Loved this piece so much. I used to be an entrenched member of the social justice left. Over the years, I’ve watched my ideological peers prioritize individual identity over true betterment of the collective. They’d use activism to shame and moralize people, making otherwise good people feel isolated from their own political community. At a very base level, it’s just psychologically stupid lol- make people feel hated by their own and they will undoubtedly seek community elsewhere, even among the fundamentally different. But in a macro sense, it’s been detrimental to effecting change. Strength in numbers, and when you sow seeds of division rather than meeting people where they’re at, and helping them get down for the cause, they become apolitical or nihilistic. All that said……. I’m a patron of Red Scare and a total shitposter but I still have hope for goodness??? Hahah
I struggled for a while to reconcile my dirtbag media diet with my personal bone deep idealism / optimism. A lot of my favorite writers / podcasters are shitposty, somewhat cynical, borderline nihilistic... and all that resonates with me to a certain extent, but I've always had this never-say-die side to me too
I like Anna K's distinction between apolitical and nonpolitical, and I'd say nonpolitical is a good description of where I'm at in terms of national politics. I have convictions, I just don't see any outlet for them at the national level, so I observe but rarely engage. And that's the realm in which I appreciate more cynical / shitposty commentary. But in the past year or so, I've found an outlet for my more earnest, hopeful side in local politics. I feel like when you scale things down and focus on specific, tangible issues right in your backyard, that's when it's most possible to pierce through a lot of the toxic dynamics you touched on above
Loved this piece so much. I used to be an entrenched member of the social justice left. Over the years, I’ve watched my ideological peers prioritize individual identity over true betterment of the collective. They’d use activism to shame and moralize people, making otherwise good people feel isolated from their own political community. At a very base level, it’s just psychologically stupid lol- make people feel hated by their own and they will undoubtedly seek community elsewhere, even among the fundamentally different. But in a macro sense, it’s been detrimental to effecting change. Strength in numbers, and when you sow seeds of division rather than meeting people where they’re at, and helping them get down for the cause, they become apolitical or nihilistic. All that said……. I’m a patron of Red Scare and a total shitposter but I still have hope for goodness??? Hahah
I struggled for a while to reconcile my dirtbag media diet with my personal bone deep idealism / optimism. A lot of my favorite writers / podcasters are shitposty, somewhat cynical, borderline nihilistic... and all that resonates with me to a certain extent, but I've always had this never-say-die side to me too
I like Anna K's distinction between apolitical and nonpolitical, and I'd say nonpolitical is a good description of where I'm at in terms of national politics. I have convictions, I just don't see any outlet for them at the national level, so I observe but rarely engage. And that's the realm in which I appreciate more cynical / shitposty commentary. But in the past year or so, I've found an outlet for my more earnest, hopeful side in local politics. I feel like when you scale things down and focus on specific, tangible issues right in your backyard, that's when it's most possible to pierce through a lot of the toxic dynamics you touched on above