It becomes toxic when you're in this race to the bottom over who "deserves" civil rights.
Once we liquidated the Midwest, busted up all the unions, and turned half the people under 30 into gig economy peons, we ended any serious pretense of labor aristocracy.
This is a critique of Blue Collar Boomers in Levittowns, not GenZ Houston food service workers.
Preaching at people that they’re privileged isn’t good praxis. It doesn’t appeal to their material conditions.
Yeah, it's not really wrong, but it's extremely counterproductive.
A socialist telling the average working westerner living paycheck to paycheck about how they're part of the labor aristocracy isn't going to sound any different to them than a chud doing the "you have a smartphone and a refrigerator so ackshully you're better off than historical monarchs" thing.
people struggling to get by and suffering every day aren't really getting anything out of their privilege. when things are bad enough it doesn't matter that they could be worse.
I mean, yes but no? Americans have it rough but their living standards have not plummeted to anything near those of countries which had revolutions, save segments of extreme poverty (particularly run-down parts of cities, poor rural communities in Appalachia, etc). They still have the "privilege" to be able to just barely scrape by with maybe a treat or two as a benefit of the US's continued exploitation of the rest of the world, even if it's not apparent to them.
Which is why I'm opposed to framing it as "privilege" or "aristocracy", since it provokes an unnecessary moralistic "debates" which go nowhere.
Depends on your audience. Preaching the basic logic of imperialism is required inside of a lefty org and is fundamental to building anti-imperialist coalition that can have solidarity with the global working class. And without this understanding, your org will fail to acknowledge and work around a populace who will perceive anti-imperialism as being against their own material interest, just like they see climate justice as "unfair" and against their own interests.
There is a point where you must be direct rather than manipulating indirectly and we should be finding ways to move it earlier and earlier in a person's introduction to socialism. I've seen a lot of groups try the indirect, manipulative approach and fail because they just plain aren't good liars, and that's what you need to succeed at it.
The thing one needs to take care in doing is to communicate effectively. Leading with, "you are privileged" without clarification gives a false impression that having housing security, healthcare, decent time off, etc are all unreasonable spoils that aren't deserved, and leaves the conversation at that. That's just bad communication and you see advocates of climate justice fuck up a similar line all the time, falling for a discoursd on degrowth that casts it as a decreased quality of life for those in the core rather than a seizure of power and resources away from the polluting ruling class and the capitalist system itself. But if you pepper it into a larger context of anti-war, solidarity with immigrants, or a maoist line on internal colonization, with examples, it can work great.
This is also why we should prioritize building within marginalized communities and worker struggles.
I agree with the second half of the tweet.
Preaching at people that they're privileged isn't good praxis. It doesn't appeal to their material conditions.
It becomes toxic when you're in this race to the bottom over who "deserves" civil rights.
Once we liquidated the Midwest, busted up all the unions, and turned half the people under 30 into gig economy peons, we ended any serious pretense of labor aristocracy.
This is a critique of Blue Collar Boomers in Levittowns, not GenZ Houston food service workers.
Damn right
Yeah, it's not really wrong, but it's extremely counterproductive.
A socialist telling the average working westerner living paycheck to paycheck about how they're part of the labor aristocracy isn't going to sound any different to them than a chud doing the "you have a smartphone and a refrigerator so ackshully you're better off than historical monarchs" thing.
people struggling to get by and suffering every day aren't really getting anything out of their privilege. when things are bad enough it doesn't matter that they could be worse.
I mean, yes but no? Americans have it rough but their living standards have not plummeted to anything near those of countries which had revolutions, save segments of extreme poverty (particularly run-down parts of cities, poor rural communities in Appalachia, etc). They still have the "privilege" to be able to just barely scrape by with maybe a treat or two as a benefit of the US's continued exploitation of the rest of the world, even if it's not apparent to them.
Which is why I'm opposed to framing it as "privilege" or "aristocracy", since it provokes an unnecessary moralistic "debates" which go nowhere.
The floor of human misery experienced right now in imperialized countries is so much lower than typical American poverty.
Yeah, but it feels good to the person doing the denouncing. That's the part I think you're missing.
Material conditions? No, emotional conditions.
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Depends on your audience. Preaching the basic logic of imperialism is required inside of a lefty org and is fundamental to building anti-imperialist coalition that can have solidarity with the global working class. And without this understanding, your org will fail to acknowledge and work around a populace who will perceive anti-imperialism as being against their own material interest, just like they see climate justice as "unfair" and against their own interests.
There is a point where you must be direct rather than manipulating indirectly and we should be finding ways to move it earlier and earlier in a person's introduction to socialism. I've seen a lot of groups try the indirect, manipulative approach and fail because they just plain aren't good liars, and that's what you need to succeed at it.
The thing one needs to take care in doing is to communicate effectively. Leading with, "you are privileged" without clarification gives a false impression that having housing security, healthcare, decent time off, etc are all unreasonable spoils that aren't deserved, and leaves the conversation at that. That's just bad communication and you see advocates of climate justice fuck up a similar line all the time, falling for a discoursd on degrowth that casts it as a decreased quality of life for those in the core rather than a seizure of power and resources away from the polluting ruling class and the capitalist system itself. But if you pepper it into a larger context of anti-war, solidarity with immigrants, or a maoist line on internal colonization, with examples, it can work great.
This is also why we should prioritize building within marginalized communities and worker struggles.
So what the movement needs is more liars and sociopaths
:fedposting: