Is the West Experiencing a Left-Wing Drift? (the international left politics activism, news, and strategy thread)

The problem is always trying to do something (good) that the system isn't structured for. It takes so much effort to force something against the grain of the existing structure.

^ why i haven't voted green in 14 years

Asked if he’s a progressive, @BetoORourke says, ‘I don’t know.’ He’s not big on labels, he says pic.twitter.com/gDczpTZ2Bb

— David Siders (@davidsiders) December 14, 2018

my guy, lol

cogent thoughts on nationalizing various industries:
- coal
- oil
- steel

(in the US, i should say)

Modernity is weird:

https://jacobinmag.com/2018/12/yellow-vests-pamela-anderson-france-macron

Pamela Anderson on Europe’s Turmoil

AN INTERVIEW WITH
PAMELA ANDERSON SREĆKO HORVAT

Pamela Anderson spoke to Jacobin and philosopher Srećko Horvat about the protests in France, the crisis in the European Union, and her own activism.

This seems like a panel lineup from the Dick Cavett Show

https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/s720x720/47572254_1979948925422356_132817744755163136_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ht=scontent.xx&oh=556fe5bb0a5a35e226d9cbea30f606bb&oe=5C93213A

see also the parisian graffiti with this message lol

amazing

how many people do we think Pamela Anderson could feasibly murder

Depends on the place, depends on the time

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/fr/cp0/e15/q65/48396256_10212477136994449_6661528588589727744_n.jpg?_nc_cat=110&efg=eyJpIjoidCJ9&_nc_ht=scontent-iad3-1.xx&oh=e474870b2b45050cd7e0a3e243177c9d&oe=5CAE0290

lmaooooooooo the hits, they keep coming

Bearing in mind my prior comments about the problems of political personality cults, I hope the photo becomes a meme I love it

she's trending!

That’s the closest they could get to her making this facial expression

she just gets more powerful with all these hit pieces

love it

she just gets more powerful with all these hit pieces

^ this is mostly wishful thinking.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez grows in importance in the public mind as a result of all these hit pieces, but in order to counteract all the character assassination and the overwhelmingly negative tone of this propaganda she will have to become identified with effective advocacy for issues that are very popular.

As of now, for the vast majority of the nation, she is merely a name, if that. First impressions do count, and the media who want to take her down are attempting to monopolize those first impressions to the extent they are able. They know their business, treesh. They are busily poisoning the well as fast as they can.

I'm gonna need some evidence that any of that well-poisoning is working tbh, all of the attacks seem super weak to me so far (and not just as a commie)

I suspect that's because of how you consume political media, Simon. God help us, but there are tens of millions of US citizens whose media sophistication is so rudimentary that they thought Benghazi and Hillary's email server were major crimes tatamount to treason because some lame talking head on FOX kept saying they were.

I get that, but I still don't even see anything as (relatively) concrete as "the emails!!" to come from this messaging to date. the old "b-b-but commies!" alarms don't work all that well anymore AFAICT

well, hillary hadn't betrayed the brave soldiers of benghazi for like decades until then, but people were certainly prepped to believe that she would have

People respond more to the alarmed tone, the body language, and the carefully chosen implications that she presents a grave danger, than to any specific facts being communicated. They are consuming impressions, not facts. Even having a 'foreign-sounding' name is going to resonate badly, if the proper framework is built around it.

There's not a lot she can do to halt all that shit hurled in her direction. The best she will be able to do is craft an extremely strong counter-message, so simple and direct it is hard to obscure under the mud flung her way, and practice her camera presence to create a strong positive image to override the negative image being pasted onto her. She seems to understand this and is doing pretty well at it so far.

I would say so. To hat-tip to another ilxor,

*clutches at heart* _team_ pic.twitter.com/LAxew0Jlv7

— justin jacoby smith (@hoosteen) December 18, 2018

the right wing attacks ocasio cortez for being too idealistic and supporting policies most americans like, such as universal healthcare. doesn't have the sting of a seth rich imo

yeah that's a good comparison imo

she's also a young high achieving striver who could've milked her rise to prominence as some horatio alger myth but instead she gets there and shes like "it turns out america kinda sucks, lets do LOTS OF THINGS differently" like she's ungrateful!!!!

i think it's hard to smear someone like her. we'll see what she's like in congress, but right now it seems she is taking the bernie approach of never straying from the basic message. her positions are easily identifiable, unlike hillary's, which was why she could serve as a blank slate for the right to project their paranoia.

not that the right won't project their paranoia on her but i don't think it will stick the same way. i think she'll have more ability to control her own story. or i hope so because we need a hard left turn away from all kinds of nonsense.

the fact that she has yet toe ven take office and yet has seem to have done more to shift the direction of potential future public policy than anyone currently in congress is the greatest endorsement of the inherent appeal of left-spectrum policies (when plainly communicated) I can recall

i mean, not more than bernie or warren

more than anyone in the house yeah

I meant to say *almost* anyone there lol

imo, the greatest weakness of the moderate-left somewhat-progressively-minded politicians of the past three decades has been their habit of vague and generalized rhetoric on behalf of mind-numbingly complex legislation and difference-splitting policies. the more complex the legislation, the more easily it was subverted and manipulated by the wealthy and their lobbyists. they were charmed by a plausible line of rationalizations, when they needed to be resolute for clear, strong, and obvious public benefits.

but, you, the choir, have already heard this sermon I have no doubt.

I think more, honestly. it's the age factor.

As someone pointed out on the Current Affairs podcast, AOC is hard to attack because she does what Trump does: she never gets defensive. Every attempt made to slander her has been met with a "hell yeah I'm socialist" or whatever.

^^^

a fun AOC factoid

This also means @Ocasio2018 will have roughly 8 (!) hours per day more than her colleagues to spend on legislation, at hearings, reading, writing, doing press, meeting with constituents, etc. Her colleagues schedule is more like the following: /1 https://t.co/Y4jqzohzep

— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) December 18, 2018

It'd be a bold move if she actually avoids getting roped into call time

maybe this should all go in Democratic (Party) Direction idk

My old org often bandied around the idea of blockading one of the call time buildings but we figured ultimately it was too obscure a target to resonate with most people

Kinda wish we'd done it

Call time is for raising money for the DCCC and stuff like that, right? So is she raising money from small donors still, or is she just not pitching in? I mean, she could probably win that fight, but it's not really the same story.

aiui the DCCC plops you down and gives you a list

what is aiui pls

as i understand it

yah

is this the day I became more online than hoos, surely not

a new one to me!!

Tabletmag is targeting DSA again, this time calling out one of the co-chairs of my chapter by name and getting weird about it:

https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/277482/the-stars-of-the-new-american-left-israel-hating-women

A glimpse:

I haven’t even had time to read it all yet but I’m freaking the fuck out about this truly insane article on Tablet pic.twitter.com/kOb2SwtKvb

— Olivia Katbi Smith🌹أوليفيا كاتبي (@livkittykat) December 19, 2018