So, John Fetterman recently talked about leaving progressivism on Bill Maher's show, and said that his stroke gave him the courage to stay true to his own values or whatever. A lot of progressives online are snarkily saying that "brain damage made him more conservative" or "leave progressivism", but as someone who has also kinda distanced myself from progressives in recent years and stayed true to my own values, I'm going to be a bit even handed here.
To some extent, the idea that progressives left him, and that he didnt actually leave progressives is true. 2024, progressives are a lot more batcrap crazy than they were in 2012, between the SJW crap, the full on marxism, and the full on "america bad" foreign policy perspective. I'll just flat out say that. Progressives, get your crap together, because as another white working class type pennsylvanian who wears gym shorts and hoodies all of the time, yeah, you guys are getting out of sync with the country. I mean that's kind of apparent in retrospect as I traced my roots from the obama coalition (and bernie would've been the "reagan" to obama's "nixon" in that sense), to putting distance from the democrats in 2016, to kinda recognizing that gee, these other anti democrat lefties are kinda insane and actually full on leftist types that no one actually likes. And I'm going to be honest, the progressive types are too intolerant of anyone who doesn't toe their exact line or have their exact ideological purity. And at some point, more sane progressives DO have to push back.
Hence why I kinda gave fetterman leeway and actually approved of him just waving the israeli flag when protesters were harassing him at his house. I mean, I've kinda distanced myself from that take as it seemed like the IDF did get a bit too crazy and genocidal, but honestly? It seemed good at the time.
But here is where I stop being as forgiving and gracious toward fetterman. No man, you've changed. I could accept the israel thing in and of itself. I'm not ride or die on it, and I could support a genuine break from the left there. BUT....seriously, most democrats HAVE kinda toned down their support over time, including myself, and joe biden, and all of the democratic leaders in congress, but you're still full on "NAH MAN, 100% ISRAEL, WE NEED TO SEND THEM MORE BOMBS". And it's like...wtf dude. Did AIPAC buy you out? Don't answer that, we already know.
Like that's the thing, AIPAC has an insane amount of money and they seem to be buying our politicians full stop. I know I know, some pro Israel thing will say its "anti semitic" to say that, but stow it. I know what's going on there, I'm not stupid, and no one is that pro israel unless they're being bought, or are just ride or die zionist.
But, again, it's not just that. It's lab grown meat. You know, using science to solve the age old problem of "how do we make a wonderful tasting juicy burger without having animal concentration camps to do it?" This is a no brainer, and we should be 100% for it, but it seems like some people just dont think we should eat meat unless an actual animal had to suffer and die for it first. Now, I'm not a full on vegetarian, I'm not principled on the issue to just give up meat, but if I could have my meat without animal suffering, all the better. It's a 21st century solution to an age old moral quandry. Some would say Fetterman is on the side he is to preserve jobs in agriculture, but you know me, I'm not a guy to preserve work just to justify a paycheck. It's a stupid regressive idea and in the long term, we need to do away with keeping people working even doing unethical things just to preserve that sweet sweet paycheck. We need an entire reimagining of our economic system there. I kinda get how this could be "progressive" in a weird protectionist way, but it's not really a good solution. It's like preserving those coal jobs in west virginia.
Speaking of environmentalism, same thing with a pipeline running through PA. He was approached on it and he kinda just dismissed and mocked a constituent on it. Not cool dude, not cool, especially as he used to be on these guys side as a private citizen, he has changed. ANd while yes, again, he can say "but jobs", THERES MORE TO LIFE THAN JOBS, JESUS CHRIST, IF A JOB IS DOING THINGS THAT ARE ENVIRONMENTALLY DESTRUCTIVE AND IMMORAL THAN THEY SHOULDNT EXIST! Not a hard concept, but this is your brain on jobism.
And yeah. I knew fetterman was moving to the center in the name of electability to some extent, but yeah, don't say that you havent changed. And don't just say it's all the left leaving you. Because it isn't. Because I still disagree with you. And maybe this is a matter of opposing jobism and most progressives still buying into that whole "work good" crap, but yeah. You have changed, John Fetterman, and it's not all positive.
I get the whole desire to be authentic and buck the weird purity testers, but yeah, some of your stances just arent progressive, and seem flat out unethical to me. It seems more that you're interested in the name of furthering your political career by cozying up with donors and special interests than in doing the right thing. So let's not act like it's about authenticity, because it's not. And I will say that as an authentic progressive in my own right who craps on literally everyone at some point.
And that's my fair and honest take. While I understand his desire to buck the left, the occams razor explanation is that he really did just change. And that should be called out.
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