By Daviemoo – who is posting this and running far away from social media for the foreseeable.
My last post was my hundredth, though it’s not the hundredth article I’ve written for politically enraged- I cleared out 23 drafts the other day. Thank you to everyone who reads what I write and enjoys what I do but I have to be honest, of late everything has become somewhat exhausting– and not because of the always growing wankery of tories and their voters, of the arm waving gammonry of the politically dumb- because leftists in the UK are, as a whole- acting like fucking dickheads.
I wasn’t aware of the shitstorm ignited by commentary on a video which emerged recently until last night, and truth be told I was not sober when I was made aware. I read with abject horror some of the comments I, and my friends, had received for calling out what I pretty confidently would call racist dog whistling.
I have to be honest, in the way that my latest podcast episode is quite honest; I have no idea what people actually want any more, and as I grew from “back labour no matter what” to “we can critique labour healthily and listen to those with opposing views but I can’t see an alternative that works in this broken system”, my surety in what I was saying diminished.
I look at that as a gift.
I don’t want to parade the digital halls of social media, telling everyone what I say is definitely right, throwing out deliberately divisive tweets and confidently telling you any alternative to what I say is wrong because I don’t know. I don’t have the self confidence, nor the confidence in any political figure or leader, to state that we’re doing the right thing, on the right track, and that you should lean over and copy my answers on the test of “how to move forward”.
Equally I’m disillusioned with any faction I once called mine. The more center-left labour seem, no offence to those who keep staunchly backing it, to be willing to compromise on stuff that I’m not; but also lack the nuance to understand that just because I’m critical of labour’s brexit stance or Wes Streeting’s weird “they’re both bad” stance on transphobia in labour for example, doesn’t mean I’m trying to subvert support for labour. Dealing with problems is how you deal with them, and making compromises for them or flatly ignoring them doesn’t. Labour has some issues it needs to deal with by talking about them out loud, and by allowing voices who want to bolster the movement but don’t understand the direction to speak up, labour could allay these fears, embolden its supporters and move ever onward to a progressive alliance- not with other parties, with it’s broad-base supporters itself.
On the “far left” which is a term that makes me wince a bit because it’s so often used to describe the “has socialist in bio but acts like a 4chan edge lord” type, I’ve been absolutely stunned to see misogyny, bullying campaigns, I’ve had direct homophobic nonsense and people like the ragged trousered philanderer blithely being disgustingly transphobic guff – behaviour I genuinely thought was beneath people I once respected and now can’t stand to know I associated with.
I made fairly definitive critique of a man who used the argument “ethnic minorities and upper working class people want to destroy labour with liberal politics” (its Neo-liberals you’re referring to I assume) and spent 4 hours reading comment after comment of people deciding I was trying to sabotage labour, sabotage EiE, sabotage socialism itself, and not merely pointing out that if socialism means small-state bollocks where you point the finger at “ethnic minorities” and fellow members of the working class as the enemy instead of trying to make a cohesive movement with those very people, I don’t align with those views. It’s not exactly guy Fawkes-ing the EiE HQ is it, saying “wow this is really disgusting sentiment” and yet I had supposedly left wing people saying shit like “Tommy Robinson isn’t a bad guy now, he realises it’s the state, not muslims who are the enemy”. This the same Robinson who, literally 5 days ago was demonising Pakistani men? Or saying that I must be tory if I don’t imbibe the sentiments that foreign working class people are trying to sabotage the… what, “native” working class? Sure, Jan.
Dempsey’s views on calling Tommy Robinson supporters “the scum of the earth” make me laugh. Because Robinson supporters are the scum of the earth- not indelibly, forever scum- racism is a choice, bigotry is a sword you can put down at any time. Robinson supporters don’t care about unionisation, or workers rights, or emboldening the working class- they care about ‘the nasty foreign people coming here to steal are jobs’ and whatever other half baked cuntery they pull out of their racism-frazzled brains. There is no excuse for what he said- none. Pushing divisive rhetoric about factions of the working class, levelling blame at ethnic minorities? No way would I ever align with those views, and offering forgiveness to Robinson supporters until they showed actual contrition for falling for the racist dog shit that gave him the money to put a swastika on his neck? No thanks. You don’t fix racism by not being racist, you fix it by being anti-racist- and you dont fix capitalism or FPTP by espousing more politely worded, general racism.
The fact is, there is no perch on which I’m comfortable on “the left” after all of this, after being squeezed between the pro and anti starmer people to bursting point, and I’m certainly not a centrist but I don’t necessarily hate those who are (there’s a difference, to me, between ‘this policy isn’t pragmatic enough to work’ and ‘oh sure they want gay marriage illegalised but look at that tax plan!’- that’s not centrist pragmatism, it’s selfishness which is a byproduct and ethos of the right)- and I cant stand the right. It’s to the point where if you still back right wing parties now, now that the masks are off, you’re either so deeply radical I can’t help you or you’re so twisted you don’t need guidance, you need an assessment.
I call myself a progressive now for lack of any better option. Because the factionalised shitgibbonry of the left as a whole is pathetic, puerile, childish and yet it’s also deeply dangerous. I’m sick of big leftist figures acting like paragons of goodness whilst setting their followers on other left wingers, unleashing tidal waves of vitriolic bullying and acting like making other leftists come away from social media is some sort of victory for your movement instead of proof that you don’t give a shit about politics- if your entire goal is just to push your own agenda so hard it steamrolls other people, that’s not ok.
I’m sick of seeing people demonise those they share particulates of political leaning with rather than taking aim at the actual enemy. Half of you are overthinking it- it’s not some secret complex game of guess the secret baddie, like ‘Guess Who’ with rosettes- you’re either for voting against the tories or you’re not. I say it a million times a day, the system is broken so if you’re not happy with this iteration of labour, what’s the plan? Oh some long winded spiel about reforming the system by not partaking in it- apparently it’s actually a huge part of disinformation farms to push the idea that not voting is some wise political choice- not voting just means you need to shut the fuck up about any and all repercussions because you literally cut out your own tongue when asked for your opinion. Miss me with that “I’m so big brained I don’t participate but I feel entitled to moan” shit. And even better, nobody who insults Labour seems to have an actual plan- even big leftist figures whose bank is aflow with the money they earn by bashing labour come down on “well im still voting for them but I’ve been consciously telling people not to for months”. Mmmm, I also like hypocrisy. Again, the lack of nuance. You could constructively criticise and platform those who do the same, but I guess acting like rabid dogs with 200 characters or 2.20 seconds to bark is easier. The option I often have wafted at me is “i’m just going to vote for this other political party that won’t win, but at least my hands are clean (and the tories will still win but that’s not MY fault, right)”. Every person who suffers under tories doesn’t really give a shit about your clean hands but whatever helps you sleep at night I guess.
I genuinely hope we get PR in the near future- not just because I have grandiose hopes for a more democratic spread for voters to choose from, but because I’m sick of being hemmed in to a wing of politics that’s become even more toxic than the forced birth loving, force my religion on you-ing, worship the rich-ing tosspots on the other side. Having to share politics with people who act more despicably than right wingers is pretty grim- and because the system is fucked up, there is no alternative.
I’m taking time away from it all, to sort through my feelings on it. The fact is, I see little point in talking about politics right now, because there’s no view you can have on leftist politics that isn’t polarising. The left is radicalised against itself and it’s pathetic. We don’t deserve power any more than the scum in power right now do. It’s an embarrassment of a movement- half of it more bothered with deifying the dusty words of old white men who engaged in theoretic thinking, whose lives didn’t even slightly reflect our way of living than actually looking at the system we’re in and asking how the fuck we make these hazy dreams come true without employing the same scary ass totalitarian governments who push for socialist structure, the other half desperate to compromise on some of their own long held beliefs because they think winning can come at a stupendous cost and that giving up on long held core beliefs of their movement is acceptable. Ah yes, we win everyone! Brexit’s never being reversed, it’s ok to be transphobic and the laws that stop us protesting, force us to abide by ridiculous voter disenfranchisement and keep us locked in a broken system of capitalist dogma even as we cant afford electric or water are still all things, but we win!
Frankly everyone, go for it. Tear yourselves apart, tear each other down, demonise each other- I’ve pushed for unity on the left ever since I saw a bigger picture lurking in the background. But what’s the point. I don’t want to align myself with any of you right now because all of you are behaving shamefully. So do what feels right to you, be tribal, be vile to each other- It’s nice to see under the mask and understand the dangers of political polarisation laid bare and to understand this ever growing “if you’re not in, you’re out” mean girls politic in the UK.
I’m taking some time away from all of this because my head is abuzz with realisations. when I come back I hope some semblance of maturity magically manifests itself into the forebrains of leftists in the UK because right now- you’re all acting like idiots, and as loath as I am to level the accusation of enabling the tories I am – the whole lot of you attacking each other instead of talking constructively are doing exactly that.
Peace out, enjoy your fighting folks, I’m going to work, gym, read some political theory and come back ready to focus on the actual enemies rather than my bedfellows.
Politically Enraged 