So, Kyle Kulinski recently put out a video arguing against political doomerism and it kind of hit home for me as someone who is increasingly sounding like a doomer. I was going to write a unique post for this, but I feel like the best response would be to just copy and paste what I said on a relevant forum, as it sums up my views perfectly and I don't feel like rewriting this in blog form here. Copy pasts starts now:
Yeah I have kind of a different opinion, as someone who is trending somewhat toward doomerism.
I guess the crux of my argument is that i just dont share the exact same goals as kyle. I probably agree with him on a lot, but I'm gonna be honest, over the past year I've just had a falling out with much of the traditional left, to the point that while I agree on some things, i flat out dont agree on others.
Kyle talks of electing people and using them as enforcers and crap, but honestly, what if I dont agree with what you're enforcing? A lot of what we tend to "enforce" among the progressive left and democratic side of the aisle isnt crap I really believe in.
I mean, I dont give a crap about israel and palestine, and as far as foreign policy in general i mostly support the obama/biden approach to it. i'm not some super anti war hippie who thinks we should have like 25% of the current defense budget (although we can certainly make cuts and spend way too much) and wants to pull out of everywhere. On social issues I'm a moderate these days and don't care about SJW priorities or outrage culture on the left in general.
Economics I'm better probably, but still, leaning far more toward the yang gang a lot of cracks have been appearing between me and the progressive left. For me, UBI is priority #1, and half the left screams at me that UBI will destroy welfare and is a technocratic libertarian idea pushed by jeff bezos and elon musk to preserve capitalism and only true socialism will save us. The left seems more intent on sticking it to rich people than actually improving peoples' lives, and we will disagree on priorities on how to improve peoples lives.
For as much as I like bernie, I dont always agree with his approach. I supported him twice, but mostly because he was the best option we had against the neolib branch of the party. I dont really care about a green new deal. Free college, medicare for all, and student debt forgiveness, sure, and those are the real reasons i align with the bernie movement (they're my top priorities beyond UBI), but yeah, theres very real differences there.
That said, I tend to feel politically homeless. The democratic party primarily has 3 factions. Establishment moderates, who I deem as useless and hate with a passion. Progressives and socialists who agree with me on hating the moderates but lump me in with them for not being as extreme as them on issues. And then the idpol circlejerk people where everything is about race, gender, sexuality, privilege, etc. And being a privileged straight white guy, yeah no that stuff doesn't fly with me very well.
Like on the pew typology, I'm outsider left. I dont fit in the democratic party and feel politically homeless. I lean left and agree with them in vague terms, but my actual ideology is different. And having witnessed the divides in the democratic party lately, eh, I just struggle to feel at home in democratic party politics.
I know kyle crapped on third parties and people jerking it to theory, but I'm kinda trending toward this. I'm more in line with yang's forward party at this point than much of the progressive movement. I recognize progressives are fighting for mostly righteous causes and I tend to tacitly agree with them a lot of the time. But given how purity testy they are and how they'll rip you for ANY impurity, and given how many of them constantly rip on MY brand of politics, I just dont feel at home in the movement. If they were open to socially moderate UBI supporters I'd happily stay on board with them, but given i seem constantly ripped for my views lately by them, I just...don't really agree with them.
And the same thing on core values. Like, he mentioned john deere strike. While i think it's great they bargained for better conditions for themselves, this does nothing to systemically fix problems and shouldnt be a replacement for GOOD POLICY. And even more so, i kind of view the labor movement as more trying to merely reform the institution of work, while i wanna free people of it. So i kinda look at victories like this like, yeah, congrats on winning some craps, but the system's still broken, people are still forced to work in these crappy work places anyway, and I feel like the left pulls the cart before the horse.
And to go back to the purity stuff. Even in the anti work movement i often dont feel welcome. Because I'm not a "socialist" and anyone who isnt a full on leftist in their eyes isnt truly anti work because only people who oppose all of capitalism are. I know kyle mentioned people who jerk it to theory not being helpful, but in some ways it really is hurting our causes.
idk what the solution is here. If we open up to ideological impurity, we're not gonna agree on methods and goals as there are very real ideological differences between different factions of the left. If we stick to purity testing while we get what we want we keep attacking each other for having slightly different priorities.
Idk what to say here. I'm kind of at a loss myself. I'm at a point where I find myself disagreeing more and more with the left and being a yang-esque independent and while i feel true to myself in doing it, i understand it leaves me largely politically homeless and unable to accomplish any change, and I dont like it.
I guess part of it is im just not a people person and I do "jerk it to theory" in my own way. But I think something is to be said about not working well with others and having my own unique views that dont fit in any box. it makes politics frustrating. And I have been drifting toward a form of doomerism lately and this video kind of makes me realize that. idk what the future holds. I guess we'll have to see where things go from here. What progressives do, what the yang gang/forward party does, etc. Im this weird hybrid of both and i just dont fit in boxes.
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