And how well has being the adults in the room worked for us? In the US, it’s done nothing but marginalize the left time after time. Our choices for leadership boil down to a contest between center-right and fascist, and fascist is winning.
The fact is, people want anger. People understand anger. People are angry, and for good reason. Our society is completely, utterly fucked, and everyone knows it, even if they don’t quite know how or why. And it’s precisely that sentiment that fascists like the MAGA movement prey upon. They give people something to blame for everything being fucked, while what laughingly passes for the left continues pretending everything is fine. And so people go to the right, over and over and over again, because at least the right acknowledges their anger.
There’s a reason that the last time the left had a real moment in this country was when there were massive protests all over the nation, screaming at the top of their lungs, “BLACK LIVES MATTER!” and “DEFUND THE POLICE!” We finally let our anger show, and guess what? This country stood with us, over and over, and mobilized like hell to get Trump out of office. And then the Biden administration abandoned us and called for “civility” and “reaching across the aisle” like we all knew they would, and now the fascists are back.
We are not going to get anywhere as long as we keep trying to be the “adults in the room” and try to be “civil”. We need to get fucking mad, and stay fucking mad, and do the work to make real change whether the other guys want it or not.
And how well has being the adults in the room worked for us? In the US, it’s done nothing but marginalize the left time after time. Our choices for leadership boil down to a contest between center-right and fascist, and fascist is winning.
The fact is, people want anger. People understand anger. People are angry, and for good reason. Our society is completely, utterly fucked, and everyone knows it, even if they don’t quite know how or why. And it’s precisely that sentiment that fascists like the MAGA movement prey upon. They give people something to blame for everything being fucked, while what laughingly passes for the left continues pretending everything is fine. And so people go to the right, over and over and over again, because at least the right acknowledges their anger.
There’s a reason that the last time the left had a real moment in this country was when there were massive protests all over the nation, screaming at the top of their lungs, “BLACK LIVES MATTER!” and “DEFUND THE POLICE!” We finally let our anger show, and guess what? This country stood with us, over and over, and mobilized like hell to get Trump out of office. And then the Biden administration abandoned us and called for “civility” and “reaching across the aisle” like we all knew they would, and now the fascists are back.
We are not going to get anywhere as long as we keep trying to be the “adults in the room” and try to be “civil”. We need to get fucking mad, and stay fucking mad, and do the work to make real change whether the other guys want it or not.