Mostly talking about stuff like breadtubers, chapo, and media personalities like that, I can kind of tell why people like Bernie and Jezza where they're at. Is it the added wealth being a popular media personality gives you, the need to give a consistent product, the need to appeal to a wide breadth of people, and so on?
edit: also props to Brett at RevLeft for continuing to radicalise himself as the show has gone on
I listened to episode 435 after people here were denouncing Amber and Matt Taibbi for it, expecting the worst, but I found the attacks on them horribly misguided. Like, trigger-happy witch hunt misguided. They were discussing difficult issues, bringing up valid points, but their critics ascribed the worst motives to them for no reason.
Unless I missed some line, Amber actually said there're "non-White cops" and Taibbi said that working-class people become cops. (Not that "cops are workers"!) They were saying that condemning all cops as White supremacist thugs is a bad argument, one that resonates badly with racial minorities and the poor. Because the experience of those groups with police is contradictory, not black-and-white, no pun intended. While many experiences with police are extremely negative, those groups are also disproportionately affected by violent crime and want police attention on violent crime - not simply no police. And they're also the demographics from which cops are hired - becoming a cop is a way to earn a living for many poor families. You won't win hearts by shitting on people's relatives.
Taibbi, Will, and Amber repeatedly acknowledge that the police is an anti-proletarian institution at its roots, and American police is corrupt and bloody etc. in the episode. Their argument is that the movement for racial equality and against police brutality will not attract mainstream support (and thus political success) if it leads with "All Cops Are the KKK"-type rhetoric. (This rhetoric is good for mobilizing radicals, but not for mobilizing regular people.)
Yeah I listened to the most recent episode that was getting shit on because of Amber and I thought she was good in it, outside of the one crummy take the others shot down. She's fine, really.
These types of attacks on fellow leftist who are putting forward good-faith opinions absolutely have to stop if we want to get anything done. Dunk on chuds like this all you want, but treat comrades with a bit more honesty.
Your recollection and analysis of that episode is spot on, too.