So, I had an interesting conversation today. As you guys know, I've been following some gamergate subs discussing the sweetbaby inc stuff, and there was a discussion about when all this SJW stuff started. And my answer is the same as it always was, about 2016ish. Sure it existed before that, you hate gamergate in 2014, and even some atheism related movements like atheism+ and elevator gate as early as 2011-2012, but I would say the 2016 was the tipping point. Basically, the establishment saw fit to use those politics to basically destroy Bernie's movement, while also fighting Trump.
Of course, if youre talking impact in video games, i'd say gamergate was the big shift there. That was just slightly before 2014, and it was clearly on the rise then.
But then someone else mentioned Occupy Wall Street. Now, I actually heard this before from a guy I no longer talk to since he had since gone FULL alt right with all of the really disgusting racism/sexism, etc., involved. Even if I don't like SJWs, keep in mind, if you're a genuinely bigoted person, I probably ain't gonna get along with you either. But, when I still talked to him, he also mentioned OWS. he said that there was too much stuff about consensus building and nothing got done and no one agreed with anything and that SJWism destroys everything it touches.
I didn't take him too seriously at the time. He was a bit TOO wrapped up in obsessing over SJW culture for my tastes, and keep in mind, I didn't really become a critic of theirs until they started picking fights with me in 2016 and beyond. I mean, early on, I was actually sympathetic to them. Just as I'm sympathetic toward the class/economic side of issues. I took a class in college that discussed income inequality AND SJW stuff around 2010 shortly before OWS started and it was still fresh in my mind when it happened, and I tended to approach the debate from a more intellectual level as a result, understanding how skewed the income distribution was in favor of the rich. I mean, and then imagine you get this movement talking about how working class people are getting screwed and look at how rich the rich are, and it really did seem like the elites were trying to shut it down. But I didn't really focus on the SJW side of it.
But then someone brought up a certain colbert report interview that was done back in the day on it and how cringey it was, and OH MY GOD, I do remember the protesters occupying Zucotti park, but holy crap I didn't recall it being THIS cringe. Basically, the link involves Colbert interviewing 2 protesters named Justin and "Ketchup" (pretty sure Ketchup is an alias, leftists dont like to be identified because they dont wanna face real world consequences for their protesting). And yeah, it's literally as cringe as it gets. Colbert kinda did them dirty because his goal was of course the humor, but yeah, these guys didn't really help things. And yeah, I can see what they're saying with the consensus building, etc. if you were trying to understand the motivations of the protesters based on this interview, you wouldn't get anywhere. Because these guys were so incoherent they made that Doreen Ford interview that blew up r/antiwork look GOOD.
But yeah, discussions of consensus, no one is in charge, no one can speak for the whole group, a weird discussion into transgenderism, and a bunch of other things, and by the end of it, if I were an observer looking in for the first time, I would see them as a bunch of weirdo leftist cranks.
As the people I was talking to said after, it was like the rich discovered the mold on their bread was actually penicillin. They kinda discovered they could use these cranks to derail entire movements. And that's why we saw an uptick of SJWism after. SJWism seems to have been elevated in order to derail OWS, as well as movements inspired after it like the basic income movement (the UBI movement became prominent as a direct result of OWS and the legitimate discussions in income inequality and the state of the American economy), Bernie's movement in 2016, etc.
And it makes sense. You know, I read Howard Zinn's book on America's history a while back and this is nothing new. The elites have always exploited the black-white divide in American politics in order to distract from class issues.
I always have called 2016 like this weird "tower of babel" year of politics, where it's like we were getting close to building something that could take down the establishment and then "god" (aka, the elites in this case) basically used artificial divisions to sow confusion and infighting, destroying the "tower" we were building to take them on.
And now our politics IS mostly identity, with the right leaning hard into white identity politics and the left leaning hard into social justice identity politics, and I'm here just freaking wanting UBI and universal healthcare like I always have.
I admit, my ideas arent much different than they were 10 years ago in like 2014, but that's the point. I feel like, looking at it, I've largely been immune to the madness that has dominated our politics in the years since. I kept my eyes on the prize, and that's that. But a lot of other people have been swept away by these different tides involving social issues and identity politics. And I've just become more burned out and hostile with the identity politics crowds as a result. And I'll tell you exactly why. Other than just being annoying, obnoxious, and injecting themselves into my fandoms like religious zealots trying to change america to meet their extreme cultural standards in rather authoritarian and illiberal ways, they also tend to pit my politics against those of social issues, trying to force me to choose between them.
I've even been seeing this brought up again in reference to protest voters by the blue no matter who crowd, going on about identity based issues like supporting homosexuality aren't "unimportant" and that we "bernie bro" types are wrong for wanting to sweep them aside in favor of our class issues.
To that, I'll say this. There is no INHERENT conflict between the two. Logically, theres' nothing saying I can't support both, say, gay rights, and my economic causes. As a matter of fact, in principle, I DO support both.
HOWEVER, when the democrats tend to ignore and downplay economic issues, alienating voters like ME, and then telling US that WE have to vote for THEM because of LGBTQ+ issues or something, THAT is the problem.
When it comes to economic issues, the democratic party left loves to always tell us the perfect is the enemy of the good and we have to compromise, but MAN do they LOVE their purity on social issues. Like, I'm a PASSIVE leftie on social issues. I support racial equality within a LIBERAL frame work, I support LIBERAL feminism, I support gay and trans issues, but let's face it, these issues...AREN'T my issues. I'm a cis straight white male, and I DON'T "check my privilege." Because checking my privilege means submission to the hive mind. It means sacrificing my economic issues on the altar of white male liberal guilt, FOR THEM. And I just ain't doing it.
So yeah, maybe I'm gonna downplay say, LGBTQ+ issues. Maybe I will portray identity politics as "fringe." Because it is. And it should be KEPT fringe. Because identity politics ruins literally everything it touches. And I do see that now. For all the issues I have with that former friend given how racist and sexist he was, he was right on that. It ruins everything it touches. And call me "conservative", but there are things I want to "conserve" from these people. Like 2000s era gaming/internet culture on cultural issues, and on economics, YES, I'm sorry, but basic income, medicare for all, and other issues get WAY higher priority than this nonsense.
The only reason I'm so amenable to the blue no matter who crowd in 2024 (well besides Trump being a complete and utter whack case), is because I see my best approach to preserving progress on economic issues IS by reelecting Biden. He HAS moved the needle, the left has nothing going for it right now, leftists don't know how to organize worth a crap (still stuck in their dysfunctional OWS style protesting and organization, WHICH WILL NEVER ACTUALLY WORK!), and they're fixated on Israel.
And let me tell you about Israel/Palestine. Just as say, LGBTQ+ issues are lower on the totem pole or pecking order for me than UBI or medicare for all are, gaza is a much lower priority for me than identity based issues that actually influence American citizens. Because AT LEAST they impact American citizens, and I'd take care of our own before I take care of people half way across the world.
That's the problem with the left in general. They just dont keep their eyes on the prize. So many of them are getting obsessed with identity politics, and obsessed with gaza, and insisting on protesting in the most braindead, annoying, and offputting ways possible. It's like they WANNA lose. But that might be the point. Remember, our mold, is the ruling class's penicillin, and they're innoculating themselves with this bullcrap, rendering our movements ineffective.
The left really needs to shape up and get serious in future election cycles. We need better candidates, and we need to push politics in ways that WORK. And we need to stay as far away from social justice politics as possible. Support all the right causes, sure. I'm not saying we should become right wing. Despite wanting to conserve my left wing vision and 2000s gaming culture, I'm not really that conservative. I do consider myself mostly a progressive. I just have a different way of presenting it, because I'm a bit older now and I'm less with the modern zeitgeist. My politics is based in the secular humanism of the largely now defunct new atheist community. Even if I dont identify as an atheist any more, nothing about refinding god seems to suggest that any of my actual political beliefs are wrong. If anything my new worldview complements and supports my existing humanist worldview, and as such, I will stick with that worldview in discussing politics.
But yeah. We seriously need to shape up and get real for 2028, or we're just gonna keep getting destroyed again and again, and the best we're ever gonna get is those relative "scraps" that Biden and the DNC see fit to give us. The two go hand in hand btw. Ineffective and whackjob leftists means the left never has anything good going on, means I end up supporting liberals to at least get something. Get it? Yeah. Shape up in time for 2028 guys. If we wanna repeat the Bernie phenomenon, we need to do better than this.
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