Bill Maher rants about this often.
Unfortunately he's been coopted by the fiat system.
But on this specific issue, I align with his view.
Discussion
I haven’t watched Bill Maher since 2016 when he went a little nutso like the rest of the Dems when Trump won. Huge fan of his comedy though, saw him live once.
What has he been saying about this?
I'm biggky paraphrasing here. But the jist is following...
The overton window for progressivism in the west has been redefined/claimed by the radical left.
Today's woke culture for the most part now represents Onion headlines of the late 90's early 2000's
Today's progressive wing of the population is largely anti-free speech. At the core of this shift is largely due to the composition of academic bodies.
Not his exact words. But thats how I hear it.
Ok I have seen him say that and I pretty much agree, especially about the free speech thing and higher education. I work in higher education, I want to rebuild it on Nostr, Bitcoin, and AI. 😂
All I see wrong with that is I don’t like calling the woke “radical left”, because there is really nothing radical or left about them and they are hardcore cultural reactionaries.
Woke culture really is directly attributable to the destruction of the actual left and libertarians post civil rights movement. It’s what happens when the real ones are purged. It was over by the mid 1990’s. Which is around the time the woke (cultural Marxist) stuff and neo-conservatism really got going.
The actual left would agree with Bitcoin ideals %100, maybe not the MLK wing of the civil rights movement but def the more libertarian leaning and gun toting groups.
The actual left still around have been pretty vocally against the woke movement. You just don’t see them because they aren’t aloud to talk and there are only a handful in a safe enough position in life to speak on it. They are hated more than Trump and Tucker and aren’t talked about.
Very little of the DEI and woke concepts have lineage in real leftist thought. It’s mostly intellectual charlatans and narcissists.
I can't find any part of your note to disagree with.
But this is bc I suspect we have two rational beings that understand the points be conveyed.
Had I known that about you before my previous note. I would have taken the time to be more accurate with my choice of labels/language.
Agree! Traditional left could get behind the tenents of BTC.
Agree the MLk strains of the group would more likely want (more) state involvement and not lean so much on self reliance.
The issue with having rational conversations with strangers on such topicsthese days is that the words we would normally use, have been repurposed and loaded to carry meanings (be in intentional or not) that often represent the opposite of their original intent.
I appreciate your time and thought in the matter.
I look forward reading more from you.
Enjoy the rest of your day.
I agree, language trips is up and we don’t take the time for real understanding and digging in to what people are saying. It’s even taken as insulting and argumentative nowadays to ask someone to elaborate on the meaning of their words. They might even says it’s racist 😂
I look forward to seeing more from you too. Thanks for reading my rants. Enjoy you day 🤙
Good morning,
Having thought on this discussion a bit more and with a fresh mind.
Let me know if you agree with the following:
We've established there is still a, let's call it "traditional left". This segment of the populace's ideology does believe in a small state. They could/doand get behind the core tenants of BTC.
They've been largely snuffed out or opted out of the public discourse for professional, maybe even financial reasons. As you've previously stated, their are but a few in position that feel they can speak out without suffering collateral repercussions to their lifestyle or societal standings.
I'd probably put many academics or upper level government employees/management in this "traditional leftist" group.
I do agree with your earlier note that the majority of these ideological boundaries began defining themselves at some point in the early to mid 90's.
Fast forward 25+ years.
I think bc this group (traditional leftist) has basically walked off stage leaving behind their megaphone. It's been picked up by...what for simplicities sake I'll call the "new woke left".
At this point and with the very same megaphone they've been essentially handed, have largely reversed, co-opted, corrupted the ideals the traditional left once stood for.
This is the part where perhaps we have a difference of opinion.
I'm inclined to think it is their children that now hold that megaphone. They've cemented substantial followings in social media and now securing positions in government (mostly lower level management positions). But there are some that have managed to elevate themselves into influential and higher levels of govt..think AOC and her followers.
All that to ask....
Do you feel the traditional left has a responsibility to get back on the stage, reclaim their megaphone so that the broader body can have what I'll call serious grown-up conversations.
Bc, like Bill M I do think some, heck most of the headlines coming out of the "woke-left" camp just seems like Satirical Onion headlines from the 90's. It's hard to begin a grown up serious discussion/debate from that point.
Prime example would be ESG & BTC.
I think we have wasted the last 3 years talking about this in an entirely unproductive/uninformed POV.
That narrative is begining to change a bit.
But there are many more examples of this type of "onionary" eating up bandwidth in the broader public space.
Thoughts?
I agree with this but having been in higher education there are almost zero traditional leftists left on the academic side and even less on the administration side. I agree that you could say they are rhetorical leftists, because they give voice and support to a lot of those traditional values and concepts but only on the rhetorical level.
I am speaking only of the west and specifically the US. I’m not familiar with other countries to expand what I’m saying to them about leftists in academia.
On the “new woke left” grabbing the megaphone (I love this term lol), it’s the kids of the kids of the traditional left that are the ones pushing all the pseudo left bs. The kids of the traditional left are the baby boomers, and they largely didn’t want the megaphone at all and it’s their kids that took it and have mutilated it.
I like you brought up AOC. I think she is a perfect example of a rhetorical leftist that is largely empty. She ran spouting traditional left stuff about war, labor, and oppressive debt but busies herself making viral videos about cultural issues and sides 100% with corporatist Dems on policy and legislation.
I think what’s left of the traditional left has a responsibility but like I said they are silenced. The traditional left also suffers from their strategic thinking being frozen in time in the 1960’s. They fail to understand why the movement failed back in the day and they refuse to admit that sticking to tactics created in the 1960’s means certain failure.
All that to say that yes the woke left headlines read like it’s out of an old issue of the onion. 😂
Conversations like this are my favorite part of #nostr. 💛🫂
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Agreed 💯
These types of discussions used to be in old media back in the day. Where the hosts and interviewees asked the questions smart folks wanted asked. And those programs were not on pay TV.
Today we all have "pay TV" just to hear hosts ask stupid questions and have interviewees respond with scripted worthless retorts.
I will check out satsio thanks for the recommend.