In Defense of Punching Left

I’m a liberal. I’ve always been a liberal…

[…]

“Don’t punch left” is the core tenet of Solidarity, a new book by Astra Taylor and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. In a laudatory interview with the Washington Post, Hunt-Hendrix said the book was aimed not only at progressives in general but also specifically at liberals who criticize the left, naming me and newsletter author Matthew Yglesias as “falling into the right’s divide-and-conquer strategy.”

I read a couple more paragraphs and I had to stop. I forgot what a terrible writer he is. The article is like reading a textbook that lectures you.

r/neoliberal thread

  • Highalectical@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    43·
    6 months ago

    Hot take: liberals should punch left more. When your enemy attacks you, you know you’re on the right path. Liberals are enemies. There are no coalitions to build with them.

    • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
      36·
      6 months ago

      There are no coalitions to build with them.

      I disagree, there are tactical coalitions that can be built predicated on cooperating over specific issues - such as avoiding nuclear war or ending the Palestinian genocide, etc. - with the understanding that tactical cooperation does not equal comraderyship with those in your coalition.

      • Highalectical@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        29·
        6 months ago

        I guess. I’m just so used to libs being venomous snakes that bite when you turn your back that I’m jaded with them.

        • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
          15·
          6 months ago

          No shit, that doesn’t mean there aren’t times where interests align and we can collaborate - preferably on our terms and with our lead - on key issues.

          I don’t see any of you lot complaining about how the Communists coalitioned with the progressive libs in the anti-war movement against the Vietnam War or saying the Communists should’ve gone their own way during the Civil rights movement

          • Highalectical@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
            3·
            6 months ago

            The rub I see with making a coalition with libs now is twofold:

            1. What common goals do we share that both sides are willing to compromise on?
            2. What leverage would communists have in the arrangement that would allow us to get our way?

            To be clear, my top level comment isn’t a dogmatic categorical opposition to forming coalitions with liberals. I just do not see the conditions currently that would make such a coalition further the class struggle. I suppose “liberals” might also be vague in this context as it could be anyone from a borderline baby leftist who just needs a nudge in the right direction to a died in the wool demonrat bruncher. The article makes me think the author is the latter.

            • Alaskaball [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
              3·
              6 months ago

              I suppose “liberals” might also be vague in this context as it could be anyone from a borderline baby leftist who just needs a nudge in the right direction to a died in the wool demonrat bruncher. The article makes me think the author is the latter.

              Context is such an underutilized concept among us who tout ourselves as scientific socialists