
The smug style in American liberalism [2016 repost time] - bayonetz
https://www.vox.com/2016/4/21/11451378/smug-american-liberalism?repost-time
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bayonetz
This article is basically a "by liberals, for liberals" attempt to inspire
some philosophical self-reflection. It kept coming to mind over these last few
weeks, and especially last couple days, of stories stirring up so much rage,
counter-rage, questionable arguments, emotional triggering, etc. I've always
identified left but I'm definitely starting to feel confused by the actions of
other leftys. I definitely don't identify with the right so overall I'm
feeling tribeless as of late. Thought it worth reposting this.

For completeness, here is last round of discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12906783](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12906783)

~~~
dotnetisnotdead
> always identified left but I'm definitely starting to feel confused by the
> actions of other leftys. I definitely don't identify with the right so
> overall I'm feeling tribeless as of late.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Lifelong liberal here, and lately I
feel the left has abandoned me. Whenever I call something into question I'm
told that I'm a nazi, or that I'm "just not angry enough" and some dishes have
to be broken for the cause, etc. I no longer feel part of the crowd, but I am
certainly far from a right winger, so.. tribeless myself.

The left is turning into a fascist group. Ironically while waving the flag
pretending to fight it. In fact, the liberal movement is turning into the type
of populace the government has always wanted. No right to an opinion, speech
and expression are heavily regulated, and we rely on the government for
everything. We tell others exactly how to live their lives and punish them
when they don't.

This wasn't what I signed up for.

~~~
talmand
>> The left is turning into a fascist group.

The fringe left, while the moderates remain silent. I've found it interesting
that of late there has been a minor attempt to redefine fascism as a right-
wing ideology so that fascists of the left can't be accused of fascism.

~~~
dotnetisnotdead
It's more than minor, Google changed their definition a while ago, and
dictionaries have been following suit.

I always thought it would be Republicans who would make 1984 a reality!

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samirillian
When I taught chess, we encouraged young players not to play "hope chess."
Which means, making a move based on what you hope the opponent will do, not
based on what you actually think is the best (or even a good) move. Playing a
game based on logic, not based on hope, is both part of having a good strategy
for any game and part of growing up. You can't just hope life's obstacles
away.

And yet, by their actions and their rhetoric, "American liberals" seem to be
implying that hoping that Trump gets impeached is, in fact, a viable political
program, despite "rationally" knowing that the odds are against it, and that
their denial of the reality is more likely to lead to 8 years of President
Trump than 0 years.

The smugness is just a symptom of a much deeper childishness in the Democratic
party.

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stlHusker
In assessing the current poisonous political environment with respect to all
parties...

“It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think
that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was
us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly
never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as
one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.” -Terry
Pratchett, "Jingo"

------
wfo
The smugness comes from the American left party moving right to try and
capture some "center" that does not exist except in the professional and donor
class.

The "left wing" party busting unions 60 years ago would be unthinkable. The
left wing under FDR, not coincidentally the most popular US president in
history, did not hatefully dismiss the poor working class as stupid, it gave
them jobs and lifted them up. Rural areas voted Democrat. But we don't have
the FDR Democratic party anymore, we have the (Bill) Clinton Democrats. Which
is pro-deregulation, pro-incarceration, anti-union, pro-business, anti-worker,
pro drug-war, pro-foreign war, pro-austerity (all policies which are bad for
the poor, downtrodden, working class people) but they say the right things
educated people believe about minorities and talk about how their policy is
"evidence based" and boy if you cross them you'll sure face the full force of
their weaponized smug.

Trump flanked Clinton from the left on trade. I'll let that sink in. He said
he was going to fight for American workers and reject trade deals that helped
big business. Clinton waffled about it (because she and the Democrats support
it).

I love this article. The Democratic party has a whole lot of smug to offer; if
you join them you can feel like you're in the cool kids club, the journalist's
club, the wealthy professor's club, the doctor and lawyer and banker's club.
You're on the "right" side of things. But beyond a sense of identitarian
membership in the "expert, thinking, correct" class, it doesn't have much else
to offer.

If you suggest a program to make public college and universities tuition free
as it is done in many other countries, the "compromise" response from the
democratic party is a means-tested boondoggle: first if you prove to a
faceless government bureaucrat that you are poor and get all your paperwork
together (which is humiliating and difficult) then tuition is waived. Which is
completely out of touch with the attitudes of the poor; if you ever talk to a
poor person, the difference between a handout they have to beg for by
admitting their poverty and a universal program that everyone gets just for
being an American (like roads, police, etc) is the difference between visceral
humiliation they will refuse to face or hate using and something they can get
behind.

Look at the new slogan: better skills, better jobs, better wages. Skills first
of course, implying the under and unemployed are lacking skills. Implying
skills retraining programs (and not job creation programs, like the new deal)
actually work. Implying there are actually jobs for those workers once they
get "skilled-up". Implying people who currently have good jobs and are wealthy
are there primarily because they are skilled (there are plenty of pundits and
opinion authors at famous newspapers and middle managers at large companies
whose continued employment directly contradicts this theory). Implying a
corporate tax cut is designed to help workers. On and on and on. The
democratic party is smug towards workers because it considers itself above
them. It isn't the party of the workers anymore, it's the party of the people
who think workers are stupid.

~~~
AnimalMuppet
> weaponized smug

That's a beautiful phrase. I'm stealing it.

> It isn't the party of the workers anymore, it's the party of the people who
> think workers are stupid.

Very true.

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kapauldo
Telling climate scientists that you know better is smug.

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justforFranz
Labor has no pricing power. Everything else follows.

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bayonetz
Flagged?

