Advice for upcoming elections:
14 Likes
6 Likes
San Francisco progressives eye Mamdani’s rise with envy
Despite the city’s history, voters in San Francisco have pivoted to the political center in recent years.
11 Likes
I think that despite a shift in the electorate that includes more wealthy techbros, San Francisco progressives still have a good chance if they can field more candidates that have a proven track record of getting stuff done. My impression is that a lot of SF voters have been frustrated by past elected officials not so much because they were too liberal but moreso because they were perceived as too ineffective at solving problems. And frankly, at least some of those criticisms were warranted.
The one “progressive” candidate that the Politico article specifically names as an example of someone who voters didn’t elect as mayor is a guy who doesn’t have a great record on building affordable housing. He’s actually got a reputation as being one of San Francisco’s most prominent NIMBYs who has blocked a lot of housing projects. He also owns 4 houses in the city and according to his financial disclosures is San Francisco’s wealthiest Supervisor. So maybe not a good comparison to Mamdani.
8 Likes
13 Likes
Oh no! He’s lost the support of India’s version of MAGA! Whatever shall he do?
19 Likes
I need more of this.
10 Likes
It’s interesting that the Mayor’s race has an international importance.
And knowing the cultural and religious factors in current NY is important. It’s no longer about say Irish and Italian immigrants. This is another wave that has changed the country. And that we need to listen to. Just like people would discuss the Pope’s effects on domestic politics.
14 Likes
Isn’t she guilty of the very thing Green is complaining about, though? She’s complaining about left leaning Tik Tok on her own left leaning Tik Tok (or YouTube, I guess). She’s spending almost 10 minutes talking about people on the left she disagrees with instead of spending that time talking about Trump’s bill and what he’s doing. I’d also love to know who these “authoritarian leftists” are she’s talking about. I guess anyone who she disagrees with is authoritarian. I dunno. Seems pretty hypocritical to me.
9 Likes
I think it’s the 5 (or whatever) tankies no one listens to anyway? I don’t know that the authoritarian left is much of a thing in America… no one is like “oh Stalin had the right of it” as far as I know, at least not anyone with any kind of influence…
15 Likes
I get what you are saying, but I think there is a bit of an internal Popper’s Paradox to that. If there are people within the group who are intolerant of a large subset of the group who disagree with them and seek to drive them out, then it’s ok, even necessary, to be intolerant of them. Otherwise, there’s no group.
That’s all it takes to completely destroy a group of 50-100 trying to work together to drive change. Heck, 2-3 of them could do it, if they are allowed to continue to be disruptive.
In terms of national political power, no. In terms of local and grass roots organization, hell yes, there are!
7 Likes
At this point I think tankies might be a fairytale that anarchists invented to scare their kids.
(edit: /s)
10 Likes
They are not, no. They exist and are real. People can be assholes in Amazing ways. There just aren’t that many of them.
14 Likes
Well, in the times of lennon (not lenin) there were:
“But if you go carrying pictures of Chairman Mao
You ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow”
7 Likes
Sorry, shoulda added a /s.
10 Likes
9 Likes
Yeah, for clarity, despite their continued existence “out there” they seem to… just not?.. be an element of meaningful contemporary leftist discourse, at least in the spaces where I consume such discourse. They really do largely seem to be deployed as a bogeyman that get taunted when people do leftism “wrong”.
9 Likes
Thing is I think that some people see the insistence on support human rights for all in the face of eroding support for such as some kind of purity test that must be abandoned in favor of a singular focus on “bread and butter” issues like wages and working conditions. Some (white, straight) men on the left have been fine with ignoring abortion or LGBQT+ rights or racism, because they don’t see it as having real material weight in the world, but as “culture war nonsense”… but being able to LIVE as a free human being as yourself is one of the most material issues you can get.
So, I guess if supporting human rights as a key issue makes me an unreasonable asshole, then I guess I’m an unreasonable asshole. I have less rights now then I did a few years ago, as a woman in America. If that’s not important to my material condition, I don’t know what is…
15 Likes
Just putting this out there again that this seems to be a regional difference. I absolutely assure you there is no shortage of such people in places like Portland and Seattle, and I’m sure other places. We would like not to take them seriously, but we don’t have a lot of choice when they try to take over any group that’s left of center and either make it serve them or destroy it.
It’s usually the opposite - the vast majority of the group supports human rights for all, and it’s the tankies who try to subvert that to their own pet cause - which might be human rights, but it’s human rights only for their group. Spending any time or effort on other groups that also deserve human rights is a “betrayal.”
6 Likes
In my opinion, as soon as someone becomes authoritarian they stop being on the left. It doesn’t matter what one’s proclaimed goals happen to be, “authoritarianism” is it’s own ideology.
9 Likes