#leftist stuff

[bothpartiesarebad]

(via (72) Pinterest)

[sephirajo]

Gotta say as a leftist what is really interesting to me is watching people cover trashfires like the Resilient Jenkins family vlogging tiktok and seeing what they focus on. And god, the worst commentator on the list never fails to disappoint. From her framing to her rant about 4:26 in where she angrily lists a bunch of things the Jenkins want for free that ABSOLUTELY should be free! (Housing, Food, healthcare) and then just continues into classist bullshit instead of any of the things you can actually call this family out for doing. It's truly fascinating to me.

[omisspearl]

There's a few works from the progressive left that entered the lexicon in the last decade that I personally avoid, "privilege" and "problematic", both not because I think the underlying/original context for the terms were wrong but because the contexts they appear in now bring in awkward connotations or end up being more of a weapon or a place where ideas go to die.

Privilege is a useful idea to help you examine the human tendency to assume that everyone is starting from the same place and completely acting on their own initiative. Unfortunately it tends to be tied up in our moral suspicions of entitlement and good fortune. For example there's a current discourse about the privilege of reading. It's useful to acknowledge literacy takes more than just willpower and people who don't enjoy the same fluency with the written word are not unvirtuous. Inversely, an important part of broader literacy obtainment is built on allowing that reading for pleasure is an important part of building capacity. Privilege discourse is correct structural and medical things alike can make literacy more than just trying hard. This particular word, however, tends to contain a shamey implication of undeserved things you should not be attached to or work towards.

Problematic, on the other hand, is one of those concepts that is particularly weaponized. It is (ironically) problematic in itself. It goes from acknowledging a particular part of something being flawed and therefore engaging with it means acknowledging flaws and needing to think critically even as you choose to, to a euphemism for something off that allows one not to engage with the why. Other people have already pointed out it is too broad- that people and media alike both get labeled problematic when it can both soften the noxious (eg it's an understatement about something truly hazardous) or vague enough to exaggerate the harm in other things (letting you shame them while not overtly taking a hard stance anyone could argue with). I find in practice problematic is either used as an excuse or an ultimatum.

I suppose as some sort of conclusion, it's also worth noting that both privilege and problematic have the complexity that they can apply to literally anything. For example every single thing in my apartment and the apartment itself are both symptoms of my privilege and problematic in their origin. It's both useful to acknowledge that this is how the world works and also won't get me particularly far past that. But since both term have evolved past "okay, X, but now hear me out about this additional perspective and complexity" and to often meaning "here is some shorthand for why this is some bullshit", I now try to use other words.

At the very least, there are few people who will be able to process the role of their privilege without the whole safe space for learning that knapsack metaphor was incubated in. And very few people tossing the problematic lable around where I have seen it do anything like making space for the extra elements being more labour than they first appear or serving as a sort of wincing hand wave to avoid an unpacking that might deal with it.

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

So, in school every term we do posters about what teachers are reading. Given the recent "no anti capitalism in schools", can I have suggestions for my book?

[cammymode]

Not to be a big scary communist but I think part of the reason hbo is releasing their Chernobyl show is so they can sensationalize a disaster that can and does happen under capitalism and be like “SeE ThIs Is WhAT hApPenS uNdEr CoMmUnIsM” in order to scare off people from the rising leftist thought in the current generation

[peachy-keen-glam-queen]

Anyway the Sonic redesign debacle has nothing to do with a studio "listening to the fans" and everything to do with underpaid laborers in the animation industry having to clean up a studio's mistake to placate people who probably aren't even going to see the movie.

[peachy-keen-glam-queen]

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Fantasy media has a profound effect on pop cultural perceptions and needs to be held accountable for engaging responsibly with myth and folklore UwU

[peachy-keen-glam-queen]

Not to get too controversial on main or whatever but I really think that fundamentalism and refusal to consider ethical relativity in any form is the root of all social evils, thanks for coming to my sidewalk rant.