other radfem posts recommended to me by the algorithm and i was so annoyed because i was very anti-terf etc but for a couple days i read through a bunch of radfem blogs and it was actually such a relief to encounter FEMINISM not some watered down version of it but i felt guilty due to 5+ years of conditioning (and also because i had a nonbinary friend sitting right next to me in class as i was doing this) and i also didn't like the prominent use of the word moid? but anyway, 3 months later, i'm not sure why but the mra nature of the trans movement has grown so much more apparent to me i have like three mutuals who are trans men on my other blog and i would find myself rereading the few feminist posts i would reblog/write because these people are literally reblogging shit like "don't think like a terf. men aren't your oppressors, they're your friends/neighbors/brothers/fathers. if you think that any man could harm you you have been fooled by terf rhetoric" like actual morons/meninists. anyway two weeks ago i saw a post made by someone i knew was a radfem on my twitter tl and i don't know why i knew i was ready i went through her blog and through many others and now here i am.

[oldmanlogan]

ok so i know like all these corporations like google meta apple etc dont actually listen thru our phone microphones to know exactly what targeted ad to enrich our beautiful baby Online Experience with.... i know its all like crypto/metadata footprint whatever....... but like. they can. they absolutely have the ability to. or at least, with like, every new gen of iphone or whatever the fuck they get closer and closer to just marketing straight up spyware as a the hottest most expensive elitist bs... like its a shitshow now but i cant help but be paranoid abt how much of our privacy rights are already mere pen strokes away from being entirely decimated

[louisdotmp3]

that pipeline of anti-intellectualism to the worst/most lukewarm political opinions on leftist politics. like actually maybe you guys should know a little bit about what you're talking about and then you won't sound so foolish or have to constantly reinvent theory & discourse that was already covered extensively in the 20th century

[vital-information]

"[M]ost often the figure representing the impersonal logic of protocol is Andy’s deputy, Barney Fife. Played by the immensely talented Don Knotts, Barney is both the comedic relief and bureaucratic foil to Andy’s localism. Running gags are built upon Barney’s trigger-happy nervousness and open love of the Law, with all its binding rules and jargon. He often urges Andy to modernize, to embrace the latest crime-fighting methods and gadgets. Barney’s flaw — and what makes him hilarious — is that he tries too hard to be a serious police officer in a rural town untouched by hard crime. He quotes legal codes to Andy, who either doesn’t know or has forgotten them. Andy doesn’t need to remember the technical name for a minor offense. He understands that townspeople, not codes, are the governing factor, even if that logic sometimes backfires on him.

Watching this show as an older viewer, I came to realize that Andy and Barney symbolize two competing ways of life that struggled against one another in the 20th century and continue to do so today.

...

Though Andy exhibits strength and virtue, he is not hotheaded. Nor is he the brawny hero that busts in at the last minute with guns blazing to vanquish the villain, who almost pulls off the caper. It may take him until the last minute to carry out his plan, but he does not represent the kind of heroic machismo so prevalent in superhero films today. More often than not Andy fights with his mind, inasmuch as he fights at all. He is strong in a silent way, a stoic fortitude without the sturm und drang of Brando or the social Darwinism of late-career John Wayne. Barney, on the other hand, is loud and quick to flashes of emotion. His wiry frame and nervous energy make him a wreck of a deputy, and it’s hilarious to watch him and Andy at odds, however low the stakes. Barney is a ludicrous figure, a clown, blissfully unaware of his arrogance, insecure and egotistical, and desirous of the kind of rules designed to control situations without thought. He exemplifies the neoliberal manager, the one that assumed control in the late 20th century. And though this figure was initially lampooned in American media, it came to be accepted as the only one to rule over a complex world.

¤ When several American television networks dropped most of the country-themed programming in the early 1970s — a move referred to as the “rural purge” — the likelihood that another Andy Taylor or Mayberry might be seen on TV was slimmed. In an attempt to market to suburban and urban audiences, major television networks mostly forgot about aging and rural populations. Suddenly there were fewer shows reflecting their lives. The kneejerk reaction is to consider rural audiences and their shows hillbilly, retrograde, simple-minded, or even racist. But it would also be callous to ignore other audiences altogether just to have around-the-clock Westerns and episodes of Red Skelton. I began to wonder what my parents would have watched without reruns of The Andy Griffith Show. Could it be, like some have said, that people enjoy the series because it presents a whitewashed utopia, a conservative paradise before Soul Train, MTV, and BET? In her article “Remembering Mayberry in White and Black,” memory studies scholar Kathleen McElroy writes about African Americans like herself who identify with The Andy Griffith Show even though only one episode in the entire series features a black actor with a speaking part (“a Chopin-playing football coach in Season 7,” McElroy notes). She cites several black writers who watch the series because it reflects their own experiences living in the rural South and who were not alienated by the paucity of black cast members. But even though some African-American viewers like McElroy conjure these “extra-memories,” as she calls them, to “complement […] Mayberry’s narrative,” what about the white viewers who voted for Donald Trump because they believed him to be a white, wealthy savior who could return the country to the conservative 1950s — in other words, to a time before civil rights? Why should anyone have to fill in the gaps of a television series with extra-memories to enjoy it? A site of both memory and oblivion, The Andy Griffith Show can be pleasing to some and uncomfortable to others. It’s a show that some might enjoy because it presents a white utopia and one that others can identify with because of its themes of doing good, serving communities, and reducing one’s ego. And viewers like McElroy and the writers she cites in her essay manage this tension by conjuring extra-memories to account for the erasure. It is possible that some people see in Donald Trump’s nativist message a return to Mayberry. But those who may suppose that miss the entire point of the series and equally misunderstand the philosophy of the character Andy Taylor. Writing for The Awl, Shani O. Hilton mentions that Griffith was often called “white trash” as a kid. When he created his series, Griffith didn’t “take a crack at edgier storylines involving race or gender,” which other series of the time did and usually failed offensively. Instead, he crafted a show about life in a small, working-class town where a given day’s itinerary might include little more than napping and watching the evening’s program on television. Mayberry is obviously utopian and overwhelmingly white, but Sheriff Andy Taylor not only believes society can always be made better but also understands no social project grand or local could usher in some kind of everlasting peace. The best you could do in Mayberry is good enough, and doing good is a daily job."

Grafton Tanner, "Make America Mayberry Again" for the Los Angeles Review of Books

[thisblogisfulloftrash]

I know MAtt is jewish but can we please stop with using these out-of-touch comparisons between radical feminists & gender critical same-sex attracted people and Nazi Germany?

Radical Feminism and fascism are on the other side of a spectrum and it's vile acting as if lgb people are naively pandering to fascists.

more in the tags

[handkinkbis]

There's no way forward for leftism or feminism if we let relatively small indiscretions or disagreements divide us into smaller and weaker factions. If we stop cooperating with one another, then we might as well give up, because we'll never convince the masses to stop attacking women or LGBTQ+ people when we spend more time bad mouthing and attacking one another than attacking the far right conservatives who are trying to bully us into hiding. Antifeminists and white supremacists will have their work cut out for them, because we'll be purity testing one another to death.

I'd consider myself a radfem, but being against trans rights is both a waste of time and is a net negative for society. People can disagree on the definition of gender without denying trans people's right to existence, safety and respect.

Black or female separatism will probably not address racism and misogyny, but it'll inspire distrust towards potential allies. I'm all pro 4B and decentering men and whiteness, but conservative white men and women are cooperating together to sabotage women and black people's advancement. When will progressives of all genders and races unite under the same resistance movement?

Right now it looks like there will never be allies who are pure and scrupulous enough. Cooperation doesn't have to mean abandoning one's values.

[orcboxer]

one of those things you really gotta learn is that it's insanely easy to get people to get mad at anything if you just phrase it the right way. slap the word "woke" on anything you want conservatives to hate. call something "extremism" or "radical" to get a centrist to fear it. say that a particular take "comes from a position of privilege" to get leftists to denounce it (that's right, even us leftists are susceptible to propaganda that uses leftist language). all these are simplistic examples of course, but it's all to say that certain terms, slogans, and phrases just kind of turn off people's critical thinking, especially ones with negative connotation. there are so many words that are just shorthand for "bad." once a term reaches buzzword status, it becomes practically useless.

it goes for general attitudes too. "this piece of news is a sign that the world is getting worse" is a shockingly easy idea to sell, even when the "piece of news" in question is completely fabricated. I'll often see leftists uncritically sharing right wing propaganda that rides on the back of the "humans bad, nature good" cliche, or the "US education system bad" cliche, or even the current "AI bad" cliche. most of the details of a given post will go entirely unquestioned as long as they support whatever attitude is most popular right now. and none of us is immune to this.

(the funny thing is that I'm kind of playing with fire here even making this post. folks are so used to just reacting to shit that I have no way of predicting which buzzword I included here will trigger a negative association in someone's mind and convince them I'm taking some random antagonistic stance on a topic that they've been really fired up about lately.)

[186-3]

courting antisemitism

so i recently decided to take a look at the latest stonetoss comics (probably because i love suffering). and while i was expecting some content on the israel palestine conflict, what i did not expect was how... standard it seemed. well, most of it at least, but i'll get to that in a second.

for context, if you don't know what stonetoss is, it's a (poorly drawn) webcomic known for having radical alt-right views - meaning it's incredibly racist, homophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, antisemitic. all that fun stuff.

so while i was expecting to see bad stuff, one of the first things i saw on the topic of israel was this:

terrible art aside, this comic is making a point that i usually see in left wing circles: that israel is pinkwashing genocide.

curious if there was more like this, i kept looking, and the comic right before that one was this:

again, this makes points that i usually see in left wing circles. that american healthcare is crazy expensive, that canada tells poor people to commit suicide, and that israel is bombing hospitals.

why does stonetoss, this well known alt-right nutjob, now seem to be bringing up left-wing talking points?

curious, i kept going deeper:

well this is... odd. clearly, stonetoss is trying to say that israel is on another level of bad, even worse than russia, iran, and north korea. i can possibly see someone on the left making the argument that the russian invasion of ukraine isn't as bad as what israel is doing in gaza, or that at least north korea isn't invading any other countries, but... iran??? the country that has a police force designed to enforce religious law, and gets away with murdering women who do not properly cover their hair? the country that props up paramilitary groups in countries all over the middle east, including lebanon, yemen, and yes, palestine?? that's completely ridiculous

but, given how much more israel is in the news nowadays than any of these other countries, i could see why someone would buy this

and now, we're starting to get to the crux of what stonetoss is trying to do. when someone sees this, they might be inclined to agree with it. they might begin to think that israel is the worst country on the planet

and that might not seem so bad at first. but the more you hate israel, especially irrationally, the more you feel allowed to dehumanize those who support it. the more you might be willing to agree with this comic, which came out two days prior to the one above

this comic says that jews, as a whole have no desire to exist with other people. it is blatantly antisemitic

i'm sure you could imagine some young leftist who sees the comics above this one and thinks, "this guy makes some good points". and then, when they get to this one, they might realize that this is antisemitism

or, they may not.

and that would start them down the road to becoming an antisemite.

this is what stonetoss and other alt-right nutjobs are hoping to achieve. to take left wing fury at israel, and direct it at jews.

we saw it with those neo-nazis at the palestine rally, and we're seeing it again here.

and if you've found yourself agreeing with what stonetoss has said so far, i would like you to see the last comic stonetoss put out before october 7th:

this horrifically racist comic is in reference to an environmental activist who was murdered by a black man in early october. this blatantly racist garbage is the kind of stuff stonetoss usually puts out.

but as soon as october 7th happened? these were his next two comics:

stonetoss completely changed the comic's tone as soon as the current crisis started. why?

to get as many people as possible to get on board with hating jews.

and i know many of you might be thinking that "well, everyone knows that stonetoss is racist garbage. nobody is going to fall for this"

except, as we saw with the neo-nazis at the rally for palestine, it's not always that obvious who the antisemites are and who is just rallying for peace. they are often a lot better at disguising it than stonetoss is.

AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE AWARE OF THAT

EVERYONE, no matter HOW much experience you have, can fall victim to propoganda. EVERYONE needs to be aware of what people around them are saying, and able to pick out hateful rhetoric, because even the stuff that is just kind of toeing the line of what's hateful is still putting your foot in the door

be cautious, everyone. and stomp out hate where you see it.

[nachobsns]

i hope my input is allowed as someone who did buy into this until very recently (i fortunately woke up and am trying to be more Normal About Jews, thank god) but that’s exactly what it is. you really don’t think through it critically, it’s just what everyone you look up to is saying, so now it’s what you say, too, because these are Good People and Adults, so they must know what they’re talking about (of course, they are also receiving manipulated and inaccurate information, but you don’t think about this- you take their credibility for granted). any opposing evidence is secondary and can either be discarded as “zionist propaganda” or molded to fit the narrative you’re selling. because the thing is, you’ve already made up your mind, and you are constantly reinforced by everyone around you, so it doesn’t *matter* what anyone else says to refute you. they’re just genocidal liars, anyway, and you don’t know them like you know the people selling the narrative to *you,* so why should you trust them?? of course there’s a great amount of ingrained cultural antisemitism involved in this whole movement, but i think it’s also a symptom of the wider trend towards moral puritanism that’s taken the online left by storm in the past few years. people preach nuance, but they crave an easy black-and-white situation where they can prove their Inherent Goodness by Sticking It To The Man, and this conflict is the perfect blank slate for white liberal westerners, many of whom couldn’t even point out gaza on a map last year, to project their savior fantasies onto and absolve themselves of generational american guilt. paradoxically, i also wonder how many of these people don’t *truly* believe everything they scream about— there’s a mutual unspoken understanding in these spaces that Nuance Is Not Allowed, and anyone who tries to acknowledge a shred of complexity around the topic is shunned and verbally keel-hauled (i mean, i know i’m preaching to the choir here, but the level of vitriol directed at jews for simply existing online is something that i and most of the goyishe propal “activists” have never experienced, so many of them see cowardice as “safer” than the consequences for speaking out). i know when i was with them, i was never fully on-board with endorsing hamas, but i would still reblog “glory to the resistance” and “oppressed people have the right to violence” bullshit, simply because it was easier than explaining why i wasn’t. in short, basically everything weemie said— it’s cult mentality, full stop, and any attempts at critical thinking are met with outrage and accusations of “impurity”.

I am making this in good faith and I genuinely want an answer, ideally from someone who believe this.

With the current information we have, why do people insist Israel is committing a genocide?

South Africa is trying to extend the deadline to find evidence of genocide to present in their court case against Israel. Israel also makes efforts to minimize civilian casualties like warning before they attack and try to get as many people to evacuate as they can before they move to an area.

Under international law, hamas occupying hospitals and schools means that they are no longer protected areas and in those places, any civilian casualties caused by reasonable force are attributed to hamas and therefore don't count towards evidence of genocide.

Death toll doesn't automatically equal genocide as there has to be intent for it to count as one.

We can all agree that Israel has committed war crimes and even if they didn't, what is happening is utterly terrible.

So why insist on it being a genocide instead of a terrible war? Why can't it be a massive tragedy without it being called a genocide?

And I know I'll get certain comments from other jews so I'll make it explicitly clear, I'm not talking about antisemites who call it a genocide because they want a socially acceptable excuse to hate jews, I'm talking about people who are not antisemitic and call it a genocide

[womendeservehumanity]

There has been so much push, especially in supposed leftist spaces, to liken radical feminism/feminists to incels/inceldom. And it actually makes me want to bash my head into a wall. I don’t know if you guys are aware but there was a mass shooting at a high school yesterday. And the perpetrator was a girl. And conservatives were instantly trying to leech onto her being apart of whatever group. Trans, lesbian, communist etc. she is a biological heterosexual female. A biological heterosexual female that was entrenched in alt right fascism who formed an entire identity around it. And her digital footprint shows that. Yet there’s “leftists” that are parading around a fake excerpt from her manifesto (shared by an anti feminist incel mind you) claiming she was a radfem man hater who wanted to exterminate men and have women rule the world. And also wanted to exterminate women who worshipped men. Meanwhile this is her

Because nothing says man hating radfem like reposting memes about an incel who targeted women in a mass shooting. And stanning male mass shooters. Everything about this girl indicates the real life consequences of these alt right cesspools that are being formed all across the internet infecting children with these ideologies. She literally posted a picture of herself holding a white power symbol in the bathroom right before committing the shooting. There’s so much conversation to be had about white supremacy and fascism. And how it’s dominating online spaces and indoctrinating young people who are living their lives in these echo chambers and becoming violent, apathetic individuals. But do leftists wanna talk about this?? Noooo they’d rather disparage radical feminism and grasp at straws to make this some male equivalent to incel related shootings.

I’m linking a report that was done on incel forums to really show you how ridiculous it is when these people try so desperately to associate radical feminism with inceldom. Or try to claim that redfems are “femcels” because what’s anti feminist rhetoric if not insinuating feminists are so angry at men because they need some dick 🤩

This was a very informative look into the incel community and their activities online. The things they say, promote, and enable. And yet so many people have the gall to in any way shape or form liken radfems or women who hate men to them. It actually makes me want to pull my hair out

Like you really think this, and the community that it’s amassed, is in any way comparable to women hating men as a response to men hating and oppressing women including from these very same men… That actually it’s because these women are ugly and can’t get a men and now they’re vindictive toward men (anti feminism rhetoric as old as time). Or even that it’s not really that they’re not like incels in the sense that they can’t get relationships/sex, but exhibit behavior anywhere near this depravity. Very unserious.

[etz-ashashiyot]

I know I'm gonna regret posting this, but I just can't not say something: I'm so sick of people who are actively contributing to the ongoing oppression of and violence against Palestinians calling themselves "pro-Palestinian."

In the same way that so many people in the anti-abortion movement are actually pro forced birth rather than pro-child, there are a lot of you who aren't pro-Palestinian, you're just violently antisemitic or in it for yourselves.

If you aren't:

Also angry with the other countries that abuse their Palestinian populations, refuse them citizenship, keep them in displaced person camps under horrific conditions, and/or close their borders entirely to them;

In support of genuine grassroots movements that aim to create some kind of stability, peace, and safety through diplomatic relationships and community building, because that's ""normalization"";

Willing to condemn antisemitism in the diaspora, which helps fuels right-wing rhetoric in Israel;

Willing to shut down lies, propaganda, and disinformation even if it "supports" Palestinians in theory, because lying repeatedly associates the Palestinian movement with lying and makes it harder for survivors to tell their actual stories and be believed outside of the far left movements (and also the truth is bad enough - there's no need to lie);

Willing to focus on practical problem solving over political posturing, especially when it will save Palestinian lives;

Willing to condemn Hamas, which started this most recent disaster, steals aid meant for civilians, uses civilians as human shields, and has been torturing dissenters for years;

Willing to work with Israeli leftists who hate their current government and want peace and full equality for Arab Israelis and their Palestinian neighbors, and also have the best shot at making that change happen; and/or,

Willing to learn about Palestinians as living human beings and value their lives over using them as a political cudgel, whatever that looks like on the ground;

.............then maybe you're more interested in looking radical and jerking off to some fantastical version of The Revolution, and/or hurting Jews than you are in promoting peace, safety, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians.

Like seriously with "friends" like these, do they even need enemies??

Anyway you should call out the Israeli government for its very real abuses of Palestinians and nothing in this post should be construed otherwise. But if you genuinely care and aren't just in it for internet cool points or leftist cred or feeding your Jew-hate boner or whatever, you gotta prioritize solutions that have a realistic shot at short-term relief and long-term possibility over whatever fits some idealistic goal that will only ever end with more dead Palestinians.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Working class Dems who campaign on economics beat Trumpists in elections

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me FRIDAY NIGHT (Mar 22) in TORONTO, then SUNDAY (Mar 24) with LAURA POITRAS in NYC, then Anaheim, and more!

The Democratic Party Pizzaburger Theory of Electioneering is: half the electorate wants a pizza, the other half wants a burger, so we'll give them all a pizzaburger and make them all equally dissatisfied, thus winning the election:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/06/16/that-boy-aint-right/#dinos-rinos-and-dunnos

But no one wants a pizzaburger. The Biden administration's approach of letting the Warren/Sanders wing pick the antitrust enforcers while keeping judicial appointments in the Manchin-Synematic universe is a catastrophe in which progressive Dem regulators (who serve one term) are thwarted by corporatist Dem judges (who serve for life):

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/making-good-trouble/#the-peoples-champion

The Democrats – like all parties in two-party systems – are a coalition; in this case, a "progressive" liberal-left coalition with liberals serving as senior partners, steering the party and setting its policies. These corporate dems like to color themselves as "neutral" technocrats with "realistic, apolitical" policies that represent what's best for the country:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This sets up the left wing of the party as the starry-eyed, unrealistic radicals whose policies are unpopular and will lose elections. But for a decade, grassroots-funded primary challenges have made it possible to test this theory, by putting leftist politicians on the ballot in front of voters, especially in tight races with far-right Republicans (that is, exactly the kinds of races that the corporate wing of the party says we can't afford to take chances on).

The 2022 midterms included enough races to start testing these theories – and, unlike traditional midterms, these races enjoyed high voter turnout, thanks to the unpopularity of GOP positions like abortion bans, book bans and anti-trans laws. Jacobin teamed up with the Center for Working-Class Politics, Yougov and the Center for Work and Democracy at ASU and analyzed those races:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/11134429/CWCP-Report-2024.pdf

Their conclusion: candidates from working-class backgrounds who campaigned on economic policies like high-quality jobs, higher minimum wages, a jobs guarantee, ending offshoring and outsourcing, building infrastructure and bringing manufacturing back to the US won with a 50% share of the vote in rural and working-class districts. Dems who didn't lost with a 35% share of the vote:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-03-18-how-actually-existing-democrats-run-for-office/

In other words, in the kinds of districts where Trumpist politicians are beating Democrats, running on "left populist" policies beats Trumpist politicians.

That's the good news: if Dems recruit leftist, working class politicians and put them up for office on policies that address the material reality of voters' lives, they can beat fascist GOP candidates.

Now for the bad news: the Democratic establishment has no interest in getting these candidates onto the ballot. Working-class candidates, by definition, lack the networks of deep-pocketed cronies who can fund their primary campaigns. Only 2.3% of Dem candidates come from blue-collar backgrounds (if you include "pink-collar" professions like nursing and teaching, the number goes up to 5.9%):

https://jacobin.com/2024/03/left-populists-working-class-voters

All of this confirms the findings of Trump's Kryoptonite, an earlier Jacobin/CWCP research project that polled working-class voters on preferences for hypothetical candidates, finding that working-class candidates with economically progressive policies handily beat out Republicans, including MAGA Republicans:

https://images.jacobinmag.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/08125102/TrumpsKryptonite_Final_June2023.pdf

Since the Clinton-Blair years, "progressives" have abandoned economic populism ("It's not a burning ambition for me to make sure that David Beckham earns less money" -T. Blair) and pursued a "third way" that seeks to replace half the world's of supply white, male oligarchs with diverse oligarchs from a variety of backgrounds and genders. We were told that this was done in the name of winning elections with "modern" policies that replaced old-fashioned ideas about decent pay, decent jobs, and worker power.

These policies have delivered a genocide-riven world on the brink of several kinds of existential catastrophe. They're a failure. The pizzaburger party didn't deliver safety, nor prosperity – and it also can't deliver elections.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/20/actual-material-conditions/#bread-and-butter