How To Fix The Left's Image

[Sanghyeok]

Accelerationalism will not help us.

[Philjia]

No more fucking dusty old theory written by nasty people, no more apologetics for oppressive states, emphasise opposition to capitalism based on real world consequences rather than esoteric philosophy, enthusiastic participation in the democratic process, focus on community organised solutions to problems over protest, and seduce the liberals by promoting market socialism or mutualism as a short term goal.

TRUE. Marx has been dead for over 100 years. It is long, long, long past time to get some new theorists up in here and come up with ideas that actually apply to the information age.

Not everything that Marx wrote was wrong, obviously, but it was written a long time ago in a world that looked very different and even at the time it basically failed to produce anything that looked remotely like communism. Lenin's influence is even more toxic, since he's the one who really popularised the mindset that things which are bad under capitalism aren't bad if you're trying to do communism, so now we've got an imperialist state capitalist Asian superpower that can justify everything it does on the basis that it's allegedly trying to do communism.

[Ifreann]

I also think, in a perverse way, Trump winning a second term will help the left. The more conservative the country gets, the more edgy the left seems, and the more likely it is to gain traction and win.

Em, no, Trump winning a second term will kill a lot of people, ruin a lot of people's lives, disenfranchise a lot of people, and simultaneously empower the sad fascist losers who jack off to those things.

[-Ocelot-]

Leftists lack unity, and we're too busy tearing each other apart to create a good image. Nothing will happen until we achieve left unity, and yes this includes tankies AND anarcho-communists and everything else.

Isn't this a warning sign, though? If you are eating each other right now, imagine what's going to happen if you gain a lot of power. You may end up being killed by supporters of the "right" flavor of socialism, for all you know.

[Ifreann]

Leftists lack unity, and we're too busy tearing each other apart to create a good image. Nothing will happen until we achieve left unity, and yes this includes tankies AND anarcho-communists and everything else.

Isn't this a warning sign, though? If you are eating each other right now, imagine what's going to happen if you gain a lot of power. You may end up being killed by supporters of the "right" flavor of socialism, for all you know.

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

[New Vedan]

I think the left (at least in America,) would do better if it would actually condemn all the rioting and other sensless violence that has been going on thought this year. People need to understand that no matter how angry you get burning down people's homes and buisness's is not the way to convince people to join your movment, in fact it's quite a good way to get yourselves demonized by the general public.

The democratic party also needs to start running better canidates than Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders would have been a excellent candidate to go up against Trump during either election cycle, If he had not been screwed over by the DNC. It would so nice for people to be able to choose between canidates that they actually like instead of choosing between the lesser of two evils every election cycle.

Also drop all the "white privilege" crap for what really counts-class privilege. Race is just something that the rich and the media use to turn us against one another so that the poor dont ban together against them. Its ludicrous to think that a homeless white man is somehow more privileged than a black hollywood actor simply because he has the majority skintone. In the real world whats in your bank account matters alot more than your skintone.

[-Ocelot-]

Isn't this a warning sign, though? If you are eating each other right now, imagine what's going to happen if you gain a lot of power. You may end up being killed by supporters of the "right" flavor of socialism, for all you know.

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Try not to break a nail on your way to the revolution.

[Kowani]

If we must culture war (and we must, because we are objectively right), do it right.
Don’t come off as hating any of the dominant groups (except the capitalist class), and don’t look like a fucking lunatic. (It might actually be easier just to avoid the buzzwords, here, since most people agree with the basic ideals, the terminology just triggers instinctive rejection).
Have a solution to every problem that isn’t just “abolish capitalism.” Yeah, that’s the end goal, but that’ll take a while, won’t it.

[Sanghyeok]

Isn't this a warning sign, though? If you are eating each other right now, imagine what's going to happen if you gain a lot of power. You may end up being killed by supporters of the "right" flavor of socialism, for all you know.

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Can you imagine a world with no online advertising? I would love it.
Right wing media: COMMUNISTS WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR ADVERTISING!

[New Vedan]

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Can you imagine a world with no online advertising? I would love it.
Right wing media: COMMUNISTS WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR ADVERTISING!

God that would be a dream come true. Not sure how content creators would get paid without those ads tho, unless of course they charged everyone to view or play there stuff.

[-Ocelot-]

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Can you imagine a world with no online advertising? I would love it.
Right wing media: COMMUNISTS WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR ADVERTISING!

You misspelled food

[Ifreann]

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Try not to break a nail on your way to the revolution.

I expect that the things I could to do to best help the revolution would be quite safe for my nails.

---

Nah, we'd just be yelling at each other on Communist Twitter. Which would be like regular Twitter, but with no ads or Nazis, and it'd have a red colour scheme instead of blue.

Can you imagine a world with no online advertising? I would love it.
Right wing media: COMMUNISTS WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR ADVERTISING!

I once got a promoted tweet from the Cyberwarfare Division of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Defence. So much money poured into online advertisement and it's still fucking garbage.

---

Can you imagine a world with no online advertising? I would love it.
Right wing media: COMMUNISTS WANT TO TAKE AWAY YOUR ADVERTISING!

God that would be a dream come true. Not sure how content creators would get paid without those ads tho, unless of course they charged everyone to view or play there stuff.

I don't create content myself, but I've always heard that the ad revenue is basically piss all for almost everyone.

[Stylan]

Accelerationalism will not help us.

nicklandfrown.png

I also think, in a perverse way, Trump winning a second term will help the left. The more conservative the country gets, the more edgy the left seems, and the more likely it is to gain traction and win.

Em, no, Trump winning a second term will kill a lot of people, ruin a lot of people's lives, disenfranchise a lot of people, and simultaneously empower the sad fascist losers who jack off to those things.

Then why did the left gain power in these last four years?

You do have a point, I will concede that Trump is a unique brand of fascist, where he's emboldening literal Nazis. Whereas past Republicans were definitely authoritarians bordering on fascism, but at least they condemnded nazis.

[Nilokeras]

There is no 'fixing' the left's image because there is both nothing to fix and that attempting to change media perceptions of the left will never work. The coverage of popular leftists like Corbyn and Sanders prove that. The only thing to be done is to ignore high level coverage wherever possible and continue movement-building on the ground, where it really matters.

[Ifreann]

Accelerationalism will not help us.

nicklandfrown.png

Em, no, Trump winning a second term will kill a lot of people, ruin a lot of people's lives, disenfranchise a lot of people, and simultaneously empower the sad fascist losers who jack off to those things.

Then why did the left gain power in these last four years?

They didn't...

[Genivaria]

If we must culture war (and we must, because we are objectively right), do it right.
Don’t come off as hating any of the dominant groups (except the capitalist class), and don’t look like a fucking lunatic. (It might actually be easier just to avoid the buzzwords, here, since most people agree with the basic ideals, the terminology just triggers instinctive rejection).
Have a solution to every problem that isn’t just “abolish capitalism.” Yeah, that’s the end goal, but that’ll take a while, won’t it.

I remember shortly after George Floyd's death I tried to join a couple BLM FB pages, the amount of racism and self entitlement that alot of members display is nauseating and is encouraged by the moderators.

Had a few people demand I pay them for the 'emotional labor's.of backing up their ignorant fucking opinion.

[Genivaria]

Accelerationalism will not help us.

nicklandfrown.png

Em, no, Trump winning a second term will kill a lot of people, ruin a lot of people's lives, disenfranchise a lot of people, and simultaneously empower the sad fascist losers who jack off to those things.

Then why did the left gain power in these last four years?

You do have a point, I will concede that Trump is a unique brand of fascist, where he's emboldening literal Nazis. Whereas past Republicans were definitely authoritarians bordering on fascism, but at least they condemnded nazis.

Where did 'the left's gain power exactly?

[Major-Tom]

Honestly, the left has been so well caricatured by this point that anyone who doesn't lean left is always going to see the left as some paradoxical movement; one that is weak, but terrifying. One that is spineless, but able to destroy livelihoods. One that is elitist, but hates the rich. A smorgasbord of intellectually inconsistent contradictions that appeals to our most primal and basic fears, yet also goes against our better motives and thinking skills.

I could go on and on, the point is, we can't really change the minds of people who can find consistency in those contradictions, there is no point in that, once you're locked into such a mindset, it's near impossible to break out. Candidates on the left should instead double-down, not make apologies or excuses for what they and their parties stand for, and instead just own it. Wear the badge of "liberal" or "leftist" like a badge of pride. Because to try to double-talk your way out of that only alienates leftist voters and doesn't change a single mind. Besides, here in the US, at least, liberal and centre-left candidates who have tried to pivot as right-wing as they can are still smeared as "radical leftists" and "communists."

So, really, what is the point in trying to rehabilitate the image when it's not going to change? Do we expect groups like the GOP to look up and say "y'know what, Biden isn't a radical socialist etc." Not at all.

[Kowani]

If we must culture war (and we must, because we are objectively right), do it right.
Don’t come off as hating any of the dominant groups (except the capitalist class), and don’t look like a fucking lunatic. (It might actually be easier just to avoid the buzzwords, here, since most people agree with the basic ideals, the terminology just triggers instinctive rejection).
Have a solution to every problem that isn’t just “abolish capitalism.” Yeah, that’s the end goal, but that’ll take a while, won’t it.

I remember shortly after George Floyd's death I tried to join a couple BLM FB pages, the amount of racism and self entitlement that alot of members display is nauseating and is encouraged by the moderators.

Had a few people demand I pay them for the 'emotional labor's.of backing up their ignorant fucking opinion.

I would recommend not doing Facebook politics.

[Major-Tom]

I also think, in a perverse way, Trump winning a second term will help the left. The more conservative the country gets, the more edgy the left seems, and the more likely it is to gain traction and win.

Plz stop I just want health insurance. Fuck this long-game bullshit, I've worked too hard and too long to be denied healthcare, to be demonized as an educator, to see my natural environment slowly burn to the ground.

[Deacarsia]

The Left deserves any bad image it gets.

[Chestaan]

I'm a communist, and I have to say that it's far more than just an image problem. The left is a complete mess and the absolute worst people that are a part of it are the most vocal. I'd suggest reading Exiting the Vampires Castle, an essay, not a book. The left has unfortunately assimilated the neoliberal version of individualism into its very core, where every fault and flaw an be assigned to an individual rather than larger systems at play. Racism, bigotry etc. are no longer seen as systemic issues but instead are simply features of an individual. And if any individual makes a misstep, through malice or ignorance, they are to be excommunicated rather than educated.
Class analysis has been completely abandoned and leftists are largely more interested in scoring points against other leftists than fighting the system. Everyone is terrified that they might make a misstep and be the next to be excommunicated, so they try to find others mistakes to distract from themselves and join in on the most vicious character assassinations to prove themselves as pure.

[Senkaku]

From sometime in late 2015 to Charlottesville in Summer 2017, the alt-right dominated Internet discourse. Leftists were suddenly considered "uncool" or "part of the system."

is this actually true or are you just saying things lol

Fortunately, after this incident, the online left managed to figure out memes and re-establish itself online.

...what?

I feel like you've sorta just come up with a post hoc narrative pieced together from bits of "popular wisdom" on subjects that only ever really consisted of a few random and pretty much baseless cliches sprinkled into some cable news coverage at the time

For the next couple of years, from 2017 to now, the left has been gradually growing in popularity, largely fueled by YouTube and podcasts, just as the alt-right was in 2015 and 2016.

or... get this... the right has been growing online too, and the increasing power of the podcast-industrial complex and its impact on the growth of political movements is not actually unique to either side or restricted to only a few years

Despite the left now not being utterly ridiculed everywhere, the popular image of a leftist is still mostly negative, and not the hip, punk attitude of the 60s-early 2010s.

Was this actually the case in "the 60s-early 2010s"? Isn't that like... 50 years? You're telling me that whole time that leftists were "hip, punk," and super cool, and that ever since then it's like someone flipped a switch and leftists are universally seen as losers?

So how do we fix this?

Well, you've done such a poor job of defining or demonstrating an actual tangible problem that it's hard to say.

Well, the first and most important thing to do is not support any Democratic presidential candidates, unless they are explicitly left-wing, such as Bernie Sanders. Radical liberals such as Vaush and ContraPoints, two YouTubers I love I might add, have quite unfortunately had very, very bad takes this election. Both endorsed Joe Biden for President. Biden is at, best, a milquetoast neoliberal centrist, who will enact nothing even mildly progressive, save maybe a few socially liberal policies.

"A few socially liberal policies" seems better than out-and-out fascism to me? This accelerationist bullshit is so heartless and out of touch. It's the equivalent of right-wing race war fantasies.

Let's back track. It's 2000. The election is raging between Al Gore, the Democratic nominee for POTUS, and George W. Bush, the Republican nominee. What do you think of these candidates? Fuck them both.

Really? With the hindsight of Iraq and the rising climate crisis, you wouldn't maybe rather have had Gore?

You're Choking Victim, soon to be Leftover Crack, a punk rock band from New York City, who bill yourself as having "no commercial appeal." Your album artwork contains pentagrams, mass murderers, and pictures of gore. Your songs are about cop-killing, shoplifting, satanism, hating the government, and general misanthropy.

But your songs have other themes too - being unapologetically anti-homophobia, anti-racism, anti-sexism, anti-war, and anti-capitalist.

Eventually, your band pushes the envelope so far as to make fun of national tragedies such as 9/11. (something even I find too offensive)

This extreme left-wing radicalism leads you to being banned at Wal-Mart, Target, and almost every other chain supermarket in the U.S.

The only takeaway I'm coming away with here is that you were in a punk-rock band in the aughts that no one liked and are still resentful about it.

Now, I want you to compare that to the left-wing of today. The left of today is still quite rebellious, but not nearly as edgy as punk was. While it is catching up, and becoming rebellious again, it still has a long way to go.

Thank you for your 90s nostalgia. You cool leftists way back when sure did manage to solve a lot of problems with your bad music and shoulder pads or whatever.

Don't mind me, just choking on smoke from climate fires and praying to the fusion gods for a miracle.

The mainstream view of a leftist is still a Harry Potter loving, Biden-supporting, screeching radical liberal.

...is it? You've asserted it is, but is it actually? Or are you just weirdly parroting the drivel that conservative media relentlessly pumps out?

This has gotta go. I understand that the main people who make the left look bad are not leftists at all, but mere liberals, but it still makes the left look awful.

The left-liberal distinction is a whooooole different can of worms, friend

I propose we, as the left, go back to a time when the left was so anti-suburban, so anti-mainstream that it was nigh impossible to support. Doing this will make a clear distinction between the left and establishment liberals, and make the left seem cool again.

To summarize - stop supporting centrist candidates - AND BRING BACK THE AESTHETIC OF PUNK!

"that it was nigh impossible to support"?

this post is a very long way of saying you prioritize aesthetics over power or policy or... actual leftism. You're in it for the aesthetic attraction of certain subgroups not the political philosophy lmao

[Greed and Death]

Stop trying to mandate people buy insurance.
Stop trying raise your economic better's taxes.

[Ifreann]

Stop trying to mandate people buy insurance.
Stop trying raise your economic better's taxes.

That's not us, that's you.