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This isn't really something I'm commenting on, but it is culture-war related and I do genuinely want to know, so...
https://archive.ph/20250513114111/https://morlock-holmes.tumblr.com/post/783396406003187712/on-the-one-hand-the-environmental-justice-and
Can anyone who considers themselves left of center comment on the accuracy or lack thereof of this post? Is this a thing, or more something particular to this specific guy.
Edit: I'm asking about his description of "what is understood" and preparedness. I'm not really interested in "which specific policies is it this time" or "what makes people feel good about themselves."
I'm not left of center, but I'll comment anyway.
Of course he's correct. Of course people want to feel like underdogs, of course they want to feel like they have their own "secret club" that the Squares In Power don't have access to. Like, duh. The right is very much not immune to this. Being the underdog lends moral credibility to your cause, it galvanizes your base, there's an intrinsic thrill to the feeling of powerlessness itself, etc.
But, and here's the kicker, all of this applies to the left too. And he's so close to getting it, he's describing everything perfectly, "for the right it's really all about their libidinal investment in their own symbolic matrix of floating signifiers, they love the struggle itself more than what they struggle for, the goal of every political cause is ultimately just to reproduce itself", and I'm nodding along going yes yes yes... but then he has to tack on, "but of course the left isn't like this at all, when we talk about microaggressions it's just a purely rational response to objective conditions of oppression, there's nothing libidinal to analyze there, no siree", and I'm like... no you were so close! Everything you were saying about the right applies to the left too, they're exactly the same in this regard.
I not infrequently have this experience when reading posts from leftists, where they're right on the ball and they're so close to understanding everything, and then at the last minute they veer off into "...but of course, we are Good and they are Evil, and that is the chasm that separates us". Their ideology is axiomatically predicated on the explicit denial of this aspect of their own psyche, so they remain forever blind to it.
If you're a leftist you can't actually grant that your opponents are on the same level.
Because many of the tactics they use are not things you can universalize, they're good because of who those things are being done to or for.
Granting that it's just a contest of will/a way to feel good is obviously very dangerous for what sees itself as a minority pushing society towards progress. Nihilism favors the majority.
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