Fascinating. Slate - Van Jones interview - "Don't become the thing you're fighting"

[NRaleighLiberal]

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/interrogation/2017/03/van_jones_on_trump_liberal_resistance_and_what_corey_lewandowski_is_really.html

CNN’s Van Jones on the danger of progressives losing their way.

By Isaac Chotiner


Throughout the 2016 campaign, Van Jones became something of a progressive hero for his commentary on CNN. While the network was being mocked by right and left for giving a megaphone to hacks and lackeys, Jones emerged as the rare voice capable of discussing both policy—he is known for his advocacy work in fields such as environmental protection and criminal justice reform—and the broader importance of what America was undergoing. (Jones labeled Donald Trump’s victory “a whitelash against a changing country.”)


Now, with Trump’s campaign promises being put forward as policy, and amidst full-on opposition from the American left, Jones, in his commentary and on his CNN show, The Messy Truth, has continued speaking out on progressive issues, and against the Trump administration, but lately he’s taken a more pragmatic, if not conciliatory, tone. Jones was ripped by liberal commentators for his partial praise of Trump’s first address to Congress, during which he said, in reference to Trump’s honoring the widow of a Navy SEAL, “He became president of the United States in that moment, period.” More recently, he has expressed the concern that Trump’s bad behavior was “driving liberals insane.”

I spoke to Jones by phone this week. During the course of our conversation, which has been edited and condensed for clarity, we discussed what Trump is doing to liberal discourse, what it’s like to come under fire from your own side, and what CNN’s Trump surrogates are really like.

Isaac Chotiner: You said a few days ago that you’re concerned Trump is driving liberals insane. What did you mean by that?

Van Jones: I mean that there are two ways that Trump can be normalized. One is for us just to get used to him saying crazy things, lying, and attacking people, and that’s a big danger. There’s a more insidious danger, which is a danger of his becoming normalized at an emotional and social level. He is completely fear driven, he is completely polarizing, he is completely caught up in his own drama, and I’m starting to see liberals act the same way. We’re almost trying to fight polarization with polarization at this point, and I’m afraid that we’re feeding what we’re fighting.

SNIP - lots to read, long interview, would be interested in people's thoughts.

Myself - while I understand what Van is trying to do, he also comes across as a bit naive to me - and also a bit bamboozled by the both sides do it thing the media seems to adopt.

[hatrack]

1. Fuck off, Van

Go gobble Trump's knob some more, why doncha?

[NRaleighLiberal]

2. That's my impression - something happened to Van...he doesn't really get it.

And he doesn't understand how what he is doing is not helping one bit.

[haele]

3. Van, you lost your way already.

You've let the Perfect become the enemy of the Good; you forgot to balance and weigh risks in the pursuit of purity of convictions.

Good thing you have enough money to survive the next four years with nothing but a few pangs of sympathetic guilt.

Others won't be so fortunate, and will lose what little hard won opportunities that have managed to survive the GOP assault whenever they've been proposed. These are the ones who will starve or die of treatable conditions while Professional Thinkers natter on about what "True Progressivism" is from their current privileged position in society.

Haele

[NRaleighLiberal]

4. it's clear the interviewer is boiling at Van's answers.

[gratuitous]

5. Uhm, okay Mr. Jones

Perhaps you could draw up a list ahead of time for the "crazy things, lying, and attacking people" that aren't any big thing and that we should just let go. I'm guessing that using a widow as a political prop makes the cut. What else?

[Juliusseizure]

6. Van Jones - Neville Chamberlain reincarnated

He is Neville Chamberlain naive and doesn't get it. Some pundits are better than others. Robert Reich, David Gergen, Paul Krugman, Dan Rathers. They have a lot more experience in government and/or life, a broader historical perspective and better understanding of human nature than Van Jones.

Progressives won't become like Trump just by becoming polarized due to fear. That's a dumb assumption. Trump is a malignant narcissist. Van Jones needs to look up what that means and review Trump's 40 year history of ongoing cruelty and sociopathy.

"We're almost trying to fight polarization with polarization."

Almost isnt good enough. "Not try, do" (Yoda). Eight years of capitulation to already polarized forces resulted in a fascist, racist president and more extreme polarization. Trump, Republicans and Trump supporters have declared war politically and now threaten democracy. It needs to be met with massive, aggressive, united, relentless, unflinching resistance.

"and I'm afraid we're feeding what we're fighting." The greater risk/fear is getting eaten alive if we don't fight. Republicans are "well fed" by 30-40 years of propaganda, gaining in aggression every year because it has not been aggressively challenged.

They don't even acknowledge facts. You can't appease that with reasoned argument - not until they're open to it. You go on the offensive and shove facts down their throat, en masse, until they gag on them (metaphorically of course). Whether it works or not, it deters them from shoving lies down yours.

I think I've been watching too much Keith Olbermann...

[PhilosopherKing]

8. I think you provided a very good analysis

I agree wholeheartedly.

[mountain grammy]

7. I'm sorry, I'm still holding out hope.

this man has done many good things in his life, and he's still so young. He's changed lives, and promoted activism in the community. I'm not ready to give up on him just yet.