"the people who, when I criticise right-wing illiberalism, indignantly redirect me back to the left as if only one form of illiberalism can exist at a time, as if I haven’t spent over a decade critiquing the illiberal left, and as if that’s not precisely why they followed me in the first place." - You are the best, Helen! Love it! Keep telling'em like it is!
I must say it's very refreshing to read your even handed take on the madness that seems to have overtaken society on both sides. Your essays have consistently given me hope for the future. Thank you!
Thanks! This essay provides a refreshingly accurate look at the bifurcated or even multifurcated nature of of power today. You prove an important caution for each of us to keep in mind as we write and speak on issues, wherever we stand.
“By perceiving itself as being an enlightened collective who can see The Truth to which others are asleep (not woke), it was able to justify the authoritarian way it was imposing its own worldview on everyday people, especially the workers whose interests the left had always stood for. Because it needed those oppressive systems to exist to have relevance and purpose, it saw them everywhere and in everything and became increasingly unhinged and detached from reality.”
You are such a liberal!!! This is the fine line I find myself on the wrong side of, often. Then I hear from someone I disagree with that make some sense (or from someone I agree with who highlights the truth in an opposing claim) and I have to sit with it.
When confronted in real time with the CSJ adherents, they could never: 1) understand that people can and do disagree with them, 2) recognize that their means are anything but authoritarian, 3) be able to explain their goals or definitions.
I was once told by someone way above me, when I stated to them in our dynamic they were the power and I looked up to them that 'I don't feel like I have any power at all.' So because I am a straight, white, man I had more power than her.
Acknowledging the truths in their words, while expecting to be treated as an equal, afforded me no shield from their brutality.
The best question I have for a power, process, or system is "do I want a political opponent to have this power?" If the answer is no, then I probably should not want that power myself. Whatever people's feelings on Trump'scurrent deportations, he is hardly an outlier amongst our recent Presidents. So, to me, the question isn't what is too many deportations, but is it the power of the President to deport? Otherwise, it seems to me, the argument tends to be 'it's bad when my political opponents have power of any kind, but not when I do.'
Well, what can I say? Another excellent, rational, principled essay. Have restacked several excerpts.
Thank you!
"the people who, when I criticise right-wing illiberalism, indignantly redirect me back to the left as if only one form of illiberalism can exist at a time, as if I haven’t spent over a decade critiquing the illiberal left, and as if that’s not precisely why they followed me in the first place." - You are the best, Helen! Love it! Keep telling'em like it is!
I must say it's very refreshing to read your even handed take on the madness that seems to have overtaken society on both sides. Your essays have consistently given me hope for the future. Thank you!
🥰
Thanks! This essay provides a refreshingly accurate look at the bifurcated or even multifurcated nature of of power today. You prove an important caution for each of us to keep in mind as we write and speak on issues, wherever we stand.
>read your even handed take on the madness
What is madness is that "both sides-ism" is an epithet by default and not, y'know, something to aspire to do correctly.
Spot on and well said:
“By perceiving itself as being an enlightened collective who can see The Truth to which others are asleep (not woke), it was able to justify the authoritarian way it was imposing its own worldview on everyday people, especially the workers whose interests the left had always stood for. Because it needed those oppressive systems to exist to have relevance and purpose, it saw them everywhere and in everything and became increasingly unhinged and detached from reality.”
You are such a liberal!!! This is the fine line I find myself on the wrong side of, often. Then I hear from someone I disagree with that make some sense (or from someone I agree with who highlights the truth in an opposing claim) and I have to sit with it.
When confronted in real time with the CSJ adherents, they could never: 1) understand that people can and do disagree with them, 2) recognize that their means are anything but authoritarian, 3) be able to explain their goals or definitions.
I was once told by someone way above me, when I stated to them in our dynamic they were the power and I looked up to them that 'I don't feel like I have any power at all.' So because I am a straight, white, man I had more power than her.
Acknowledging the truths in their words, while expecting to be treated as an equal, afforded me no shield from their brutality.
The best question I have for a power, process, or system is "do I want a political opponent to have this power?" If the answer is no, then I probably should not want that power myself. Whatever people's feelings on Trump'scurrent deportations, he is hardly an outlier amongst our recent Presidents. So, to me, the question isn't what is too many deportations, but is it the power of the President to deport? Otherwise, it seems to me, the argument tends to be 'it's bad when my political opponents have power of any kind, but not when I do.'