In Defense of Punching Left

I’m a liberal. I’ve always been a liberal…

[…]

“Don’t punch left” is the core tenet of Solidarity, a new book by Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. In a laudatory interview with the Washington Post, Hunt-Hendrix said the book was aimed not only at progressives in general but also specifically at liberals who criticize the left, naming me and newsletter author Matthew Yglesias as “falling into the right’s divide-and-conquer strategy.”

I read a couple more paragraphs and I had to stop. I forgot what a terrible writer he is. The article is like reading a textbook that lectures you.

r/neoliberal thread

  • Wertheimer [any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    56
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    It would surprise any liberal to learn we have no desire to redistribute wealth, tackle climate change, or advance social justice and care only about corporations and the status quo.

    Then what are you doing?

    When every cause is framed as a matter of absolute moral urgency, which is the lingua franca of protest politics, then no compromise can be brooked.

    yes-comm

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      44
      ·
      6 months ago

      When every cause is framed as a matter of absolute moral urgency, which is the lingua franca of protest politics, then no compromise can be brooked.

      That was also quoted in the r/Enough_Sanders_Spam thread. What a odd sub that is. It’s like I put on “They Live” glasses and all the comity and civility and the rest of the superficial façade of liberals is stripped away and I can see who they really are.

    • Gosplan14_the_Third [none/use name]@hexbear.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      6 months ago

      Wealth redistribution is socdem nonsense designed to have a better capitalism.

      Tackle climate change

      While wanting to preserve the market economy. They probably think it’s doable, but if you understand capitalism and the bourgeois state you know it’s not.

      advance social justice

      What does this mean? They can move the goalposts as far as they want and claim they achieved it. Useless category.

      care only about corporations

      Yes, I know. You like the petty bourgeois too! How nice of you. Fuck off.

      and the status quo.

      See “social justice” above. They do like the state, capitalism and everything that entails. You are the status quo. The only reason you claim not to be is to differentiate yourself from other supporters of capital.

  • D61 [any]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    34
    ·
    6 months ago

    hehe…

    I’m trying to work my way through Lenin’s “What is to be Done”. If I’m understanding it so far, it starts out heavily criticizing opportunists and the idea of “freedom of criticism” in the context of members of an organization being wreckers.

    What a wacky coincidence…

  • dead [he/him]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    31
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    ♪♪♪ Sure, once I was young and impulsive
    I wore every conceivable pin
    Even went to socialist meetings
    Learned all the old union hymns
    Ah, but I’ve grown older and wiser
    And that’s why I’m turning you in
    So love me, love me, love me, I’m a liberal ♪♪♪

  • Hexagons [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    6 months ago

    Huh, Jonathan Chait likes charter schools. He says so in this terrible article. Well, he doesn’t seem to want to use the phrase “charter schools”, instead just talking repeatedly about “school reform”. Which is indeed a euphemism for wanting charter schools, as I had to click a link to learn.

    Why use a euphemism here? Why not just say you’re in favor of charter schools? Is he embarrassed about it? But then why say anything at all? I’m puzzled

    • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      29
      ·
      6 months ago

      Why use a euphemism here?

      I’ll assume you’re serious. His wife is very pro-charter schools and people always needle him about that on Twitter so he’s always very evasive on that topic.

      • Hexagons [e/em/eir]@hexbear.net
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        11
        ·
        6 months ago

        But then why ever talk about it at all? He didn’t need to bring it up in this article. I dunno, I’m sure I’ll never get a satisfying answer. Probably even Jonathan Chait doesn’t understand why he does the things that he does

  • AutomatedPossum [she/her]@hexbear.net
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    18
    ·
    edit-2
    6 months ago

    I find it hard to consider Yglesias even a liberal, he’s just the world’s most bloodless fascist (and yes, this is coming from the perspective of somebody who is fully aware that liberalism is a bourgeois, right wing ideology). I do not know this dweeb, but when anybody finds it fitting to name him alongside that dingus, i think i’m better off not knowing.