A nice piece on NJR and how to avoid Taibbi/Greenwald brain where you end up hating liberals so much you end up a useful idiot for the fash.
NJR to greenwald: you are a chud
greenwald's twitter: you are Plantation Riddler lol who hurt you
me: let them fight
I like the way Nathan dresses. It doesn't interest me in the slightest, but it makes him happy.
The article is about how hating libs can one into a lazy thinker. It's focused on two writers who are slipping into conservative talking points, but parts of it could have been written about leftists slipping into dead-end ultraleft territory:
excessive disgust for liberals can create deficiencies in one’s political analysis which in turn can give rise to a fuzzy understanding of the way the world works. (A bit more uncharitably, I might say it shows how Twitter turns smart people stupid.)...
By... calling the Democratic Party the “epitome of the fascism they claim to be fighting, but which in reality they embody,” Greenwald has heavily implied that the Republican Party is actually the lesser of two evils. After all, if Democrats are the “epitome of fascism” and “completely repressive,” but on the other hand, “asserting that Donald Trump is a fascist-like dictator threatening the previously sturdy foundations of U.S. democracy” is a “preposterous farce,” and non-fascism remains preferable to fascism, then Trump’s politics are preferable to those of the contemporary Democratic Party...
This story about American politics is short-sighted, delusional, and dangerous. It’s short-sighted because much of what is called “wokeness,” while limited in its transformational capacity and cynically manipulated at times, is still a critically important step toward achieving justice. It’s delusional because the Democratic Party, for all its flaws, hypocrisies, and capitalist inclinations, is still preferable to the racist and extremely capitalist Republican Party. And it’s dangerous because Republicans are going to try to use this story about liberal fascism in order to try to get back into power in 2022 and 2024, and people who short-sightedly use their large platforms to push a delusional right-wing narrative are actively helping the Republican Party achieve its incredibly destructive goals...
The belief that Liberals and Democrats are irredeemable and unable to care about anything but power can lead one into downright wrong and sloppy analysis. For instance, Greenwald appears to have become convinced that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is a Democratic party apparatchik whose job is to provide leftist support for centrist elites... AOC, like Bernie Sanders, often does deeply disappointing things. But it is excessively cynical—and frankly erroneous—to pre-emptively decide she is a careerist whose only goal is to bolster the Democratic Party... We should be highly skeptical of any politician, even the ones on “our side” and hold them to account. But it’s simply not correct to view her as solely invested in propping up the Democratic Party’s leaders, since she has shown herself willing to harshly criticize them.
Dunking on libs is fun, and has some value, but we also need to maintain a broader perspective. Politics without the masses are adventurist politics. We can't write off every leftist who manages to get a platform as insufficiently left -- that's just ultraleft adventurism. Critical support is the name of the game, and that involves at least some support.
honestly when i lived in a college town i hated libs so much i flirting with chud-ism. luckily i discovered leftism
I was kind of the same way too for awhile. Always had an anti-imperialist view of the world, but hated the libs who had a smug sense of superiority and constantly bowed down to authority,
NJR? A socdem lecturing others on how not to be a tool of the right?
NJR is a socialist with some anarchist leanings. He's very explicitly anti-capitalist, which socdems are not.
People on this site need to unironically do better. Just lazy criticisms all the time like that.
Facebook will end up deeming leftist content too radical and booting it, killing critically important political discourse as well as my ability to make a living.
This is exactly what they fear as well, congrats nathan. Their fear of getting cancelled is precisely that - they’ll lose job and living of punditry, so they preemptively drift to where they can find shelter. Additionally, glenn is a liberal to the core, so that part is completely unsurprising. The guy would have defended der sturmer freedom of speech, if given the chance (taibbi as well, but he is softer on that I think).
I dunno if you've seen NJR's previous thoughts on this but they really provide a lot of context to his arguments
Someone posted this in a comment months ago, reposting since it's relevant to Taibbi: Matt Taibbi is a cancel culture hypocrite Here’s what Matt hopes you don't remember: When the cancel mob came for him, he was the "upper class Twitter Robespierre" ratting on his colleagues
Wow... what a fucking slug. I would feel bad for him if he hadnt knuckled under and become a fucking rat.
Yeah, he sucks. He's really working hard at crafting his contrarian brand. I wonder how many people know what a turd he really is.
Its worth doing some self introspection about where your lib hatred takes you and NJR is right
NJR makes some good points but he is flat out wrong that Democratic party power is a prerequisite for any of the policies he's talking about.
Eh, unless the US collapses or a third party arises out of nowhere (both extremely unlikely, sadly), he's probably right.
I didn't realize until relatively recently just how much I subconsciously held the constitution and the bill of rights as some kind of sacred document. I'd imagine it's even harder for a constitutional lawyer like Glenn. They didn't give a fuck about free speech they literally owned humans as property. I don't really have a point just felt like thats worth mentioning
Step 1: realize that Populist unity and lib unity are made up internet stuff and right wingers are shitty allies
