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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   19200 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 18, 2026

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I liked Jeff Maurer's take on Platner. The Dems are heavily pushing him because, unlike so many of their candidates, he comes off as an ordinary man of the people. He's a tough guy (a veteran), an oyster farmer, and he curses a lot. His working-class credibility make it easy to overlook certain flaws which would sink a more milquetoast candidate. All bolded text is in the passage below is my emphasis:

On the one hand, this doesn’t surprise me: Brawny dudes with the politics of a Portlandia character don’t come along every day. On the other hand, I’m surprised because the left just went through this with John Fetterman. Fetterman, of course, is now persona non-grata on the progressive left due to his strong backing of Israel and occasional support for Trump (he was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Pam Bondi). He sits alongside J.K. Rowling and Bari Weiss in the Pantheon of People Hated By the Progressive Left. Is nobody on the progressive left thinking that there might be a chance that if elected, Platner might go the Fetterman route?

Platner’s Reddit posts — some of which are as recent as 2021 — do not reflect uniformly left-wing views. Yes, he called himself a “communist” and an “ANTIFA supersoldier”, but he also mocked gay people and took a casual attitude towards sexual assault... Combined with the whole Nazi unpleasantness, these posts might cause one to wonder how deep Platner’s progressive convictions run...

And Fetterman, of course, is far from the only person to start out on the populist left and end up right-of-center... Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald are journalists who made the switch. Tulsi Gabbard went from endorsing Bernie to being part of the Trump administration in just four short years, which makes you wonder if she was a centrist for 20 minutes as she rocketed from one end of the political spectrum to the other.

...the populist tough-guy schtick is a shallow narrative that appeals to people with shallow political beliefs, so we shouldn’t be surprised when those beliefs change.

Platner has showed a decades-long interest in being an anti-establishment edgelord but only a recent interest in progressive politics. Which isn’t too surprising — a lot of people who like the “high-testosterone progressive badass” persona really only like the “high-testosterone badass” part. As of four years ago, Platner’s politics were a mix of left and right, and now they’re hard left, but who can say where they’ll be in another four years? Nobody. But some people like Platner’s vibes and have decided that’s good enough.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, in the next ten years, Platner jumps ship and joins the GOP.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if, in the next ten years, Platner jumps ship and joins the GOP.

I would be surprised.

The left/right split in the US is increasingly about identitarianism and collectivism vs individualism. Some like David Friedman would argue that it always has been about this. Plattner seems to be solidly in the identitarian/collectivist camp, contrast this with folks like Fetterman and Gabbard who consistently backed the Democrats' economic policies but always seemed a bit uncomfortable with the id-pol stuff.

As I said above, the right is not about individualism. Just a different collectivism.

The right is genuinely much more willing to evaluate people as individuals or members of small groups while the left is much more willing to generalize. Treating people as individuals doesn’t necessarily correspond to granting unlimited freedom.

The "right" often speaks the language of individualism, especially around markets, speech, guns, taxation, and personal responsibility. But for other topics like nation, religion, family, sexuality, immigration, crime, and cultural loyalty, its pretty damn collectivist. Realistically the "right" is multiple divergent camps, some are individualist, others are far more collectivist. Do you really want to tell me that the average HBD believers, Alt right, and dissident rightists are in any form individualists?

Do you really want to tell me that the average HBD believers, Alt right, and dissident rightists are in any form individualists?

Yes. Allowing for collectivism in your framework is not the same thing as "not being individualist in any form", though with how extreme the demands for individualism are (at least as far as a certain group of people is concerned), I understand the distinction might be too subtle to notice.

I understand the distinction might be too subtle to notice.

No need to get snarky. Pretend for a moment that I am very good at noticing. Consider that the modal alt-rightist wants all the progressive gibs but for white people, thats pretty collectivist by any definition

Anytime a political creed starts with "and this [group of people by an attribute] needs to have xyz done to them or given to them", then boom you are in the collectivist category. Pretty easy boundary line.

EDIT: I remembered a couple more examples: Dread Jim is part of the right, he and similar birds of the feather are pro-men/anti-women collectivists. They wants spoils and policy benefits that benefit men as a class and hurt women as a class. We have several people here on the motte that are in this camp. This is right-wing. Classic collectivism.

We have our resident joo-posters/neo-nazis, again would be classified as rightwing. They are clearly anti-jewish/Pro-white collectivists. They in particularly want gibs towards white people much like the progs do.

No need to get snarky. Pretend for a moment that I am very good at noticing. Consider that the modal alt-rightist wants all the progressive gibs but for white people, thats pretty collectivist by any definition

Yes, I agree, but I don't think they're so collectivist that they've purged any trace of individualism from their worldview, which I think would be necessary to confidently answer a question like "Do you really want to tell me that the average HBD believers, Alt right, and dissident rightists are in any form individualists?" in the negative.

I mean this is needlessly picky, its like the one-drop rule for individualism. If you are even a drop of individualist, you are not a true collectivist. By that definition Communists are not collectivists, neither are progressives, pretty nobody but an actual hive-mind is a collectivist. A simpler and more realistic boundary is that you you talk about apply policies actions to a collective, you are a collectivist.

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