Most leftists proudly identify as anti-capitalists. They fervently believe that they stand against the very core of the capitalist system, many claiming this is what distinguishes them from liberals. Yet, despite their passionate rhetoric and earnest intentions, the left’s ideology has always been deeply rooted in bourgeois interests. This contradiction directs them away from the primary issue within capitalism, ensuring that they will never truly address it.
Preach it, brother Peter! (Side note- I'm not actually religious at all, I just really love "Amens" and "Hallelujahs" for impact, and I live in the south so...)
Comment re <<Yet, when discussions arise about monopoly and finance capital, they [the left] are quick to label such talk as anti-Semitic, even when no reference to Jewish people has been made (when talking about class, ethnicity is irrelevant). >>
I used to spend time with liberals and Democrat voters. When discussions arose about monopoly and finance capital, these liberals seized on the ruling left's excuses and blame-shifting.
When Pelosi would not allow a vote on dark money in Congress, one leftist I knew said something like, "that's not true, it was administrative, she couldn't bring it up for a vote." Poor woman, her hands were tied! She wanted to!
When Congress voted to smash the rail workers' demands for a better contract that included some notion of emergency time off (these railroad employees are "on call" all the time - many don't have a single scheduled day off)- dishonestly described by the media as paid sick days- I heard commentary after commentary that the Republicans were the bad guys. "Oh, those darn Republicans go crushing workers again." Yet when I pointed out that my DEMOCRAT SENATOR WARNOCK DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO SHOW UP TO VOTE for the railworkers, a leftist told me this was because Warnock "probably knew it was gonna fail anyways so why bother."
When I told a rich AF Democrat (before my awakening) that the main problem in the US was that money owns government, he never spoke with me again. Lol
Point is, the leftists I knew generally did not use the anti-semitism dog whistle. Maybe some of them do now, but I would be suprised.
The fatal flaw that I see in leftists today is a kind of brainwashed mentality- an absolute trust in authority, a blind confidence that someone with credentials "looked this shit up" and THEIR news and THEIR authorities tell the truth.
The leftists that drove me insane were COMPLETELY BLIND to betrayals by Democrat politicians. They literally told themselves that their side was always fighting the good fight and Republicans always blocked them. Always. Leftists would NEVER examine the fine print. And when I, frustrated and confused, naively tried to throw the facts in their face (politely 😁), they either gave me idiotic excuses or shifted to attacking me personally.
Whatever the hell allows leftists to suspend disbelief, thank you, thank you, thank you for writing about this and putting your stance right on the table. You said it straight, sans bullshit. I'm with you, and I feel it in my bones:
FUCK THE LEFT.
I don't harbor ill will towards individuals. I try not to get bothered by those people who blindly follow a leader. But I harbor a shit ton of ill will towards people actively lying themselves into high (and unstable) self esteem. There is no reason why any of the leftists I referred to above couldn't check their egos for 5 minutes and sit down and read the evidence. It's that they refused to!
And THAT is how I saw Democrats get away with sabotaging the working class. We who seek to awaken workers to their power need to engage in a delicate balancing act of refusing to participate in hate culture while simultaneously calling out the movements and people that sabotage the economic welfare of the people.
I don't blame (most of 😉) my former leftist friends for refusing to talk to me anymore. BUT! When I'm making phone calls for La Revolución, those leftists will be the last ones I call.
Great analysis. Really explains the left’s ineptitude and weakness. Also explains Bernie’s relative success because of his ability to tap into those material realities.
I find this analysis wanting. You claim, "The left's focus on identity politics, virtue signaling, and fragmentation diverts attention from the fundamental economic contradictions at capitalism’s heart, perpetuating the structures it seeks to dismantle." This reads like a centrist understanding of the left, informed only by online articles about "woke mobs on college campuses."
I must also point out that you don't provide examples of this identity-politics focus, nor do you define "the left." I'm sure you can find sporadic examples of identity-obsessed college kids, but again, I find this not to be representative of the actual political left.
I very frequently see proto-fascist rhetoric on substack that uses the aesthetic of class struggle for a national populist agenda, and if you think identifying latent antisemitism in critiques of finance capital is just silly leftism, well, I think that’s a dangerous gamble. How do you approach the question of who to build unity with? Certainly, as Jodi Dean puts it, anyone but not everyone can be a comrade.
Hey, I'd like to understand your views on the James Somerton situation a little better; how come I've seen you criticize Hbomb, Dan Olson, and Jessie Gender for their harassment of James, but Todd in the Shadows' also-extremely-long video picking apart James' alleged lack of fact-checking went uncommented on by you?
Also, do you have any interest in defending any of Hbomb's other targets, like the other subjects of the plagiarism video (iilluminaughtii, Internet Historian, etc.), or others like Tommy Tallarico and Andrew Wakefield?
I pay no attention to Todd. Also I only talked about the main guy hbomb talked about (Somerton), but the points are systemic and apply to everyone. Plagiarism is a BS concern and only acts to protect bourgeois property dynamics.
If you do not question private wealth and property, all such gender, race, liberal, non-liberal, left and right problems will remain as is. Address as much in as many contexts above and below that, however inconsequential in eradicating inequality, scarcity and general lack of abundance.
Preach it, brother Peter! (Side note- I'm not actually religious at all, I just really love "Amens" and "Hallelujahs" for impact, and I live in the south so...)
Comment re <<Yet, when discussions arise about monopoly and finance capital, they [the left] are quick to label such talk as anti-Semitic, even when no reference to Jewish people has been made (when talking about class, ethnicity is irrelevant). >>
I used to spend time with liberals and Democrat voters. When discussions arose about monopoly and finance capital, these liberals seized on the ruling left's excuses and blame-shifting.
When Pelosi would not allow a vote on dark money in Congress, one leftist I knew said something like, "that's not true, it was administrative, she couldn't bring it up for a vote." Poor woman, her hands were tied! She wanted to!
When Congress voted to smash the rail workers' demands for a better contract that included some notion of emergency time off (these railroad employees are "on call" all the time - many don't have a single scheduled day off)- dishonestly described by the media as paid sick days- I heard commentary after commentary that the Republicans were the bad guys. "Oh, those darn Republicans go crushing workers again." Yet when I pointed out that my DEMOCRAT SENATOR WARNOCK DID NOT EVEN BOTHER TO SHOW UP TO VOTE for the railworkers, a leftist told me this was because Warnock "probably knew it was gonna fail anyways so why bother."
When I told a rich AF Democrat (before my awakening) that the main problem in the US was that money owns government, he never spoke with me again. Lol
Point is, the leftists I knew generally did not use the anti-semitism dog whistle. Maybe some of them do now, but I would be suprised.
The fatal flaw that I see in leftists today is a kind of brainwashed mentality- an absolute trust in authority, a blind confidence that someone with credentials "looked this shit up" and THEIR news and THEIR authorities tell the truth.
The leftists that drove me insane were COMPLETELY BLIND to betrayals by Democrat politicians. They literally told themselves that their side was always fighting the good fight and Republicans always blocked them. Always. Leftists would NEVER examine the fine print. And when I, frustrated and confused, naively tried to throw the facts in their face (politely 😁), they either gave me idiotic excuses or shifted to attacking me personally.
Whatever the hell allows leftists to suspend disbelief, thank you, thank you, thank you for writing about this and putting your stance right on the table. You said it straight, sans bullshit. I'm with you, and I feel it in my bones:
FUCK THE LEFT.
I don't harbor ill will towards individuals. I try not to get bothered by those people who blindly follow a leader. But I harbor a shit ton of ill will towards people actively lying themselves into high (and unstable) self esteem. There is no reason why any of the leftists I referred to above couldn't check their egos for 5 minutes and sit down and read the evidence. It's that they refused to!
And THAT is how I saw Democrats get away with sabotaging the working class. We who seek to awaken workers to their power need to engage in a delicate balancing act of refusing to participate in hate culture while simultaneously calling out the movements and people that sabotage the economic welfare of the people.
I don't blame (most of 😉) my former leftist friends for refusing to talk to me anymore. BUT! When I'm making phone calls for La Revolución, those leftists will be the last ones I call.
Great analysis. Really explains the left’s ineptitude and weakness. Also explains Bernie’s relative success because of his ability to tap into those material realities.
Thank you! A lot of what I covered here is covered in more depth in the upcoming Horseshoe doc!
I find this analysis wanting. You claim, "The left's focus on identity politics, virtue signaling, and fragmentation diverts attention from the fundamental economic contradictions at capitalism’s heart, perpetuating the structures it seeks to dismantle." This reads like a centrist understanding of the left, informed only by online articles about "woke mobs on college campuses."
I must also point out that you don't provide examples of this identity-politics focus, nor do you define "the left." I'm sure you can find sporadic examples of identity-obsessed college kids, but again, I find this not to be representative of the actual political left.
I very frequently see proto-fascist rhetoric on substack that uses the aesthetic of class struggle for a national populist agenda, and if you think identifying latent antisemitism in critiques of finance capital is just silly leftism, well, I think that’s a dangerous gamble. How do you approach the question of who to build unity with? Certainly, as Jodi Dean puts it, anyone but not everyone can be a comrade.
This is great, right on.
Hey, I'd like to understand your views on the James Somerton situation a little better; how come I've seen you criticize Hbomb, Dan Olson, and Jessie Gender for their harassment of James, but Todd in the Shadows' also-extremely-long video picking apart James' alleged lack of fact-checking went uncommented on by you?
Also, do you have any interest in defending any of Hbomb's other targets, like the other subjects of the plagiarism video (iilluminaughtii, Internet Historian, etc.), or others like Tommy Tallarico and Andrew Wakefield?
I pay no attention to Todd. Also I only talked about the main guy hbomb talked about (Somerton), but the points are systemic and apply to everyone. Plagiarism is a BS concern and only acts to protect bourgeois property dynamics.
If you do not question private wealth and property, all such gender, race, liberal, non-liberal, left and right problems will remain as is. Address as much in as many contexts above and below that, however inconsequential in eradicating inequality, scarcity and general lack of abundance.