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There's a certain kind of leftist for whom no advancement is good.
Not "no advancement is good enough." No advancement that isn't burning society down and starting over is "good" (and that wouldn't be good if it actually happened) or even _progress_.
Sometimes it comes from a place of cynicism, often some other form of hurt, and it drives me _up a wall_ when I see it.
It ties too much into a learned helplessness I see too often among leftists. If they were using that cynicism to drive change that would be one thing, but too often they seem to be "cynical for clout" or "cynical for the sake of being cynical."
Even if I can sympathize with the feelings, I am going to be highly frustrated at the continued emphasis on learned helplessness and the encouraging others toward the same.
I phrase that has stuck with me from the water protectors when they won a key victory goes like this:
"Tomorrow we fight, tonight we dance"
Engels wrote consistently of the need for intermediary steps, of judging your position and preparing for the next stage.
I keep these things in the back of my mind constantly when engaging in anything political.
@hrefna I just read this by @Daojoan this morning, I think it’s related..
https://joanwestenberg.com/whatever-it-is,-im-against-it
@hrefna you've just inspired me to write a blog post about the parallel between these cynics and the people on engineering teams who insist that the only way forward is a total rewrite of the system.
@hrefna Like “we can’t put amenities in poor neighborhoods because then those neighborhoods will get gentrified”