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I think her point was that there is no intellectual basis or real-life objective for the radical left. Once you've come to terms with everything being problematic and that no solution is possible within a liberal capitalist framework then all you're doing is furiously attacking everything you see. At the end I think she's laying out that she left because there was no objective, no goal, nothing to move towards. Everything is Problematic. I'm not surprised she got exhausted of being angry at Everything all the time.
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Dec 4, 2014 00:44
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Helsing posted:The bottom line is that at its best leftwing radicalism is powerful because it actually offers to concretely improve people's lives. That's the great power of the left: that through solidarity you can give people the power to demand better wages and benefits, better representation for their community, a better life for themselves and their kids. When the left manages to focus itself on those goals it can still win significant victories. I think it's interesting that whilst celebrating the victories this woman helped achieve, you still can't resist taking a few swipes at her for being successful. Yes the left is capable of improving peoples lives, no it never will whilst everyone is squabbling over identity politics. She helped fight against increasing tuition fees, an actual concrete cause she could effect at the time, but this still reflects her privilege because only rich white people get to complain about tuition fees. Now she has her engineering degree (is this actually true or have goons made this up because she talks about paying attention to systems in the final paragraphs?) she's basically the enemy. She didn't change her political views, her situation changed so now she's not one of you. A competent movement might communicate that someone at a different point in their life that can help in a different way, or contribute to a push more closely connected to them, but the left is so wrapped up in who's more oppressed that there is no way to join without miring yourself in what an awful, rotten, privileged monster you are.
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Dec 4, 2014 13:04
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The last few pages of this thread have been a marvellous example of how much good identity politics and privilege theory have done for the right. I mean, they've just been a gift from God for the powers-that-be. Informed by what we've read here, lets run a thought experiment: *** Forty years ago an urban community is struggling with ever-increasing rent. There is a call for rent controls, leading to a community meeting. People are connected to the issue and feel strongly about it and so the first meeting is well attended by citizens across the political, economic and racial spectrum. Voices are heard, a strategy is formed and acted on. Even if the protest/letter-writing campaign/sit-in/movement comes to nothing, people at least got together and shared their mutual struggle in being forced to live under exploitative landlords. At the very worst, the city becomes aware that rent is a political issue, and worries about the tensions involved in ever-increasing prices. *** Six months from now an urban community is struggling with ever-increasing rent. There is a call for rent controls, leading to a community meeting. People are connected to the issue and feel strongly about it and so the first meeting is well attended by citizens across the political, economic and racial spectrum. The first action in the meeting is to inform everyone to be aware of their privilege around women, PoC and other minorities. Someone asks what does race have to do with anything, rent is high whether you are white or black. There are gasps from the academic bench, this person is informed they are a shitlord, the correct term is Person of Colour, they should learn what "intersectionality" means and by the way it is not my job to educate you. The bench, stunned by this shocking display of white privilege, realises that the meeting cannot continue until a correct vocabulary controls are drawn up and that everyone has had a chance to establish their preferred pronouns. To avoid "mansplaining" and "whitesplaining" a procedure is drafted to control who may speak at any given time. Whilst rent may affect everyone, due to intersectionality it doesn't affect everyone equally and those already oppressed must be given more time to be heard, a committee is founded to establish the oppression and privilege of everyone in the movement so time and authority can be controlled accordingly. Nobody comes to the second meeting. Rent goes up.
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Dec 5, 2014 12:07
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UP AND ADAM posted:Political correctness gone mad. So your argument isn't that identity and privilege politics is worthwhile, your argument is that it doesn't affect the real world and is therefore irrelevant? Seems to be moving the goalposts. I'm sorry if my braindead strawman thought experiment from 4chan distracted from the very valuable discussion we were having about whether it was possible for white people to take part in politics without causing oppression. Surely we were about to crack that one. Ernie Muppari posted:that's a really weirdly formatted longass hipptheticle sanrio ty
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Dec 5, 2014 14:16
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