The hostility. The condescension. Accusations of racism. Accusations of sexism. Being called a Russian agent. Being blamed for Trump's victory. Threats of violence. Ostracism or banning from communities I've been a part of for years.
Nothing really changed with conservatives. They hated me when I was a lib, they hated me now. But holy shit, when I started talking actual leftism around libs, it was like I was leaving a cult.
their self-image is based on being on "the good team" so if you undercut that they get very angry
Liberals never have that much of a spine when it comes to conservatives; it's only against people who have no institutional power that they're this angry
it’s only against people who have no institutional power that they’re this angry
that's exactly what reactionaries do, which really tells you something about
societyliberalism
Yea this is exactly it. Liberals grow up thinking they’re fighting for what’s good, right, moral, whatever. When they eventually learn about how fucked the world is, outlets like Freakonomics or authors like Steven Pinker, or tycoons like Musk step in to tell them it’s actually a pretty great system and changing it not only will lead to mass starvation but also to no more political rights. They convince themselves that as bad as things are now, things are slowly getting better and that this is the most moral (but also intelligent) position to take. So when you bring up American led or supported genocide and starvation in Yemen or wholesale death and destruction in Iraq, you’re immediately dismissed as a naive person who just doesn’t get what’s at stake.
No liberal, we understand what’s at stake. You don’t. Merely thinking about the possibility of a better world makes you nervous. We know a better world is possible.
Reading about Weimar Germany tells similar stories of out of touch liberals alienating and dismissing the grievances and frustrations of the working class that attracted them to communism, social democracy, and Nazism/fascism. Meager amounts of power and privilege is incredibly alienating and dehumanizing is it not?
I like to think that the attitudes of these boutique liberals are reflections of the bourgeoisie themselves. That they are really and truly out of touch, indifferent, delusional, or cynical.
telling me I needed to learn more
This is so funny to me because socialists tend to be far better read and more educated in history and economics than the libs who say this. They think "learn more" means that the lessons you should take from life is that it does not get better, not that we must fight for a better world right now.
But almost without fail, the only history these people know about places outside the US are American propaganda about our wars, and anti-communist propaganda about places like Venezuela, Cuba, China, etc. They don't really know anything about Central America, Africa, etc and the places we've staged regime change without getting into more traditional warfare.
They know nothing about the labor movement, the way striking won workplace protections, and how our employers have worked tirelessly since the very second they allowed these concessions o undo them.
They only see the MLK, Jr. speeches organized with hundreds of thousands in attendance, but never know that he was deeply hated by white America as a whole, and that the movement faced heaps of state and vigilante violence against them.
They forget that Stonewall was an actual, legit riot against the police, because now Pride is some corporate sponsored charity march that often invites the fucking police to march alongside corporations who donate to the LGBT lobby (who only seem to care about middle-class gay and lesbian couples).
It frustrates me to no end when I interact with people who want political activists to play nice all the time. They always think they are more knowledgeable about things, and it is almost never true. And when they do actually know their history, it tends to be that they were against the progress that happened while the fight was happening, but have no ability to think further ahead about what change is actually needed. They often still hold reactionary and bigoted views, and they will refuse to admit it outright.
Whoo....that was a bit of a rant.
A storied tradition along with Harry Potter potlucks and locking car doors when black people are near
I basically leap-frogged from being alt-lite to a weird sort of "anti-SJW marxist" to just being a leftist
So one of the benefits of that is at no point did I have to stop hating liberals. Fuck liberals.
Just learned about more trans people/PoC and heard them speak about their grievances first hand. The alt-right media sphere, for how much they talk about debates, never seem to ever expose their audience to any leftist ideas without filtering out all but the most absurd Zarna Joshi-esque examples first.
Like she's a lib yeah yeah whatever but Contrapoints is basically single handedly responsible for me seeing trans people as like, normal people and not mentally ill screetching SJWs who are making up reasons to be mad at white men or whatever
I know she's kinda canceled/out of the club these days, but getting slowly into Breadtube, specifically with Contrapoints, helped normalize LGBTQ+ comrades by actually consuming content made by them. Really helped me get my head right on that.
People like Natalie Wynn tbh. Just listening to more experiences in accessible language.
Currently being told that communism is authoritarian and that a balance of socialism and capitalism is required. Guy busted out John Fugelsang quote "Capitalism without socialism is fascism, socialism without capitalism is communism".
Lmao he's not wrong. Guess it's time to hit the capitalism remover button.
He prefers the nordic model. He has yet to tell me which industries should be state owned or if he solely supports unionism and a robust welfare state.
So he prefers Imperialism with a smiley face. Should ask if he likes how the nordic model built their entire welfare state off the back of African resource exploitation.
I just keep tweeting at them until they block me on Twitter
Liberals don’t get that they would beat me in these stupid arguments we have if they came at me from my left. “If you think this system is so bad, why haven’t you grabbed an AK and started an insurgency, you hypocrite?” Honestly not the easiest question to answer.
Sure, but if you look at the replies to this thread (and on the site more generally), leftists show the exact level of condescension and hostility back. We're not on the same page as them, period.
