I disagree with ya, but love your wit. Lately I've been wondering about the utility of "right vs left"...
Have you heard of Peter Coffin's recent documentary, "Horseshoe Theory is Right, But Not How You Think"? I half-watched it. Need to come back to it. I think he makes the case that both right and left ideology support the ruling class. Both in the past and present. Here's a link if you have time/interest:
Interesting video. I had never heard of Peter Coffin. He's definitely influenced by Marx, and he's complaining that the "left" in America has been coopted into the capitalist framework, and ignores class contradiction in favor of self-satisfying but politically pointless ideological "fights"--i.e.. culture war and identitarian one-upmanship. I don't disagree with any of that. I'd just say that means the Americna "left" is not, and has developed into a force against, the historical socialist class-based left, and I want to preserve that notion of what it means to be "left." One could say it's a semantic issue, to preserve and defend a particular meaning of a word. But it's also a historical isseue--to understand connection and continuity with history and political movements, and the basis of socialist leftism, which is the marxist theory of the capitalist economy and the bougeois state.
I reject the idea that American Democratic-Party aligned politics has anything to do with the left, except as being iits most effective enemy. (See the section starting "This goes to the central point " in my "Default Democrat" essay https://thepolemicist.substack.com/p/cornel-west-on-jimmy-dore-and-briahna).
I'll check it out! I am curious why you feel it is important to preserve that "left identity" or whatever we call it.
My concern is, to put it simply- we need a lot of people to start a revolution. And when I hear MAGA Republicans, I agree with the majority of what they say! It's so weird how all this stuff has been thrown up, thrown around, and rearranged. But if you listen to MAGA, to me they sound like old school leftists.
I just feel like the left won't advance a new way of government because so many of them naively trust that there's still people in government who are working for them. And the ones who've taken up the cause of identity politics are nuts. I'm sorry, but seeing all these trans people wailing about how "MAGA doesn’t see me as a person", I mean, I hate to disparage someone who's obviously in a mental health crisis, but Lord have mercy, these people are delusional.
MAGA people see a trans person as a trans person, just like everyone did a decade ago. It's corporate media that pumps out this narrative that MAGA is culturally intolerant.
I feel that the majority of the left sees disadvantage only in skin color or gender orientation. And don't you say that's not true! You know how every sentence about poverty or declining living standards must be ended with, "and it's worse for minorities!" That clause is wholly unnecessary, divisive, and quite frankly pisses me off. :)
I know this must drive you nuts as an old school leftist.
I disagree with ya, but love your wit. Lately I've been wondering about the utility of "right vs left"...
Have you heard of Peter Coffin's recent documentary, "Horseshoe Theory is Right, But Not How You Think"? I half-watched it. Need to come back to it. I think he makes the case that both right and left ideology support the ruling class. Both in the past and present. Here's a link if you have time/interest:
https://youtu.be/dWy8EEqXbBg?si=ZFnVni1rnGnx2_XA
Interesting video. I had never heard of Peter Coffin. He's definitely influenced by Marx, and he's complaining that the "left" in America has been coopted into the capitalist framework, and ignores class contradiction in favor of self-satisfying but politically pointless ideological "fights"--i.e.. culture war and identitarian one-upmanship. I don't disagree with any of that. I'd just say that means the Americna "left" is not, and has developed into a force against, the historical socialist class-based left, and I want to preserve that notion of what it means to be "left." One could say it's a semantic issue, to preserve and defend a particular meaning of a word. But it's also a historical isseue--to understand connection and continuity with history and political movements, and the basis of socialist leftism, which is the marxist theory of the capitalist economy and the bougeois state.
I reject the idea that American Democratic-Party aligned politics has anything to do with the left, except as being iits most effective enemy. (See the section starting "This goes to the central point " in my "Default Democrat" essay https://thepolemicist.substack.com/p/cornel-west-on-jimmy-dore-and-briahna).
I'll check it out! I am curious why you feel it is important to preserve that "left identity" or whatever we call it.
My concern is, to put it simply- we need a lot of people to start a revolution. And when I hear MAGA Republicans, I agree with the majority of what they say! It's so weird how all this stuff has been thrown up, thrown around, and rearranged. But if you listen to MAGA, to me they sound like old school leftists.
I just feel like the left won't advance a new way of government because so many of them naively trust that there's still people in government who are working for them. And the ones who've taken up the cause of identity politics are nuts. I'm sorry, but seeing all these trans people wailing about how "MAGA doesn’t see me as a person", I mean, I hate to disparage someone who's obviously in a mental health crisis, but Lord have mercy, these people are delusional.
MAGA people see a trans person as a trans person, just like everyone did a decade ago. It's corporate media that pumps out this narrative that MAGA is culturally intolerant.
I feel that the majority of the left sees disadvantage only in skin color or gender orientation. And don't you say that's not true! You know how every sentence about poverty or declining living standards must be ended with, "and it's worse for minorities!" That clause is wholly unnecessary, divisive, and quite frankly pisses me off. :)
I know this must drive you nuts as an old school leftist.