#internecine squabbles and microcosmic delineations between people who fundamentally agree have only grown less important to me over time
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taliabhattwrites · 12 days ago
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is the left too tainted by misogyny and trans misogyny to be worth saving. Like I’ve been having thoughts about the general value and worth of any leftist ideology and reading your posts on the left makes me think it’s too unsalvagable and tainted. That’s it’s all a useless lie and we’re better off without it. But maybe I’m becoming too much of a misanthrope.
You are probably becoming a bit too down on it, I agree.
I don't dispute that I engage in a lot of "ruthless critique"; I fundamentally do not believe that a true working-class solidarity is possible without addressing the contradictions engendered by patriarchy within it. You cannot call me comrade and also see me as naturally your lesser, destined by sex to be fit only for reproductive-sexual labor within the domestic sphere. This is something that many leftist movements have failed to reckon with, and will likely continue to--to say nothing of the myriad other contradictions around race, ability, and more that those with leftist politics may be cognizant of, but fail to actually prioritize when it comes to solidarity work and movement-building.
In fact, it's only too easy for leftist organizations to become enamored with a nostalgic masculinism, idolizing and invoking the images of Strong Men coming together as Equals to forge a new Nation.
I don't believe that we will truly succeed in what it means to build a revolutionary counterhegemony until we dissociate ourselves from the very founding myths of our society and work to build something new, something where the exploited and devalued and abjectly dehumanized are truly our models, our heroes, and the basis for our vision of the future. We will need to roll up our sleeves and do the dirty work--of educating, of propagandizing, of protesting and fighting, yes, but also of healing, protecting, of cleaning up the messes of generations past, bit by grubby bit.
I'm sorry if my combativeness and rage has communicated to you that I am anything but hopeful for our future, because I am. I am hopeful even when I am worn down, exhausted, beaten and bent and broken by the burdens this world places on us all, because I don't just believe this future to be necessary, I believe it to be both possible and within reach.
The chorus of the ignorant will always be louder, but those of us willing to do the necessary work grow in number every day. We reach out to each other, reassure each other, lift each other up, and one day soon will be too many to simply ignore.
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