So much for that whole "unity" thing...

[Blue_Tires]

The rise of the internet’s ‘dirtbag left’
http://www.macleans.ca/society/the-rise-of-the-internets-dirtbag-left/

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

One thing I like about the leftbros: They talk major shit online all day about their supposed influence, and their plans to singlehandedly sweep in a new leftist utopia but when it comes time to to put some skin in the game and do real fucking work, nowhere to be fucking found until after election day when they try to throw some weak-ass "I told you so!!" up in your face...

You know the easiest way to shut these Monday morning know-it-alls up if they start giving you shit? Ask them to name all the successful campaigns they've worked/volunteered for on ANY level -- 90% of them will go silent.

[bettyellen]

1. Not a one of them admits we lost those seats by being too progressive on health care...liars who lie

About Dems all day long are fuckig useless.

[NurseJackie]

3. "Useless" barely begins to describe it.

And that's just sad, isn't it? All in the name of anger, pride and vanity... when so much could be accomplished, there are those who attack, divide and weaken our party.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I think it's fair to say that every movement or group has its lunatic fringe.

[Squinch]

4. New rule: anyone who demands that someone else "bend the knee" to him is too ridiculous and

cognitively fragile to be taken seriously. He has to get his weirdo ego issues taken care of first and then we can talk.

[ProudLib72]

5. Isn't this about what Nina Turner said?

It's not our job to fit in with them. It's their job to fit in with us.

Wheweee! We've got these same issues with a group that is supposed to be closely aligned with us.

[Squinch]

6. Yes, though she was not quite so "bend to my will, peon!" about it. But yes, her message was

the same. Which is why "our revolution," the group that installed her as its head, is now something about which people say, "Hey, right, that was a thing for a minute, wasn't it?"

[Blue_Tires]

7. The problem of it is the Chapo folks have a lot of online fanatics that fluff their egos

and it's fucking easy to be some kind of self-appointed social media political expert where all their theories and Poly Sci 250 class hypothethicals never have to face the scrutiny of real-world testing... Nevermind the fact that 99% of these clowns live in cushy liberal enclaves so they think the rest of the nation thinks like them and their cronies.

It's actually a pretty lucrative hustle for the top people. Folks have to learn that you don't fight Trumpists by copying everything they do from the other side of the political spectrum... But the bottom line is this isn't even about politics, this is just trolls and anarchists trying to burn it all down. So don't be surprised when the usual suspects drag on the Clintons, Obama or Pelosi 23 hours out of the day while turning a blind eye to Trump. Don't be surprised when they dust off the old "Dems might as well stay home since both parties are the same!" -bullshit in Fall 2018... And don't be surprised when they start whitesplaining their constant backhand insults to loyal black/Latino Dem voters, (i.e., "Stockholm Syndrome), and then after election day have the unmitigated GALL to blame the party for the less-than-expected minority turnout...

I'm just saying DUers need to start recognizing the ratfucking/useful idiot playbook when they see it, and not let themselves get suckered.

Link to tweet

[Squinch]

8. Oh, definitely. We should make up our "Russian bot/Alt Left" (because their messages are the same)

bingo cards early.

I really hope that at least some of those who were duped by it in the last election get their heads out of their butts and stand upright for 2018.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

9. Why should the Democratic Party "bend the knee"

They may complain endlessly about how bad the Democratic Party is but they never seem to win elections- primaries or otherwise- themselves much either.

[kcr]

11. Exactly. He can fuck right off.

What an asshole. If this is the direction of the progressive movement we're doomed.

[hatrack]

40. Who wrote this shit, Omorosa?

[Squinch]

41. Ha! Omorosa! I forgot about her. Wonder what Russians she's been

colluding with.

[David__77]

10. The political left is diverse.

I don't expect that it will be unified ideologically politically or in action.

[BainsBane]

13. Quit calling them left

They are not leftist. Leftist ideology is based on equality, egalitarianism. Only someone who is deeply oppose to those principles could demand others bow before them. That view is in keeping with RW authoritarianism or pre-modern monarchies, but not leftism.

[David__77]

14. I'm not interested in saying who's "leftist" or "Christian," etc.

Rather, there are varieties of individuals nominally leftist - self-identified. Same thing with religions. I think that the French revolutionaries were leftist - and they could be plenty authoritarian. The guillotine, I think, is quite an expression of authority.

[BainsBane]

23. The French Revolutionaries

led to the rise of the bourgeoisie. You thus make an apt analogy. Not that this crowd would get off their asses. They expect those who lack their privilege to serve them, to "bow" before them, shine their shoes. Their entire position is in opposition to the poor and disenfranchised. They ape terms like neoliberalism while showing not the slightest concern for global inequality. Their complaint is that it isn't unequal enough, that they have been denied what they see as their birthright atop the world capitalist system, living off the exploitation of the Global South. They are committed to further excluding the subaltern from the economic and political participation, hence their efforts to replace primaries with caucuses and thereby ensure the franchise is limited to the white and propertied. That is as leftist as the Republican voter ID laws. In fact it is identical, targeting the same voters for the exact same reasons.

White nationalists can appropriate the language of justice movements, but it does not change what they are.

[BainsBane]

12. Fuck the fascists

Last edited Thu Jul 13, 2017, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm not becoming a party of sociopaths to satisfy their narcissism. They've never won a single election, not one race for political office. They accomplish nothing. They are self-entitled assholes who think those with far less privilege than themselves exist to serve them. There lack any kind of human decency. So if they think we are going to bend to their narcissism and singular focus on their own race and class supremacy, they can fuck themselves. They obviously have far more in common with Donald Trump and their White Supremacist allies than the Democratic Party. I say they go bark orders at the GOP rather than demanding the Democrats adopt their white nationalist world view.

I want a party that cares for its citizens. That respects the less fortunate and doesn't cater to the over inflated egos of the privileged. People like that are reprehensible human beings and to cater to them would be to lose any modicum of decency.

I want people to understand this, regardless of the lies they tell themselves and others, they are not leftist. They are not even centrist. They are the far right. They hate the Democratic Party because it refuses to bow to their sense of entitlement. They oppose civil rights. They oppose basic concepts of human equality, as that guy's comment makes clear. The idea of one person one vote is obviously something they oppose because they are focused on erecting voter restrictions to keep people of color and the non-propertied from voting. They are doing that by seeking to replace primaries with caucuses because they know they can't win as long as the the poor and people of color vote.

What principles or ideas do they advance that are "left" in anyway? As the statement about bowing reveals, they clearly reject the idea that all people are equal. Their proposals all focus on making the party more reactionary, abandoning its commitment to the majority, and elevating the privilege of the few--themselves and their narrow race, gender, and class interests--above the majority, above the common good.

They hate the same people the alt right does. They hate the same people Trump does. Anyone who believes that others should bow to them cannot be leftist because leftist ideologies are based on the principle of equality, egalitarianism, not a hierarchy in which a self-entitled few demand submission from the many. They ideology is white nationalism, not leftism.

To bow to such people would be to abandon anything worthwhile in the Democratic Party, something they clearly despise, which is why they have worked so hard to impose a fascist regime in the White House. They've worked to provide cover for the GOP's deregulation of banking and the repeal of healthcare. They know tens of thousands will die with the repeal of Obamacare and that as many as 30 million will lose health insurance, but those lives don't matter to them because those affected are the very people they and their alt-right allies despise.

So fuck them and their authoritarian self-entitlement. Fuck their hatred of the poor and vulnerable. Fuck their blood lust for the lives of the vulnerable. Fuck their efforts on behalf of Trump and corporate interests, which they have worked relentlessly to promote. Convincing them to care about other human beings is as pointless as trying to convince the die-hard Trump voters. They simply do not care about anyone but themselves, and they despise a worldview that doesn't put their narcissistic individualism above the survival of the hundreds of millions they see as inferior to themselves.

So, no. I will not bow before fascists or take on their ultra-right wing worldview. They can take their demands to the GOP, whose power and agenda they have worked so hard to promote.

[sheshe2]

15. +infinity.

Thank you.

[Gothmog]

17. Great post BainsBane

[NurseJackie]

19. Damn! Excellent! Thank you! I know...

... that I often tangle with people exactly like you describe. It's maddening.

[JHan]

20. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

[Jamaal510]

24. ...

[SunSeeker]

31. BABOOM!

[KitSileya]

32. Brava!

Exactly right, Bainsbane. There's so much male white privilege on the ultra left that you cannot distinguish them from the ultra right, except perhaps in their reasoning for why the world should privilege white men - one side favoring religion, the other religion-like 'logical/reasonable/scientific' arguments (which are neither logical, reasonable. or scientific, especially if you are not a white man.)

[BainsBane]

33. Turns out this guy is from a rich family

and rakes in over 100k a year whining about Democrats on his podcast. No wonder he wants Trump to stay in power. I can't tell you how many upper-middle class to rich people I've seen whine about the Democratic party not representing them as the "working class."

The con these rich sociopaths are perpetuating is disgusting. No amount of wealth is enough for them. They are oppressed by the poor, people of color, who aren't truly "working people." So what if they work two jobs and barely get by. They don't count. It's the $100k plus a year "working class" that really matters.

It's the same RW shit the racist Republicans have been flinging for years. They are con artists, just like THEIR president they put in office and are determined to ensure has another term.
They need to rake in those tax cuts and make sure their financial holdings are deregulated. There are people's civil rights and health insurance need to be stripped away. They have vacations homes and couture dresses to buy. And the folks working for minimum wage oppress them by having the audacity to vote.
These fuckwads are like the alt-right, only more mendacious and predatory.

[KitSileya]

35. Yes. It's very typical of the faux progressives to be rich and white and pretend to be working class

They refuse to see that not only do they not belong to the working class, but that the majority of the working class is (gasp!) persons of color. This chasing of the white working class vote and the sidelining of "identity politics" that Senator Sanders and his followers and others on the far left are advocating, is totally playing into the hands of the republicans. It is by using intersectional issues that the "1%"-ers manage to con the mostly white voters to vote for them. They use the unsaid racism, sexism, and homophobia of white voters as dog whistles to get their votes, even though the politics of the "1%"-ers hurt ordinary white voters. It's only by solving intersectional issues first that we will ever solve the issue of economic injustice - as long as white voters are willing to sacrifice their economic well-being for their beliefs that women should not be allowed to control their own bodies, that LGBT people should be marginalized and people of color should be held as second class citizens, we're never going to win.

White alt-left fauxgressive such as those in the OP are just switching the evangelical Christianity with Susan Sarandonesque "let it burn and we'll sort it out later" nihilism.

[JI7]

37. yup, we need to stop pretending it's about purity and being naive of how the system works

these are just right wing assholes or apolitical types who learned they can profit from angry liberals with republicans in office.

[pirateshipdude]

39. It is interesting that one of the gripe is the Democratic party has no spine. Yet, their complaint

is that the Democratic party will not be spineless and kneel to them.

Every factor points to the Democratic base not supporting the outlier. Every factor points to this Independent position focused exclusively on the middle class simply is not good enough for the Democratic Party, per Sanders own words focusing exclusively on the middle class. The Democratic party needs, demands that there be more.

I am good with that.

[BainsBane]

42. voters seem to demand it

and it is voters who determine candidates and priorities through their votes. That a privileged few abhor that democratic process is not the Democratic Party's problem.

[MountCleaners]

16. Whatever happened to consciousness raising

And all of that other old sixties and seventies left stuff? The stuff where you had to check your own ego and not replicate domineering behaviors. It was good advice, and people have trashed all of that.

[GulfCoast66]

25. No offense intended, but it was for losers then, and for losers now

Look at the successful Democratic Politicians who actually accomplished true, liberal and even social democratic goals.

FDR and LBJ...had someone brought up consciousness raising to either one of them the reaction would been classic. FDR would have politely sliced them up using his upper class sarcasm. LBJ would have told them they were fucking idiots. Both of those guys brought guns to knife fights.

An honest question...do you think either of them would have allowed Bernie to run as a Democrat last year. Not only is the answer no, but they would have poured resources into Vermont years ago to insure that the seat was held by a member of the Democratic Party.

I am not necessarily advocating that tactic, but there is no way they would have allowed an independent candidate to win in a liberal state without one hell of a fight. And no way in hell would they have let him run on our parties ticket. Hell, LBJ would have called him(or anyone in that situation) into the oval office and physically intimidated him.

Politics is a down in the dirt, get what you can when you can proposition. If we are a party trying to raise consciousness we are lost.

[George II]

18. Mr. Menaker sounds a lot like Nina Turner, who recently said in an interview with The Nation...

about "Our Revolution" in reference to Democrats: "I don’t think it is our job nor our obligation to fit in. It’s their job to fit in with us."

[JHan]

21. "This sentiment is understandable" ....the fuck it is Matt

It is NOT "understandable"

[Cary]

22. The radical left is a hurdle that we must overcome

They have never been more than that, and never will be either.

[BainsBane]

34. How about we ignore them

And focus on the country and winning the midterms. The party has more important things to do than cater to their affluenza.

[Cary]

38. What are our choices?

1. Get aggravated, or 2. Ignore them.

Which choice do they want us to make?

[GulfCoast66]

26. We often blame Gerrymandering for making he Republican Party strong

But keep in mind it also weakens us. As the Republican member of congress have become more conservative, our members have become more liberal. Which means our very liberal base has more juice than it used to. Now, that may seem good to you if you live in the Northeast or Northwest, but I do not. I live in Florida.

And while I am a social democrat, I am pragmatic enough to realize that most American are not. I want a French style health care system(not straight single payer). But if we run with that as our goal we will lose at this point and time.

The republicans have left pragmatism behind. They are all in on an 1880's style America. We can win. But not if our alternative is Sweden.

[JHan]

28. +++++ And Sweden would surprise these so called leftists...

I doubt they even understand the dynamics behind sweden's economy and institutions.

I also prefer the French System, I think it might be a better fit for America.

[Starry Messenger]

27. They learned how to monetize hipster racism.

They dress it all up in anti-capitalist memes, but they are all white, Menaker's dad is a well-established publisher, and the other guys are equally from high-brow America. Their Patreon nets them *each* $100,000 a year, just for their shitty podcast.

I refuse to think of them as the left. I hate what they are doing to social media--their legions of vapid fans brigade anyone who dares call them out on their privileged shit.

[BainsBane]

29. No wonder he wants Trump to stay in office so badly

Rich piece of shit.

[murielm99]

30. Coherent and practical?

LOL

[ecstatic]

36. Do these people really exist in real life? In large numbers?

I thought they were mostly Russian trolls combined with a few very naive and/or mentally unstable Americans?

[BainsBane]

43. They exist

I don't know how large, but they certainly exist.

[Hortensis]

44. The best way is for the large Democratic faction not to answer

these attacks. Except for Monty Python moments, of course, like poor Brian's encounter.

"REG: Listen. If you wanted to join the People's Front of Judea, you'd have to really hate the Romans.

BRIAN: I do!

REG: Oh, yeah? How much?

BRIAN: A lot!

REG: Right. You're in. Listen. The only people we hate more than the Romans are the fucking Judean People's Front.

P.F.J.: Yeah...

JUDITH: Splitters.

P.F.J.: Splitters...

FRANCIS: And the Judean Popular People's Front.

P.F.J.: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Splitters. Splitters...

LORETTA: And the People's Front of Judea.

P.F.J.: Yeah. Splitters. Splitters...

REG: What?

LORETTA: The People's Front of Judea. Splitters.

REG: We're the People's Front of Judea!

LORETTA: Oh. I thought we were the Popular Front.

REG: People's Front! C-huh.

FRANCIS: Whatever happened to the Popular Front, Reg?

REG: He's over there.

P.F.J.: Splitter!



Btw, note that left-wing zealots gave up flag-burning because for strategic reasons right-wing leaders stopped it being reported to their followers, thus eliminating the gratifyingly enraged responses. Just no fun any more.

[geek tragedy]

45. Chapo dude sounds like Joffrey Baratheon ny