The Gentrification of the Left

February, 2020: Bernie had won the first three primaries and was leading in most Super Tuesday states. A new day was rising.

At the time I was temping at a $50K/year private school. They used to do weekly student announcements and at one of these some students announced they were forming a DSA chapter.

At a $50K/yr prep school.

Hmmmm!

At an earlier announcement, these kids rejected Trump's plan to withdraw from Syria because of, you know, "the Kurds". Also Hmmmmmm!

Anyhow, I also noticed that a lot of Twitter accounts at this time were dressing themselves up in Rose emojis, hammer-and-cycles, etc....

There was something that didn't seem right about this, It was a bit shallow.

And, indeed, I now see it as Red-Washing.

How much energy has "The Squad" and their fanbase put into Student Loan Forgiveness compared to M4A or $15 minimum wage?

It's hard for one class to advocate for another class: Marxism 101.

And the Left was being gentrified. The rich kids were appropriating it before it even took power.

Student loan forgiveness is INCREDIBLY regressive. I know that a lot of people have gotten deep in debt and don't make much money. That sucks. But, by-and-large, a young person who's accrued a lot of debt went to an elite university and probably pulls down a decent salary. Student Debt forgiveness gives this person tens-of-thousands while giving hardly anything back to the Community College student pouring their coffee.

And what of the deplorables who are deeply in debt because of health problems or simply using credit cards to make ends meet?

Moreover, if we don't address future expenses, how is this in any way fair? So a 28 year old gets his Cornell degree wiped out, but an teen entering State U. in 2021 has to keep paying?

You can only address debt relief if you also address future debt accumulation.

This is a recipe for future generational warfare.

Human beings have a tendency to see their self-interest as the GREATER interest. These Red-Washed, Professional-Managerial-Class Millennials are no different.

And now there's a Court-Leftist, Confirmation-Bias media infrastructure to buttress this self-interested politics -- The Young Turks, Sam Seder and the rest.

As I said, I noticed this before Covid, but the Covid response has really made this crystal clear.

From one of my favorite commenters on this:

alex g

To understand lockdowns you can take the official narrative and assume the opposite. “Saving lives” and “public health” meant letting vulnerable populations die. “Essential” workers were treated as disposable and “in this together” meant wealthy people looking out for themselves.

At this point, you need to ask yourself if you're politics are class-based or something else.

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Granma's picture

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@Granma Thinking about it is good, all I can ask.

I'll also add that Sweden didn't do lockdown with a Soc-Dem/Green Government.

Neither did the Sandinistas in Nicaragua.

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janis b's picture

@Rojo

"Thinking about it is good, all I can ask."

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janis b's picture

@Granma @Granma

that it's interesting to consider.

Especially the fact that the vulnerable who were dying were not allowed comfort with loved ones was very hard for me to accept.

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janis b's picture

is a very significant question.

In your experience, are these students also presented with quality perspectives that initiate more individual thinking and self-reflection?

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@janis b

I think it's difficult. I think this is why the Maoists wanted to drag them out into the field to pick crops.

I'm not a Maoist, but I do realize that I've come to realize that a lot of "leftists" have never done any manual/service work and maybe that's a problem.

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janis b's picture

@Rojo

manual with service work. Service comes in many forms.

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Main take-away, Lockdowns don't work and they weren't meant to work.

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janis b's picture

@Rojo

I think it is relative to so many different realities and contexts.

Here in New Zealand there is still room to consider and shape ones perspective from a position of safety. It is a physically insulated environment with natural resources. There are many here who are suffering as a result of lockdown as well as already existing insecurities. Yet despite the misfortune of lockdown we still hold some possibility of progressing in a positive way. It's definitely something we all need to give much thought to, and hopefully we find solutions that support the common good.

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It means the workers call the shots.

What it doesn't mean is that the bourgeoisie call the shots on behalf of the workers.

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snoopydawg's picture

Moreover, if we don't address future expenses.

They’re the ones that got the most money from them so why in hell is it our responsibility to pay them back? Can’t cancel student loans because some rich person might get help, but it’s fine to raise the gas tax and keep taxes on food and even pay per mile to get to your job 2 hours away because that’s the only way they can afford housing.

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Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

@snoopydawg Do you have another point?

And of course I'm against something that disproproportiatenly helps the rich. You're not?

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janis b's picture

@Rojo

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If you say "how hard is it to wear a mask" and you don't work a labor job, you're a priviledged dick.

My brother works in a factory and has all kinds of tooth problems in the last year from doing sweaty work while wearing a mask.

Also, if you're a Zoomer, you're just probably a dick, Period.

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dystopian's picture

@Rojo thing I have ever heard:

My brother works in a factory and has all kinds of tooth problems in the last year from doing sweaty work while wearing a mask.

As someone that worked with a mask on at times in my life, often sweaty, and spent thousands on mostly failed dental care, I can assure you the sweaty work with a mask on has nothing to do with dental issues. They are not connected, or even related.

I hope your false claim of correlation sets off sirens and flashing lights for others like it did me. Like ad hominem attacks on others also does.

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We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.
Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better.
both - Albert Einstein

@dystopian
Flashing Red Beacon Light

make funny GIFs like this at MakeaGif
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Idolizing a politician is like believing the stripper really likes you.

Student loan forgiveness is INCREDIBLY regressive. I know that a lot of people have gotten deep in debt and don't make much money. That sucks. But, by-and-large, a young person who's accrued a lot of debt went to an elite university and probably pulls down a decent salary. Student Debt forgiveness gives this person tens-of-thousands while giving hardly anything back to the Community College student pouring their coffee.

I don't think this is correct. I'm not an economist, but there is a leftist economist, Marshall Steinbaum, who has studied loan forgiveness a good deal and has argued that it is not in fact regressive. See here and here.

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@peachcreek Well of course he's an idiot

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vtcc73's picture

I'm also sorry Rojo but all I see in this essay is division. It's IDPol from a leftist perspective. IDPol is BS whether it's from the Clinton wing of the Dem party, fascist whackos, or from hard core leftists. It points to differences and tries to shift and/or assign blame for our troubles from ourselves to "them" solely from an arbitrary assumption of how people think and act based on a assumed membership in some nebulous group. For example, I have no freakin' idea who a Zoomer might be nor do I have any reason to believe that their being called a dick makes them one or not.

IDPol's purpose has always been to separate us not bring us together. Look around. How's that working out?

People are going to support what they think is in their best interests. Don't expect or try to demand they act differently. It never works telling others how they should think and act. The best we can ever hope is to find common ground on which to build an understanding, examine potential solutions, or persuade others to see an issue similarly to us. [Edit: I left out the most important one: or we might learn something we didn't know or understand.] It's a difficult and long term project, usually generational. Telling people they're dicks or telling others that those folks over there are dicks generally neither makes converts to ones position nor allies nor friends. And it is sort of a dick thing to do.

I find your position on student loan forgiveness disturbing. It smacks of a near universal malady found throughout Americans. Someone's getting something I'm not so that's not right, m'kay? Can't have that, can we?

Sorry if I just took a whizz in your Cheerios. Life is really hard for some of us and unusually so the past year. I live amongst people who have much, much harder lives than all but the poorest of my fellow Americans can so much as imagine but have a totally different outlooks on life. They don't complain or point fingers at those they perceive as the reason for their shitty lives. Most just keep working harder, are grateful for what little they do have, help each other, and somehow just get the shitty part of living done. Oh, and they really enjoy themselves doing it. It's made me very sensitive to finger pointing and stuff the serves to further divide us. I can't let it go when I see it from yet another corner of the American political scene.

Nothing personal, just another perspective. Now, off to bed. I'll deal with any aftermath tomorrow. Maybe.

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"Ah, but I was so much older then, I'm younger than that now..."

As a Lefty, I really don't want you on my side. Because you're dumb. Really dumb.

We can't afford to have people like you -= incredibly stupid people -- on our side.

You really damage us. You're a big moron. Please go away. We really don't need any more nitwits.

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Lookout's picture

@Rojo

This community is mostly cooperative and supportive. We normally disagree respectfully... focusing on ideas not people and personality.

There's one rule here...don't be a dick. Please work toward that goal.

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“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”

@Rojo
I read this piece last night before I went to bed and decided to give you the benefit of the doubt that you're not here just to troll us. Then I woke up this morning to this little gem of a comment.

You're just a Dummy.

As a Lefty, I really don't want you on my side. Because you're dumb. Really dumb.

We can't afford to have people like you -= incredibly stupid people -- on our side.

You really damage us. You're a big moron. Please go away. We really don't need any more nitwits.

Rojo, you can pretty much say what you like on this board until you insult other members. If you had read the FAQs you would have known that.

This comment blows our one simple rule out of the water, DBAA, Don't Be An Ass. This is not ZeroHedge, this is not DailyKos, this is not a fight club, we respect one another around here. In one fell swoop you have proven yourself to be the dummy you project on others, all written in jumbled up Donald Trump-like prose.

Sir, if you are truly a "Lefty" then the left is in much direr condition than I had previously considered.

Now pardon me while I show you the door.

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@JtC

ouch, that sort of dialog is painful.

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@JtC thanks. I wonder if anyone else thought "are you bob johnson?" while reading last night. I mean that guy from dk that trolled over there all the time, rojo dislodged him from the lint trap. The guy I thought "bojo" was the short form reaction to his diaries and comments, and not the actual hammer ban. mojo LOL

Wow a quickie search and bojo is still churning over there, I clicked the top link to last month. A stock orange-land image link. It matches rojo's sig a little bit but copyright markos I guess.

bullshit stamp
STAMP OUT DUOPOLY

Peace and Love

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enhydra lutris's picture

@Rojo

the site dummies. We do not insult or attack each other personally here, that's our one fundamental rule.

be well and have a good one

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That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

earthling1's picture

@Rojo
This is not the site you were looking for.
This is not the site you were looking for.

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Neither Russia nor China is our enemy.
Neither Iran nor Venezuela are threatening America.
Cuba is a dead horse, stop beating it.

@Rojo
Mission accomplished

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mimi's picture

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I guess I won't get to hear his definition of a Zoomer.
Markos, is that you?

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"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981