I have a friend like this and damn is he frustrating to talk politics with. He is convinced that his politics are cutting edge and transcend left/right but he mainly gets his news from msnbc. Never read any theory and seems to have no real interest in leftism. Likes to talk about "personal liberation" in some kind of vaguely spiritual sense. Trust fund kid who's never had to worry about money. Went to a fancy arts college. Feel like there are a lot of people out there like this.

    • BillyMays [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      They tend to bring up identity politics way more than intersectionality. And don’t like being called out on their lack of solidarity.

    • Iminhere3000 [none/use name]
      ·
      4 years ago

      Yeah, there is some truth to this. With this dude I feel like it really comes down to coming from money. He just doesn't have any experience of the struggle most people go thru. He is a perfect example of vaguely left utopian idealism as opposed to on the ground material analysis. And the facts are that (whether he recognizes it or not) maintaining the status quo is in his material interest. At some point it's like: are you gonna be a class traitor or not lol

      • BillyMays [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Have you told him about chapo dot chat? We’re pretty good at radicalizing. And reactionaries get shut the fuck down.

      • read_freire [they/them]
        ·
        4 years ago

        I said it above but Pedagogy of the Oppressed could be really useful for fostering that class traitor identity

    • Grace [she/her]
      6·
      4 years ago

      meh, not really. Trans white, proletariat leftists (specifically Marxist-Leninists, from my biased POV) are much more radical and understandable of conditions than say, uneducated anarchists/brocialists.