So, it seems like the left has a serious case of Musk derangement syndrome these days. I mean, personally, I have mixed views on the guy, but sometimes politics do make strange bedfellows and I do agree with him at times. I mean, the left is in an uproar about his purchase of twitter, while Musk claims he cares about free speech. I mean, given how crazy the left is on speech these days, I have to agree with him. And then we have him supporting UBI and automation and the like. So, guy is right sometimes. At the same time the dude is an egomaniac billionaire, who tends to be anti union and do other things I don't like, so I'm all over the place with him. But recently, he posted a meme about the overton window, showing the left moving increasingly left over the years and claiming it's moved so far left he's now center right whereas in 2008 he was center left.
Honestly, there's a lot wrong with the meme, but let's focus on what he's right about. I mean, the liberal BASE has shifted left a lot since 2008. 2008 democrats were very moderate, almost so moderate that I could've supported Hillary over McCain despite being a conservative back then. But then Obama got the nomination, I perceived him as being much further left, and backlash effect drove me right that election cycle.
By 2012, the democrats were still pretty moderate, and I waltzed right in there as a refugee from the tea party. but that's the thing. The dems barely moved left at all. The GOP moved WAY right, as the establishment conservatives were purged post 2008 and the tea party movement took over the party. So that's problem #1. The GOP got more extreme. The democrats didn't.
As far as how I fit in the 2012 democratic party now, while I get the overall social and foreign policies about right, economics i DID move left. I now support UBI, Medicare for all, free college, stuff like that. I'm fairly progressive. Much more so than old school moderate "new democrats".
2016, the democratic party doesn't move. And I'm now to it's left and feel like it's betraying its core principles. i didn't quite realize it had abandoned those principles long ago and the centrism wasn't just a political strategy of necessity but one of desire, but yeah. But, the party did move in weird ways. The social justice left, a part of the left previously considered a laughable minority no one took seriously, became ascendant as Hillary Clinton decided to pursue the culture wars against Trump. And this is where we got cancel culture, and the like. When I joined the left in 2012, with the atheist movement, I was pro free speech. it was the right that wanted to censor stuff. But the left started adopting attitudes of bashing the fash, and trying to censor people. They were driven to fear, just like the right, and ended up becoming authoritarian, jsut like the right.
That seemed to be the thing musk was talking about, as his big thing right now is "free speech", and on that specific thing, I agree with him. The left went further left and it alienated people. But the right also went further right. Tea party politics now seem moderate compared to Trumpism. Conservatism, as understood by Thomas Frank, is a cancer that's been growing for a while, and now it's metastasizing in worse and worse forms. Musk's meme ignores these changes.
And in 2020 and beyond, now the left is more extreme, as in the people. While the moderate wing is still alive and well, progressives have, on the other hand, gotten too extreme for me. There's too much socialism and luddite politics in economics, there's too much social justice BS and calls for censorship and regulation of media, and there's too much anti Americanism in foreign policy. The left is a fun house version of themselves. but at the same time the centrists with power are as worthless as ever. And despite the far left gaining ground, the centrists still control the party. Of the mainstream dems, I feel they moved very far left on SOCIAL issues, some of which was good (2008 dems are to my right on issues like gay marriage for example), but other times not so good (SJWism is cancer). On economics, they're still too centrist. And while I'm not liking the progressives turning into the tea party 2.0 and the kind of fanaticisms they're cultivating, let's face it, they have a point, and the democratic party does need to move left.
So idk. To me, the meme does make a point about SJWs at least but at the same time it's just wrong. The right has moved WAY right since 2008, and while there are leftists who are WAY to the left of 2008 liberals, the party hasnt really budged much outside of doubling down on social issues. And while that might be what musk is talking about, eh....it's just one issue. And while I would agree with musk on say, free speech over say, the SJWs, all in all it's still ignoring that the right has moved further right than the left has left, outside of a few fringe elements of the left no one takes seriously.
So yeah, Musk does sound kind of boomery on here. He's still based on UBI and free speech and stuff like that, but eh, I wouldnt describe MYSELF as center right at all. I'm pretty center left on most issues, and my "Musk like" economic politics are still, in my mind, left.
I mean tell the left you wanna automate jobs, and give everyone money so they don't have to work any more, they'll call you a communist.
The problem is then the literal communists will call me a right winger because my left wing politics isn't based on "labor". As if those dinosaur politics have a monopoly on "the left".
I mean that's the thing. When you're somewhere in the middle, the extremes think you're the other extreme. I would say I'm ultimately a sane center leftie these days, but not in the way the neolibs call themselves "center left". I reject "socialism" but adopt class politics and utopian visions of the future. That's still pretty far left.
But yeah. Musk's meme is silly.
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