So, I actually found the above article on ESS, the anti sanders subreddit. They are hit and miss these days, I did universally hate them as they're basically a bunch of burnt out hillary fangirls who throw shade at sanders and his supporters, but given their dislike of hardcore leftists, I've been kind of enjoying lurking. But then they completely lose the plot because they're their own kind of out of touch. Ya know, because they're a bunch of DNC loving clinton supporters.
And being DNC loving clinton supporters, they didnt like the shade silver threw at SJWs either. But here's the thing about SJWs, SJWs are kind of in a weird place where some are leftist, some are liberal. The philosophy really is more fitting of modern leftism, but the DNC needed SOMETHING to stop Bernie's "political revolution" and given it was hillary of people he was running against, she went full on feminist on him. She played up identity politics, made up stories about sanders people being racist and sexist and threw shade at us telling us that not only are we not getting universal healthcare, but we just dont get all of these intersectional groups.
It became an insufferable circlejerk and it drove a lot of people away from the democrats. And this sub basically was a hive of these kinds of people. During the trump era though, those guys radicialized too. We saw it with the "not my president" movement, and then "Bash the fash", and yeah, a lot of SJW types did go down the long road toward leftist radicalization through the trump years.
And I've always been one of those class reductionist bernie bros who "doesn't get it". I mean, I just wanted UBI, universal healthcare, and student debt forgiveness, man. I dont give a crap about the social justice nonsense. But they didnt wanna go into it, which is how we got the jimmy dore/WOTB left. Those guys were the white male bernie bros who eventually became both leftists, but also kinda maga at the same time.
But then there were other leftists who radicalized and also embraced social justice politics too. It's a spectrum. There are some socialists who arent SJWs, there are some SJWs who arent socialists, and there are some socialists who ARE SJWs, and those guys are arguably the most insufferable of them all.
Anyway, I guess which direction you went in depends somewhat on your identity. White males end up going in the class reductionsit socialist direction or toward maga. And women and POC tend to embrace the more SJWey side of the aisle.
And some might wonder why that is? Are white males really just so racist and sexist they dont get this social justice stuff? No, I'd argue most ARENT racist or sexist, the situation is simple. THe reason white males tend to avoid the parts of the left that are hardcore SJW are because THEY NOT ONLY DO NOTHING TO US, BUT THEY'RE HOSTILE.
Like, to go back to ESS, what brought this up was, not only in response to the nate silver article, but also several other discussions, there were a lot of snide comments hinting at how a lot of people who dont think like them are white males. YEAH, NO CRAP.
As a white male, what makes you think I'd EVER want to associate with YOU PEOPLE? And no i dont mean that in a racist or sexist way, I mean it in a way of "all you guys do is circlejerk about your identities and how we're oppressing you and crap, while you do absolutely nothing for us, why SHOULD we want to align with you?"
Like really, as a 2016 era "bernie bro", let me reiterate what you did wrong.
You rejected our calls for a new economic new deal for the 21st century. You had the gall to call us sexist and racist and privileged, and then told us we gotta vote against our interests OR ELSE.
Why in the everloving fudge, would any progressive white male wanna align with you? It's like you dont want us. You're just indifferent to us at best and outright hostile toward us at worst. Your best pitch to get us to support you isnt through appealing to our interests or our stated goals, but mocking them, and then trying to shame us for not just giving up all of our priorities on the altar of white male liberal guilt.
Why WOULD we support you after all of that? As such, some have gone to MAGA and their more toxic white male grievance politics. And others have gone into different versions of the left than the ones you approve of. Some good, some bad. I cant say I approve of my fellow bernie or busters these days. A lot of them are too radical even for me, and i dont agree with the socialist nonsense either. yes, we need widescale economic change, but I'm more in the "FDR with basic income" camp rather than the sieze the means of production camp. But the point is, why would ANY of us want to join WITH YOU when all you do is insult and attack us while ignoring the causes that DO motivate us? DUH!
Seriously, the left has a white male problem. Just like the right has a women and a racial problem.
like, I get it, and you guys should do. Women dont wanna vote republicans because they dont want to be reduced to breeding cows, right? Sure, I get that. And POC dont wanna vote for republicans because of all of the blatant in your face racism, right? Sure. I get that too. And to you, it's like duh.
Now, imagine a counter ideology to that right wing bigotry formed on advocacy for all of these underprivileged groups, but was overtly exclusionary and hostile to white males, what do you think white males are gonna do? Are they gonna support you? maybe in your mind they should, because it's the moral thing to do. but here's the thing. You SJWs have a one track mind, that dimension of politics is all you think about. And us who are on the left, and also white males, sorry dawg, it does nothing for us and we kinda want better than voting for the sake of the interests of other people. Especially when you're so hostile toward the things we actually ask for.
As I keep saying politics is about coalitions. The reason the right works is because it brings together all of these different people who have different concerns and ideologies under one banner and manages to satisfy them all. In theory the left should think like that too, and often claims to, claiming it's a "big tent". But sometimes the tent can only get so big before it excludes people, and given the democrats so often go in with the concerns of economic moderates while also leaning hard into the social justice crap, a lot of white male progressives feel politically homeless. Like our home isnt with the democrats, but neither is it with the right, who we know is toxic (although a lot of white males inevitably trend right, i have to admit that statistically. But yeah, that's how you get a "me". You get someone who is thoroughly disgusted and alienated by everyone and then im just politically homeless. Of course not everyone is me, and many others go in the direction of openly embracing white male identity politics on the right, getting sucked into the manopshere of jordan peterson, andrew tate, and toxic people like that. Because for many people, at least they're doing something for them. Im not saying it's right, im not saying im agreeing with it, but if you cant understand the problem at this point, that's on you.
If the left wants to win and keep white males, they need to dial down the identity politics and the hostility toward us, and they need to advocate for policies that materially benefit our lives. Until then, expect a lot of us to get swept away by demagogues on the right, with the more intelligent ones remaining on the left feeling alienated politically. Because we just dont like ANY of this identity politics nonsense. That's my take on that.
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