To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle. — George Orwell In a recent column in the New York Times (free article), Michelle Goldberg pondered why so many “erstwhile leftists [are] decamping to the right.” From Goldberg’s perspective, everyone from shameless bohemian Russell Brand, to Wall Street’s Enemy Number One Matt Taibbi, to pot smoking shroom munching dude-bro Joe Rogan, to “environmentalist-turned-conspiracy-theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,” seems to have slipped from “familiar” to “unrecognizable.”
People are shaping the narratives everywhere, but one thing I agree with is that the left should acknowledge the impediments and then actually present ideas ways around the impediments, it's all too easy to point out all the flaws in the system and decide it's simply hopeless but I do not believe this is a helpful way to look at things, even if for all intents and purposes the impediments may seem insurmountable. For example, you mention voting on weekdays so people that cannot afford to take off work to vote cannot vote, this simply is not true, there's early voting on weekends and vote by mail as two examples. There are a lot of problems and a lot of flaws in the system but we should be doing everything possible to encourage people to participate, not point out all the flaws and not present ways to fix things, I find that counter productive. BTW I was really inspired by Civilized to Death to try to come up with ways to fix all these issues, I think almost everything can be addressed but it has to happen from the ground up with maybe a few inspiring leaders. Thanks for all you do.
"Not everyone is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is. They are addicts, and they are guilty and they do lie and cheat and steal—like all junkies. And when they get in a frenzy, they will sacrifice anything and anybody to feed their cruel and stupid habit, and there is no cure for it." - Hunter Thompson
Wow great response chris! The fact she’s trying to belittle the greatest and most popular truth tellers with snarky descriptions just comes off as ignorant and controlling. It’s great to see how triggered she is but sad that some people will blindly go along with her sentiment!
I know this exposes my own bias, but I didn’t read her criticism of these conspiracy theorists as merely objections to the current state of political power, but rather their objection to the actual world the actual left (not progressives, liberals or democrats) envisage; I.e power of the people. This includes actual democratic practices, increased union membership and universal health, education and services.
These core facets of the left side of politics are dismissed just as much by these conspiracy theorist as the current state of politics. We’ve all heard how bad unions are for us and how democratic other than the u.s are actually dictatorships.
The thing is though, the people she listed specifically, and others of that ilk, are not as revolutionary as they make out they are. They are merely pawns of the corporate elite. They make these outrageous claims because it attracts eyes, pays their bills and keeps attention away from those that are actually in power. All the while they act as if they are the Everyman, when in truth, they are part of the conspiracy.
I think Goldbergs biggest mistake is to confuse the left with the progressive and liberals. The left are materialist, and know that you can’t change an individual but you can make sure the individual has a basic standard of living. Whereas the liberals are dogmatic zealots more concerned with feeling good about themselves and achieving worse than nothing, keeping the corporates and conservatives in power. The age old paying goes: “you scratch a liberal and a fascist will bleed.” There is no surprise to leftists that these people have “drifted” right. They were swimming in that riptide anyway.
I can’t recommend the book Qanon and On, by Van Badham enough for anyone that can see there’s something not quite right with this sudden upswing in right wing philosophy masquerading as spiritual and leftist
I feel about political ideologies (or any other ideologies) the same way that Bruce Lee felt about martial arts styles. Some are certainly better than others but none of them have all the answers, and all end up being too dogmatic. I'm a big fan of taking from any source whatever works to solve specific problems. By nature, ideologies are too inflexible to do that.
Bruce was a BAD man. Physically and mentally, which most people wouldn't know, if they didn't read your brilliant writings of one of our favorite dudes that ever lived.
And Paris has the most dysfunctional and dirty-ass airport I have ever been in.
Looked like it hasn't been cleaned since 1986.
One of their terminals you have to walk outside to. Which just sounds like a lazy American (me) bitching for no reason. BUT, they have trains that go back and forth but you have to be a French citizen to ride them. There were ZERO people riding them and 4 different workers standing there doing absolutely NOTHING.
It didn't stop there, I tried to figure out how to get to the outside terminal and I went back and forth 3 times asking for directions by 3 different airport employees and they didn't know where to send me.
Finally I get inside the correct terminal and there was a line with about 40 people in it which didn't start to move for 30 solid minutes. There were 3 different employees at check-in desks one woman looked like the supervisor and she was there for at least 20 minutes before she took a single passenger. The other 2 dudes lines took 7-8 minutes to check one person. I could go on and on and on...but I think you get the picture. The dirty picture ass picture.
P.S. I thought French people were supposed to smell good. Or do they just drown themselves in perfume?
Yes. "Populism" is thrown around like it's a bad word, when all it really means is that a leader claims to represent the populace (which is kind of the point, right?). I guess it's a sign that representative government has lost credibility. People no longer trust their elected representatives to respond to their needs (since they're bought off by big money and are just looking out for themselves), so they turn to the "Big Man" leader who promises to look out for them directly.
Once again: what exactly does “left” mean these days? Sure as hell not anything I recognize as left. The US Democratic Party? Well, the Dems ditched the New Deal at least four decades ago & sold their souls to the corporate donor class. So who exactly is Goldberg talking about? Anyway, if *she* is a leftist, time to reinvent the English language.
And “the notion that the powerful control the process of choosing governments” is merely common sense to anyone with the slightest power of observation. Especially in the US. (CR's piece here is excellent on that, by the way.)
To me Matt Taibbi remains a tower of solid principle & a source of keen insight. The fact that in recent months he’s been publicly ambushed & libelled by Dem congressional hacks (not to mention persecuted by the IRS, yet another example of political lawfare) merely proves he’s over the target. But how on earth has he Moved to the Right?
Speaking of lawfare, Goldberg doubtless hallucinates that the Colorado ruling strikes a righteously mighty blow to Donald Trump, rather than perceiving that this will only Further grease his electoral wheels. Honestly, the Dems will probably have to assassinate the guy to keep him from winning.
Yes, Fifth Amendment, Schmifth Amendment. Also, First Amendment, Schmirst Amendment, since the ruling explicitly rejects applying the first amendment to Trump's political speech.
Probably things just naturally get curiouser & curiouser during a period of widespread institutional collapse, but the Western world is heading so far into self-parody these days that I thank my lucky stars I can still laugh at it all, whoa.
Everybody seems to be full-on self-parody. The strict Christian couple in Florida that want anything sexual removed from schools who were having three-ways is my recent favorite, but there's a new one every day. You're right: it's either funny as hell or utterly demoralizing.
Of course it helps to be an outside observer (though who among us is truly an outside observer of US public affairs?). But it's like what you said about think globally, act locally: if you can't change it, at least try to see the humour of absurdity.
"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."
People are shaping the narratives everywhere, but one thing I agree with is that the left should acknowledge the impediments and then actually present ideas ways around the impediments, it's all too easy to point out all the flaws in the system and decide it's simply hopeless but I do not believe this is a helpful way to look at things, even if for all intents and purposes the impediments may seem insurmountable. For example, you mention voting on weekdays so people that cannot afford to take off work to vote cannot vote, this simply is not true, there's early voting on weekends and vote by mail as two examples. There are a lot of problems and a lot of flaws in the system but we should be doing everything possible to encourage people to participate, not point out all the flaws and not present ways to fix things, I find that counter productive. BTW I was really inspired by Civilized to Death to try to come up with ways to fix all these issues, I think almost everything can be addressed but it has to happen from the ground up with maybe a few inspiring leaders. Thanks for all you do.
"Not everyone is comfortable with the idea that politics is a guilty addiction. But it is. They are addicts, and they are guilty and they do lie and cheat and steal—like all junkies. And when they get in a frenzy, they will sacrifice anything and anybody to feed their cruel and stupid habit, and there is no cure for it." - Hunter Thompson
Wow great response chris! The fact she’s trying to belittle the greatest and most popular truth tellers with snarky descriptions just comes off as ignorant and controlling. It’s great to see how triggered she is but sad that some people will blindly go along with her sentiment!
I know this exposes my own bias, but I didn’t read her criticism of these conspiracy theorists as merely objections to the current state of political power, but rather their objection to the actual world the actual left (not progressives, liberals or democrats) envisage; I.e power of the people. This includes actual democratic practices, increased union membership and universal health, education and services.
These core facets of the left side of politics are dismissed just as much by these conspiracy theorist as the current state of politics. We’ve all heard how bad unions are for us and how democratic other than the u.s are actually dictatorships.
The thing is though, the people she listed specifically, and others of that ilk, are not as revolutionary as they make out they are. They are merely pawns of the corporate elite. They make these outrageous claims because it attracts eyes, pays their bills and keeps attention away from those that are actually in power. All the while they act as if they are the Everyman, when in truth, they are part of the conspiracy.
I think Goldbergs biggest mistake is to confuse the left with the progressive and liberals. The left are materialist, and know that you can’t change an individual but you can make sure the individual has a basic standard of living. Whereas the liberals are dogmatic zealots more concerned with feeling good about themselves and achieving worse than nothing, keeping the corporates and conservatives in power. The age old paying goes: “you scratch a liberal and a fascist will bleed.” There is no surprise to leftists that these people have “drifted” right. They were swimming in that riptide anyway.
Thank you for that comment. Spared me a lot of writing myself.
I can’t recommend the book Qanon and On, by Van Badham enough for anyone that can see there’s something not quite right with this sudden upswing in right wing philosophy masquerading as spiritual and leftist
"As Frank Zappa put it years ago, “Politics is the entertainment division of the military-industrial complex.”"
Is Frank talking in general or just about America?
P.S. "burritos shouldn’t be made by white people," HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Good one. My brother might have a nervous breakdown if that was put into law.
Political Quasi-Haiku:
Many left wingers bug me.
Most right wingers are much worse.
I don't like centrists either.
I feel about political ideologies (or any other ideologies) the same way that Bruce Lee felt about martial arts styles. Some are certainly better than others but none of them have all the answers, and all end up being too dogmatic. I'm a big fan of taking from any source whatever works to solve specific problems. By nature, ideologies are too inflexible to do that.
Bruce was a BAD man. Physically and mentally, which most people wouldn't know, if they didn't read your brilliant writings of one of our favorite dudes that ever lived.
Not only is Portland a bridge too far, Paris is not worth a match. Portland either!
And Paris has the most dysfunctional and dirty-ass airport I have ever been in.
Looked like it hasn't been cleaned since 1986.
One of their terminals you have to walk outside to. Which just sounds like a lazy American (me) bitching for no reason. BUT, they have trains that go back and forth but you have to be a French citizen to ride them. There were ZERO people riding them and 4 different workers standing there doing absolutely NOTHING.
It didn't stop there, I tried to figure out how to get to the outside terminal and I went back and forth 3 times asking for directions by 3 different airport employees and they didn't know where to send me.
Finally I get inside the correct terminal and there was a line with about 40 people in it which didn't start to move for 30 solid minutes. There were 3 different employees at check-in desks one woman looked like the supervisor and she was there for at least 20 minutes before she took a single passenger. The other 2 dudes lines took 7-8 minutes to check one person. I could go on and on and on...but I think you get the picture. The dirty picture ass picture.
P.S. I thought French people were supposed to smell good. Or do they just drown themselves in perfume?
Good article! This is why populism is on the rise and will continue until we acknowledge what’s right underneath our nose
Yes. "Populism" is thrown around like it's a bad word, when all it really means is that a leader claims to represent the populace (which is kind of the point, right?). I guess it's a sign that representative government has lost credibility. People no longer trust their elected representatives to respond to their needs (since they're bought off by big money and are just looking out for themselves), so they turn to the "Big Man" leader who promises to look out for them directly.
If you stand out in the cold rain long enough you’ll get in the car with anyone
You are probably my favorite writer these days Chris.
"…scoldier."
Thanks, Lloyd. That's an honor!
Once again: what exactly does “left” mean these days? Sure as hell not anything I recognize as left. The US Democratic Party? Well, the Dems ditched the New Deal at least four decades ago & sold their souls to the corporate donor class. So who exactly is Goldberg talking about? Anyway, if *she* is a leftist, time to reinvent the English language.
And “the notion that the powerful control the process of choosing governments” is merely common sense to anyone with the slightest power of observation. Especially in the US. (CR's piece here is excellent on that, by the way.)
To me Matt Taibbi remains a tower of solid principle & a source of keen insight. The fact that in recent months he’s been publicly ambushed & libelled by Dem congressional hacks (not to mention persecuted by the IRS, yet another example of political lawfare) merely proves he’s over the target. But how on earth has he Moved to the Right?
Speaking of lawfare, Goldberg doubtless hallucinates that the Colorado ruling strikes a righteously mighty blow to Donald Trump, rather than perceiving that this will only Further grease his electoral wheels. Honestly, the Dems will probably have to assassinate the guy to keep him from winning.
Yes, Fifth Amendment, Schmifth Amendment. Also, First Amendment, Schmirst Amendment, since the ruling explicitly rejects applying the first amendment to Trump's political speech.
Probably things just naturally get curiouser & curiouser during a period of widespread institutional collapse, but the Western world is heading so far into self-parody these days that I thank my lucky stars I can still laugh at it all, whoa.
Everybody seems to be full-on self-parody. The strict Christian couple in Florida that want anything sexual removed from schools who were having three-ways is my recent favorite, but there's a new one every day. You're right: it's either funny as hell or utterly demoralizing.
Of course it helps to be an outside observer (though who among us is truly an outside observer of US public affairs?). But it's like what you said about think globally, act locally: if you can't change it, at least try to see the humour of absurdity.
"One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."
-- Oscar Wilde
Fuckin' A. Well put.