What advice would you give to young urban left-leaners of elite educations (like me) who have developed their political worldview on identity politics/intersectionality? What steps should we take to improve this political situation? How can we advance our political beliefs without alienating people or causing resentment?
I'm genuinely asking because this has caused me mental agitation for years.
This piece puts into words the thing I dislike most about the Democratic Party while still supporting it. I would love to sit down and chat in the future about where you came to this conclusion.
Re: South Park - I think there's a case for the show having a noxious effect on American politics, but not quite in the sense that Garcia suggests, which you can suss out by unpacking Matt Stone's most famous quote about the show's politics, the one that goes "I hate conservatives but I really fucking hate liberals." Because the conventional wisdom in left circles re: why South Park is bad is that it's either too libertarian or too wedded to a "everything is equally bad" kind of centrism, but that misses the point - the issue isn't that Parker/Stone framed Alec Baldwin and Dick Cheney as equally risible, the issue is that Parker/Stone framed Baldwin as *more* risible than Cheney, either because their visceral hatred of Hollywood egomania far outpaced their rational anger towards the Bush administration, or because hypocritical, sanctimonious Hollywood liberals are easier to spoof than conservative war criminals. Yeah, Halliburton was nefarious, but it's not as funny as Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch, y'know?
"ManBearPig" in particular is worth calling out precisely because it *isn't* climate denialism, even allegorically. Rather, the episode goes out of its way to repeatedly frame Gore as a deeply self-absorbed, deeply uncool grifter profiting off activism... which had the side effect of reducing climate change from existential threat to pet issue. They didn't intend to, but Parker/Stone gave Americans of all political stripes a surefire strategy to subliminally get their agenda across - just find some obvious wackjob liberal bobo, and then present yourself as the bobo's foil. It's funny, Ross, that you mention Robin DiAngelo in this piece, because she's the perfect example of this. You can't really argue whether institutional racism is a thing - but you can say "get a load of this utterly deranged grifter who thinks institutional racism is a thing, har har!" and let DiAngelo's looniness do the work for you.
Obviously Rush Limbaugh et al came up with the strategy years before South Park existed, and the rise of the hipster + slacktivism didn't hurt, but I think it's fair to say that the show mainstreamed "bash the bobo" as the primary mode of political argument for the under-40 set. I mean, "I hate conservatives but I really fucking hate liberals" is basically the motto of the dirtbag left, yeah?
Great read, but you could just as easily say it the other way: the underlying culture absent political interventions is owned by the right, and the left owns the political apparatus that seeks to change it. That is to say, the individual, family, church/synogogue/mosque, community, civil society, small business, and the military are all owned by the right and have been forever, but the left owns a corporate state with which it seeks to destroy the right's influence over all of that.
"Some of the campus buildings appeared too brutalist and midcentury, and everywhere, it seemed, was a muddy construction site" you nailed SUNYs in one sentence lol. At mine a lot of the campus rallied over bin Laden's killing in 2011, though that may not be the kind of "political" event you mean? Anyway this is great so far, can't read it fast enough haha
Speaking of Erdogan. Turkey under Erdogan's leadership is a much better society than American society at this point. Turkish people aren't "cancelling" and harassing others who disagree with them and society as a whole actually is more respectful and caring than American society. Don't believe the western media.
Yes, I think this is all quite correct.
What advice would you give to young urban left-leaners of elite educations (like me) who have developed their political worldview on identity politics/intersectionality? What steps should we take to improve this political situation? How can we advance our political beliefs without alienating people or causing resentment?
I'm genuinely asking because this has caused me mental agitation for years.
This piece puts into words the thing I dislike most about the Democratic Party while still supporting it. I would love to sit down and chat in the future about where you came to this conclusion.
And what then Center owns????
Re: South Park - I think there's a case for the show having a noxious effect on American politics, but not quite in the sense that Garcia suggests, which you can suss out by unpacking Matt Stone's most famous quote about the show's politics, the one that goes "I hate conservatives but I really fucking hate liberals." Because the conventional wisdom in left circles re: why South Park is bad is that it's either too libertarian or too wedded to a "everything is equally bad" kind of centrism, but that misses the point - the issue isn't that Parker/Stone framed Alec Baldwin and Dick Cheney as equally risible, the issue is that Parker/Stone framed Baldwin as *more* risible than Cheney, either because their visceral hatred of Hollywood egomania far outpaced their rational anger towards the Bush administration, or because hypocritical, sanctimonious Hollywood liberals are easier to spoof than conservative war criminals. Yeah, Halliburton was nefarious, but it's not as funny as Tom Cruise jumping up and down on Oprah's couch, y'know?
"ManBearPig" in particular is worth calling out precisely because it *isn't* climate denialism, even allegorically. Rather, the episode goes out of its way to repeatedly frame Gore as a deeply self-absorbed, deeply uncool grifter profiting off activism... which had the side effect of reducing climate change from existential threat to pet issue. They didn't intend to, but Parker/Stone gave Americans of all political stripes a surefire strategy to subliminally get their agenda across - just find some obvious wackjob liberal bobo, and then present yourself as the bobo's foil. It's funny, Ross, that you mention Robin DiAngelo in this piece, because she's the perfect example of this. You can't really argue whether institutional racism is a thing - but you can say "get a load of this utterly deranged grifter who thinks institutional racism is a thing, har har!" and let DiAngelo's looniness do the work for you.
Obviously Rush Limbaugh et al came up with the strategy years before South Park existed, and the rise of the hipster + slacktivism didn't hurt, but I think it's fair to say that the show mainstreamed "bash the bobo" as the primary mode of political argument for the under-40 set. I mean, "I hate conservatives but I really fucking hate liberals" is basically the motto of the dirtbag left, yeah?
Great read, but you could just as easily say it the other way: the underlying culture absent political interventions is owned by the right, and the left owns the political apparatus that seeks to change it. That is to say, the individual, family, church/synogogue/mosque, community, civil society, small business, and the military are all owned by the right and have been forever, but the left owns a corporate state with which it seeks to destroy the right's influence over all of that.
"Some of the campus buildings appeared too brutalist and midcentury, and everywhere, it seemed, was a muddy construction site" you nailed SUNYs in one sentence lol. At mine a lot of the campus rallied over bin Laden's killing in 2011, though that may not be the kind of "political" event you mean? Anyway this is great so far, can't read it fast enough haha
Speaking of Erdogan. Turkey under Erdogan's leadership is a much better society than American society at this point. Turkish people aren't "cancelling" and harassing others who disagree with them and society as a whole actually is more respectful and caring than American society. Don't believe the western media.
(Statemate)