Burying the Lie of the Alt-Left

[Flying Squirrel]

BRANKO MARCETIC

It's time to stop pretending that the same people fighting white supremacists are somehow exactly like them.

(snip)

The term was always intellectually lazy and dishonest, but veracity was never its point. Rather, it was an evolution of the “Bernie Bro” slur, a way to dismiss left-wing critiques of centrist Democrats by claiming those espousing them were racist, misogynistic, white men, even when they were people of color, women, or both. The insertion of the “alt” label was key — without needing to say a thing, the term drew up an affinity and connection between modern, rebranded white supremacists and those campaigning for universal health care and a higher minimum wage.

(snip)

Well, the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville took place, and the same people who some have spent months dismissing as closet racists were on the front line, risking bodily harm to stand up against white supremacy. The International Socialist Organization (ISO) and Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were part of the counter-protest, and their flags flew high after the alt-right marchers had gone. The DSA started a fundraiser to cover the injuries sustained by those attacked at the event, which has raised $138,000 as of the time of writing. Two of its members were injured in the attack on the protests. So were the family members of a staffer at Truthout, a publication that was critical of Clinton during the 2016 election, and one of whose journalists has featured on the “Trumpian Leftism” Tumblr as a “Bernie Bro” and alt-left member.

Or let’s look at Heather Heyer, the murdered young woman who is so far the only casualty of Saturday’s right-wing attack. Heyer was a committed civil rights activist, whose mother, Susan Bro, said “always had a very strong sense of right and wrong.” She was also a Bernie Sanders supporter.

(snip)

The Left are neither supporters of white supremacy, nor supporters of Trump, and they never have been. But if liberals join the Left, they can help take the fight to the far right and end the seemingly neverending string of political violence committed by white supremacists. Uniting around this issue is a moral imperative.

---

Full article:

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/charlottesville-alt-right-left-bernie-bros

[Democrats_win]

1. Sad that even the best of the left goof up on this.

From the article:

"There are some who are nonetheless clinging to a divisive and false narrative about the Left. The day after the incident, Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas wondered if anyone “outside of the alt-left” was “still pretending that “last year’s election was about economic anxiety.” .
---

My gosh, the Daily Kos guy had thee point of the whole year: NOBODY is still pretending that "last year's election was about economic anxiety"!!!


Memo to our side: it's not about the so-called alt-left, Bernie or Hillary.

Look at the Nazi terrorist: he evidently had a job, an apartment and one of the best cars a young American could own.
With Tinted Windows! Gosh darn it!

Paul Krugman called it at the very beginning: it's about racism.

[Blue_Tires]

2. Not touching this... I know bait when I see it

and I've already posted plenty of proof elsewhere...

All I'll say in this thread is using leftbro bloggers to dispute the existence and ulterior motives of leftbros is pretty damned audacious...

Now I'll see myself out.

[brush]

3. What's with the separation of "liberals" from the left?

That use of the word "liberal", as if it's a bad thing, is how the alt-right denigrate it.

Do not fall victim to that.

Liberals may not be as far left as you but are part of the big-tent Democratic Party and have been fighting for programs that benefit disadvantaged people long, long, long before the word alt-left ever was coined.

And as far as my leftist credentials go, I go as far back as when the term "fighting the establishment" was something we used as campus radicals against our college administration.

I and many of my colleagues of the time long ago outgrew the altruistic, lack-of-life-experience simplicity of that term, unlike some others, prominent others I might add, who still use that term to foster divisiveness within their own party.

[Expecting Rain]

4. Blood in the streets is what the alt.left desires...

It helps the Nazis and it heightens the polarization of society into armed camps of far-rightists vs far-leftists that both groups see as their only path to power.

The promotion of violence and extremism is anti-liberal thinking at its worst.

Liberals must resist the assault on our values from violent extremists on both sides.

The left helped Trump come to power as part of its cynical "First Hiter, Then Us" strategy.

Other than that, the article is just an example of more attacks on the Democratic party by unhinged enemies of liberalism.

I thought this was a forum for Democrats?

[leftstreet]

7. LOL n/t

[snooper2]

5. What a bunch of BS

[leftstreet]

6. When 'socialist' lost it's smear-value

they had to come up with 'alt-left'

I guess there's a win in there somewhere

[maxsolomon]

8. the point is not the ISO or the DSA supporting Trump

it was ENABLING Trump's election by dividing the Left AFTER the Primaries, when the threat of Trump was 100% real.

"we" failed to come together.

Liberal Dems & Centrist Dems, even "Neocon Neoliberal Corporatist DLC" Dems, are already part of "The Left". Just ask a Trump Voter if they're separate.