I've been noticing this more and more, there's an insistence that pointed economic or environmental criticisms of some consumption habit, usually almost exclusively partaken by the upper middle class and wealthier people, must actually secretly be a purely cultural critique. I'm sure these guys work for Exxon or some shit, lmao.
He's critical of both the USSR and China, yes.
He has described his position as "Neither Bejing nor Bezos" (sort of like the nonaligned nations slogan of "neither Washington nor Moscow" back in the day)
Leigh is a bit of a free-speech fundamentalist, for lack of a better term, and I have mixed feelings on that (he gives very good reasons, but I also have my qualms).
In any event, insofar as his views on ecology, modernity, state planning, and democracy are concerned I think he's highly underrated as a political thinker on the left.
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People take third-campists much more seriously than pro-Beijing socialists.
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Right, sorry, I meant American workers. I'm being America-centric again. In the work I do, we frame things in terms of "opposing US meddling" as opposed to "supporting the communists" because it tends to go over better with the semi-radicalized people we rely on while mobilizing.
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By third campist, I thought you meant neither-washington-nor-moscow, style politics, not Trotskyism.