This makes me angry. I encounter it online and in the wild all the time. People have a problem with billionaires and corporations owning everything. They don't have a problem with mom-and-pop landlords living in the neighborhood (whatever's left of it) and renting out a few AirBnBs. People feel this way because they can't see a way out of capitalism except saving up some money and getting their own AirBnbs to exploit the land and proletariat, even though small landlords are neither happy nor interesting people, and they are still trapped inside capitalism.
People with an anti-corporate and anti-billionaire mindset are moving in the right direction, but they're still beholden to capitalist individualism. It's the same with local small businesses, even though these businesses are buying all their products from big businesses, selling them for a massive markup, and (in my experience) cheating their employees far more often than big business. Government jobs are the only ones I've had where I didn't feel like I was going to be fired or screwed every single day I was there.
I saw a Sysco truck a few days ago outside the only restaurant in my very small town. This place was my first job (as a bus boy) a loooooong time ago. They stiffed me on my first paycheck (I had been working an unpaid training period without knowing it, I was also supposed to be a psychic at this place) and I walked out. In the second or third year of the pandemic I saw a girl who couldn't have been more than eight years old working in an apron there (she was related to the family that owns the place). I've lived here off-and-on for decades and almost no one ever went to that restaurant; everyone knew you'd get sick if you ate their food. We suspected that it was a mafia money-laundering operation, since the owners drive red corvettes and seem to be rolling in dough. Tourists do eat there more regularly now even though the place has noticeably bad yelp reviews.
In a colonial context, big or small bourgeoisie can be revolutionary. In an imperialist context like in the USA, they are almost never revolutionary.
Also, the phrase "during the pandemic" makes me angry! A friend living overseas just told me yesterday that they had gotten sick and lost their sense of taste. Look up recent online reviews for scented candles.
Using "childish" as an insult. Bruh, have you talked with kids? Literally any kids. Easiest group of people on Earth to radicalize.
"Israel" is to blame for everything but somehow the USA is still good. This is thanks to Hollywood and the fact that the USA is a far bigger and more successful "Israel." Very few people know that Columbus was a Zionist. People around the world still dream of living here and making it big because of Hollywood movies and friends or relatives who immigrated here and somehow made it work.
In my experience, Arabic speakers are ready for a revolution, as long as it excludes women's liberation / queer liberation. Spanish speakers have profound levels of liberal brainworms. Portuguese speakers are typically pretty aligned with hexbear without knowing it. White leftists seem uninterested in returning the USA to indigenous sovereignty and paying full reparations to slaves / the descendants of slaves, and this is one major reason why their movements always go nowhere. (I hate the term "leftist" but I don't know what else to call these people since they aren't communists and yet they're still a bit more radical than the average democrat.)
What are some of your left-ish peeves you regularly encounter online?
biggest peeve for me is when people's interest in socialist politics seems to stem more from a desire to be the smartest and/or most morally righteous guy/gal/enby in the room rather than out of a genuine desire for a better world. it's a tendency that's existed since the beginning of any kind of socialist movement, but it's intensely heightened by the nature of the internet. it can also exist alongside a genuine desire for liberation and is a contradiction we all have the capacity to slip into, so is something to always stay vigilant against in ourselves.
tied to the above, but another peeve is lingering individualist idealist/moralistic puritan brainworms in people who have otherwise come to the correct conclusion.
and not exactly a peeve, but something to always keep in mind and which is tied to all of the above: coming to socialist politics on an intellectual level is not the same as coming to terms with how hegemonic all of these hierarchies are in our day-to-day lives, is not the same as coming to terms with all the ways they've shaped us, & is not the same as unlearning/decolonizing ourselves of these thoughts and behaviors. the latter is a lifelong process, which is something i have to remind myself of every time i encounter a new blindspot in myself, or a blindspot in a comrade/fellow traveler that surprises me and seems intuitive/obvious to where i'm at in my own political journey, but which isn't obvious yet to them.
This is me. I still get corrected sometimes. I try my best to be humble and listen when people make a good point.
no shame, it's been me as well and takes active effort to avoid/unlearn.