The fifth column, whether it knows it or not

[ritaxis]

There's some really strange posts that get retweeted over and over on Twitter. It's kind of nauseating to watch. I'm going to try to address them all here in a cogent way, which may be feckless but it's what I can think of to do right now

Comments

[joycemocha]

I am appalled by the degree to which I see self-proclaimed Socialists reposting the Same. Exact. Things. that Trump supporters are posting about Russia and a lot of other things. Some of it is also not-so-veiled racism and anti-identity politics wrapped in a guise of "economics is the only thing that matters."

(and no, not talking about W*ll Sh*tt*rl*).

OTOH, I'm seeing Democratic party bureaucracy mindlessly opposing reform Democrats even though it's clear their strategy didn't work....

[ritaxis]

Please point me to this. All I ever see is people saying they're upset that left wing people are saying these things,

[joycemocha]

Are we Facebook friends? If you are on Facebook, they've been popping up on various people's timelines. Steven Brust, John Kevin Hunt, can't remember the others...

[ritaxis]

We aren't but maybe should be? I'm kinda lousy at facebook. I show up, make a cancer announcement, like a dozen posts, do three comments, rant once or twice, & disappear for a couple months because I'm pissed facebook won't let me see everybody's posts. But I never establish continuity.

At the risk of being predictable, let me point out: Brust is a Trotskyite. The usual condition of that is Too Sexy For This & everybody's too tainted to make coalitions with.

[browngirl]

Well and truly said!

[zeborahnz]

I agree with you that a lot of the blame isn't productive and infighting needs to be put aside while we fight the really big threats. (We especially need to be wary of potential agents provocateurs because that's a known tactic in effect.)

But to all things moderation (including moderation). We generally shouldn't take allies down as "the real racist" but if they're being racist we do need to call them out, whether that be in the spirit of friendly critique or in the howl of pain that comes out of your mouth when your friend accidentally steps on your toe. (And if someone howls at us we need to stop stepping on their toe.)

But with fascism on the rise why is this so vital? For exactly the reason you said: if more progressive/radical groups agree to disband themselves and toe the party line 'for the duration' 'in order to defeat fascism' then at the end of this, after we've defeated fascism, we'll just be left with a society run by a different set of people blind to their own different set of privileges

[ritaxis]

Thanks! I meant to go into this more later, but just tossed it off in that one sentence about not engaging in wimpy compromises. Yes, we need to demand high standards from ourselves & the people we work with. That's a particular thing: you do get some unfortunate callouts here&there but those are the inevitable side effect of generally demanding that people do better. I'm not even complaining about the worst of the mistaken callouts, for that reason.

The thing I'm fighting against is this narrative that our enemies are the Left, the "progressives," the "antifascists," the Clintonistas, and the Bernies. I don't think it is accidental that the people getting painted this way, generally vaguely without names or dates, are never blue dogs, or people who have actually gone to meet Trump, or people who have called for "wait and see" and "an orderly transition." They're always antifascists or the more principled kind of Democratic Party functionary. That's my point, and why I call it the fifth column.

[zeborahnz]

Ah, got it. I don't think I've seen a lot of that - or if I have, only through seeing people taking it down.