From the guest list, the show looked like it was created to have a space where left commentators of various sorts would come on and hash out ideological differences as the US left is in the wilderness post-Bernie. It would be interesting, I thought, to have a show where an ultra like Sean KB from The Antifada could explain Marxist theory on a panel with social democrats and have some kind of discussion.

It turns out that its basically just a radlib version of The Five from Fox News, where they just take turns kicking the tires on the days news.

Does anyone actually want a show like this? It seems like its trying to fill a market that doesn't exist - or maybe existed a few years ago and doesn't today. When I look around, I don't think to myself, "You know who has some understanding of the political struggle we face in this moment? This DSA-backed state legislator from NYC."

Listening to it was deeply unsettling. I don't recommend it.

  • Bread_In_Baltimore [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    Read my edit to the previous comment. I know what you mean for sure. PCUSA for instance has a near perfect party line but they don't actually do anything. I get not joining them, but I think just organizing for the sake of organizing is useless. If you're organizing towards the goal of more socdems in city council, then I think it's a waste of time. It's going to vary from place to place but I think it's important to build good organizations. The last thing we need is a bunch of revolutionary energy being fed into a liberal organization where it will inevitably burn out.

    • cracksmoke2020 [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I edited my post because of your edit lol:

      I agree with what you’ve said about DSA in certain areas. I’m not talking about that, I’m talking about the largest org that is engaging in this real struggles like tenant organizing and union infiltration. DSA in NYC has some groups of people doing that stuff per what I've heard.

      This said, I disagree with you about adding socdems/demsocs to city council. If you can get meaningfully left people who are willing to always call people out on their shit, you can make meaningful change including nationally. The key requirement is total loyalty to the movement and never acting as an independent individual. Change often starts at the state and local level (minimum wages, cheaper healthcare, free higher education, defunding police, ect).