Yes, but I don’t think that they have any sort of majority sway over leftist groups operating today in opposition to the current administration.
I’m aware of the hard left out there, as I had friends who had family who literally spent time in jail for acts of terrorism as part of the ELF… But even if they had an outsized influence on leftist politics, it was still a fraction of the left in the US in general.
I’m sorry, but this has been a problem with mainstream Democratic operatives too. Just look at how the Clintons framed abortion in the 90s, “legal but rare”… it’s buying into the idea that “abortion is bad” in general. Yes, Tankies have this problem, too, but so do just… men, especially straight white men, who see themselves as the center of the universe and who laws should be shaped around. Women in American no longer have the same rights to bodily autonomy, because far too many men across the political spectrum saw it as a niche, culture war issue that wasn’t worth pursuing. Hence, we never got a law to ensure those rights. Literally right up to Dobbs, I heard plenty of dudes shrug their shoulders, not believing that they’d overturn it, but here we are. It was an incredibly amount of gaslighting, actually for years and years, aimed at women fighting for something so fundamental, so basic, that we are less free now than we were just a few years ago. We didn’t get to that place because of tankies. We got to that place because of men in general. Far too many men can NOT let go of their need to dominate and control us. They just won’t do the necessary work to see us as human being in our own right.
14 Likes
The sway is in disruption and demoralization.
I get frustrated that so many fellow progressives (not you, @mindysan33 ) dismiss my concerns (and @Docosc & @PsiPhiGrrrl) here when we express them. We’re not making this shit up.
13 Likes
The “tankies” have never had power in the US so it’s moot to compare anyway. I dunno about the online names for things. Life doesn’t line up with the lore for me here either BUT what I do encounter is intensely authoritarian thinking in people who self-identify as leftists.
They want their guns for protection and they think a strong enough man will enforce harmony and god save you if you see the contradiction there.
I don’t think anyone in the actual US lines up as well with the left/right spectrum and 200 years of European political analysis though actually either. So idk. What I’m sure is that people find new lore and make whole religions out of it in like… actual weeks. On exposure to a toxic enough meme… we all suffer for this.
So are there some toxic fucks making life hard for people trying to do local support? Oh hell yeah and if anyone didn’t know it’s happening in traditionally conservative spaces too as Maga grows in power. I’m not sure this is really a “leftist position” thing and so, honestly, if people trying to be productive on the left need to shut the door on that part of the movement (especially when talking to people online) because they have better options still… I’m all for it.
People have to agree on and commit to their ideals and missions early on if they’re going to follow them.
10 Likes
Have fun generating your own NYT Mamdani headline.
18 Likes
Wasn’t sure where else to leave this
(Archive link)
12 Likes
I got this one that made me cackle because of the sheer absurdity is only barely past us right now:
Mamdani Favors Wealthy Over Immigrant In Batman Versus Superman Row
14 Likes
The memories from 30 years ago that still wake me up in the middle of the night . . .
13 Likes
(Won’t onebox)
LDF Declares Victory in Successfully Advocating for the County Commission in Fayette County, Tennessee to Draw a New, Fairer Electoral Map
On June 24, in response to LDF’s litigation, Fayette County lawmakers unanimously passed the new County Commission electoral map, which complies with Section 2 of the VRA and Constitution. The new map creates three new majority-Black single-member districts that provide Black voters with the opportunity to elect candidates of choice to the County Commission. The new map will be used in the 2026 election cycle, the first in years that Black communities in Fayette County will have an equal voice when participating in the democratic process.
https://www.naacpldf.org/press-release/ldf-declares-victory-in-successfully-advocating-for-the-county-commission-in-fayette-county-tennessee-to-draw-a-new-fairer-electoral-map/
16 Likes
Welp (via WABE the ATL public radio station)… I voted today, but apparently, not many others are… the sign on the door said 200 people at the early voting location in our very large suburban county…
13 Likes
[ETA] He mentions this discussion in the above…
5 Likes
