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Showing Original Post only (View all)"A letter to my dismal allies on the US left" [View all]
Dear allies,
. . .
O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears. Because what we're talking about here is not an analysis, a strategy, or a cosmology, but an attitude, and one that is poisoning us. Not just me, but you, us, and our possibilities.
Leftists explain things to me
The poison often emerges around electoral politics. Look, Barack Obama does bad things and I deplore them, though not with a lot of fuss, since they're hardly a surprise. He sometimes also does not-bad things, and I sometimes mention them in passing, and mentioning them does not negate the reality of the bad things. . .
One manifestation of this indiscriminate biliousness is the statement that gets aired every four years: that in presidential elections we are asked to choose the lesser of two evils. Now, this is not an analysis or an insight; it is a cliche, and a very tired one, and it often comes in the same package as the insistence that there is no difference between the candidates. You can reframe it, however, by saying: we get a choice, and not choosing at all can be tantamount in its consequences to choosing the greater of two evils. . .
Dismissiveness is a way of disengaging from both the facts on the ground and the obligations those facts bring to bear on your life. As Michael Eric Dyson recently put it, "What is not good are ideals and rhetorics that don't have the possibility of changing the condition that you analyse. Otherwise, you're engaging in a form of rhetorical narcissism and ideological self-preoccupation that has no consequence on the material conditions of actually existing poor people." . . .
There are really only two questions for activists: what do you want to achieve? And who do you want to be? And those two questions are deeply entwined. Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.
. . .
O rancid sector of the far left, please stop your grousing! Compared to you, Eeyore sounds like a Teletubby. If I gave you a pony, you would not only be furious that not everyone has a pony, but you would pick on the pony for not being radical enough until it wept big, sad, hot pony tears. Because what we're talking about here is not an analysis, a strategy, or a cosmology, but an attitude, and one that is poisoning us. Not just me, but you, us, and our possibilities.
Leftists explain things to me
The poison often emerges around electoral politics. Look, Barack Obama does bad things and I deplore them, though not with a lot of fuss, since they're hardly a surprise. He sometimes also does not-bad things, and I sometimes mention them in passing, and mentioning them does not negate the reality of the bad things. . .
One manifestation of this indiscriminate biliousness is the statement that gets aired every four years: that in presidential elections we are asked to choose the lesser of two evils. Now, this is not an analysis or an insight; it is a cliche, and a very tired one, and it often comes in the same package as the insistence that there is no difference between the candidates. You can reframe it, however, by saying: we get a choice, and not choosing at all can be tantamount in its consequences to choosing the greater of two evils. . .
Dismissiveness is a way of disengaging from both the facts on the ground and the obligations those facts bring to bear on your life. As Michael Eric Dyson recently put it, "What is not good are ideals and rhetorics that don't have the possibility of changing the condition that you analyse. Otherwise, you're engaging in a form of rhetorical narcissism and ideological self-preoccupation that has no consequence on the material conditions of actually existing poor people." . . .
There are really only two questions for activists: what do you want to achieve? And who do you want to be? And those two questions are deeply entwined. Every minute of every hour of every day you are making the world, just as you are making yourself, and you might as well do it with generosity and kindness and style.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/15/letter-dismal-allies-us-left?CMP=share_btn_fb
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Exactly. That kind of faulty logic is what the GOP uses to say that Democrats "hate America" nt
stevenleser
Jun 2015
#106
Yeah, I haven't seen that here. It would have been hidden had someone actually said it.
polly7
Jun 2015
#98
Really! That's quite a story! But, where have you seen what she stated was said? nt.
polly7
Jun 2015
#113
I like to vote for the candidates who best represent what I believe in.
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jun 2015
#19
Dear Rebecca. This "rancid sector of the far left" member says I don't want to be your ally.
Autumn
Jun 2015
#24
Agree with you and g above. Love and empathy get more done. Cynicism supports the status quo. n/t
freshwest
Jun 2015
#36
Europeans have a better grasp of their history. I remember one of our posters who detailed the Nazi
freshwest
Jun 2015
#38
She uses the words "rancid" "radical" "dismal" to refer to the left and liberals.
madfloridian
Jun 2015
#48
I think you just described the Eyore wing of the farthest Left perfectly......
msanthrope
Jul 2015
#197
I was just noticing that the left's rhetoric has shifted away from "there is no difference" to...
aikoaiko
Jun 2015
#49
What I believe in is not and has never been what the Democratic Party platform has been based on.
F4lconF16
Jul 2015
#191
I have a feeling within 20 years or so you'll be seeing some new politics here, too. ;)
F4lconF16
Jul 2015
#205
Wow seems much of the party folks are dead serious about the "rancid" left.
madfloridian
Jun 2015
#61
I know who she is. I have read many of her works. That one was done in anger....
madfloridian
Jun 2015
#73
Did any of you think you might someday want those "dismal" "rancid" liberals as allies?
madfloridian
Jun 2015
#62
They don't like us, we are the group that votes for the POTUS 80 - 90% of the time.
Rex
Jun 2015
#70
It's not an attack on me. And it's not an attack on anyone that can clearly read and understand
Number23
Jun 2015
#85
I can read it 100 times and still not feel attacked. But then I'm not really trying to either.
Number23
Jun 2015
#91
Tell that to Glenn Greenwald, Nader, Cornell West, Tavis Smiley, Jane Hamsher, AND...
stevenleser
Jun 2015
#148
There are bad things and they are bad. There are good things and they are good
joshcryer
Jun 2015
#79
Good read. Interesting to see an activist on the left atacked like this here.
NCTraveler
Jun 2015
#109
I don't know her personally. But she's an archetype of a type of "liberal" I run into all too often.
lumberjack_jeff
Jun 2015
#136
The Very Sensible People taking a victory lap over the same-sex marriage decision..
frylock
Jun 2015
#175
This is driving me nuts. SECTOR SECTOR SECTOR SECTOR. Right smack at the top of the article.
betsuni
Jun 2015
#187
Does anyone here think Democrats are not liberal? Some may be moderate liberals and some are
Thinkingabout
Jun 2015
#186
"It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare."
Fumesucker
Jul 2015
#196