- "Diversity" is, like, a banner issue for the left currently.
- If anything, the left is accused of failing to try to "appeal to social frustration" by focussing on the generally more optimistic middle class.
- The is no "plot" in the sense that someone is pulling the strings, although maybe Global Warming has plot-like character.
- The enemy, for the US left, is both strong and dumb, not strong and weak.
- Pacificm is excellent.
- The weak are to be protected, as are the weekends.
- A just world should be devoid of heroes, because there is no adversity requiring them. Plus: institutions are better than relying on individuals.
- Machoism is so out, it's called toxic masculinity
- nobody ever accused the US left of being into weapons
Of note, there have been left-wing dictatorships. Personally, I've witnessed East Germany and Cuba, and they are/were similar to a degree that is just funny, considering how different the places are in terms of geography and climate. A left-wing dictatorship is, first and foremost, boring. It is a bureaucracy that will drive you insane. Nothing ever works, even though everything could work if, only once, you didn't have to wait five hours in line to buy stamps.
(two months ago, I bought the entire stock of stamps in a decently sized Havanna post office. All six of them. The got new ones after lunch. I'm fairly certain they had removed them from the postcards I had since dropped into the mailbox).
If you happen to oppose the regime, are ambitious, or join the wrong music scene as a teenager (punks, say), you'll have a hard time. If you don't rebel, you'll generally live a peaceful if boring life, even if you happen to be gay, stupid, Quaker, diabetic, nudist, vegetarian, or black (all risk factors in fascism)
I did put climate action as #3, but I think it's fairly weak. "Nature" isn't quite the evil scheming enemy fascists "plots" come up with. For a while, global finance & banking was maybe in such a role, but that populism wasn't limited to the left, and it just doesn't feel as vitriolic: nobody on the left today is envisioning tribunals and guillotines which, as it happens, is a constant obsession with Q-Anon, the anti-vaccination crowd, and the January 6th crowd.
- "Diversity" is, like, a banner issue for the left currently.
- If anything, the left is accused of failing to try to "appeal to social frustration" by focussing on the generally more optimistic middle class.
- The is no "plot" in the sense that someone is pulling the strings, although maybe Global Warming has plot-like character.
- The enemy, for the US left, is both strong and dumb, not strong and weak.
- Pacificm is excellent.
- The weak are to be protected, as are the weekends.
- A just world should be devoid of heroes, because there is no adversity requiring them. Plus: institutions are better than relying on individuals.
- Machoism is so out, it's called toxic masculinity
- nobody ever accused the US left of being into weapons
Of note, there have been left-wing dictatorships. Personally, I've witnessed East Germany and Cuba, and they are/were similar to a degree that is just funny, considering how different the places are in terms of geography and climate. A left-wing dictatorship is, first and foremost, boring. It is a bureaucracy that will drive you insane. Nothing ever works, even though everything could work if, only once, you didn't have to wait five hours in line to buy stamps.
(two months ago, I bought the entire stock of stamps in a decently sized Havanna post office. All six of them. The got new ones after lunch. I'm fairly certain they had removed them from the postcards I had since dropped into the mailbox).
If you happen to oppose the regime, are ambitious, or join the wrong music scene as a teenager (punks, say), you'll have a hard time. If you don't rebel, you'll generally live a peaceful if boring life, even if you happen to be gay, stupid, Quaker, diabetic, nudist, vegetarian, or black (all risk factors in fascism)