Enough of the fake left
The work of making the US and the world a better place is critically important. The best, most evidence-based, way to do this is liberalism. This is why I’m a Democrat.
Liberal polices are doing exceptionally well at improving the lives of everyone, including and especially marginalized people.
But we have a loud, small cohort of fake-left anarchists actively working against these efforts.
They’ve always been there: under-informed, half-right, half-cocked, angry and cynical. They keep trying to lie to you and get you to abandon your political power.
They want you to think things are getting worse instead of better. They want you to be angry instead of smart. They want you to give up progress for the vague promise of a revolution that never comes. They want you to reject voting in favor of nihilism.
It’s tempting to treat people like this like they are operating in good faith, like their heart is in the right place. After all, you often find yourself agreeing with things they say, and share some of the same concerns, ideas, or goals.
If you watch long enough, though, you’ll find that these people never accomplish what they set out to do. And if you keep pulling the thread, you’ll find apathy, ignorance, fear – and sometimes violence and hate. There is infinite emotional labor, busywork, and anger. But no results.
Worse, there’s a culture of rejecting the use of the actual levers of power. Never because there’s a better option in sight, but because it feels good to imagine being above it all.
It is time to firmly reject this part of the “left”. It is not courageous, idealistic, or morally pure. It is cowardly, complicit, and morally bankrupt. If someone doesn’t want to do the work to come up with a clear, workable plan to accomplish their goals, and rails against the idea of even voting for someone else’s plan, they cannot be taken seriously. I will not nod politely and enable their revolutionary fantasy as the are actively working to hurt the people they pretend to care about.
We are worse off for tolerating this behavior. We simply cannot build a better future if the toxic cynicism of the fake left dominates the conversation. Don’t let it.