Liberals are authoritarians, we all pretty much agree on that here but what's the best way to communicate this to a well meaning baby leftist?
Anything worth linking to or specific phrasings you like using? How do you go about justifying that liberals are the "real" authoritarians and not the communists?
The only times I've been able to convince liberals to rethink things have been instances where a liberal media platform have agreed with me. Articles about Abu Ghraib being a torture camp, or a YouTube video about poverty in West Virginia following strictly generational lines.
For burgeoning leftists, it's a lot easier. I just ask them what the FBI and CIA do. I ask them why universal housing doesn't exist, even though it would be cheaper to the public than our current widespread homelessness problem.
The trap of liberalism, at least in America, is a belief that saying and believing certain things constitutes systematic change. Liberals genuinely believe that if enough people are exposed to the same NPR articles or whatever, they'll all become politically aligned and the government will soon follow. They believe that as long as they're permitted to talk about or publish their beliefs, that society is still salvageable, because that's what they believe is the main vector of change. They think it's a word of mouth game, they think it's all polls and voting.
So that's the hurdle for a growing leftist. You have to convince them that the line of authoritarian isn't just a freedom of speech thing. Because that's the actual distinction they make. They think censorship is where it goes too far, now you're authoritarian because you've censored opposition.
This is painfully true for american liberals and I have no idea what to do about it. They literally get all of their opinions from this and if anything is said outside of it that doesn't match up with the enemies they've been told they should have at any given time they will outright reject actual facts. Wtf do we do about that? The meme with the memory chip being replaced in the brain is completely correct.
This is a really interesting observation that I need time to think about. I probably need to sleep on it more than once before some ideas will start popping out.
Yeah, liberals or baby leftists still feel comfortable that they can express opinions. As long as that line isn't threatened, they still feel some internal righteousness. They're can tweet what they want, post memes or whatever. They can say Xi Jinping is a funny cartoon bear. To them, that's the same thing as political praxis, so they feel no threat. They're still comfortable enough to express opinions within the designated scope of liberal spectacle, probably because they haven't yet started expressing things that run contrary to liberalism.
Like criticizing imperialism at a structure level, calling for more robust labor rights, or just outright calling for the imprisonment/death of liberal politicians. Those are the actual spicy things that get pushback, whether from social ostracizing or in some cases a knock on your door by the Department of Homeland Security. I haven't seen it happen, but I'm guessing a visit from a federal agent over a tweet would probably push a burgeoning leftist into a reality check.
This resonates and hurts :(
Yeah, they live off vibes. Political movements can only happen with solidarity, and liberals are stuck in the mindset that it's all personal beliefs and morals. Giving a grand speech is politics, reading the correct biography is politics. Complete fusion of the consumer identity with one's own political interests.