This woman says things I agree with from time-to-time, but I get a strange radlib vibe from her, and I never really cared to follow her or pay attention to her content because of that. I am posting this because I found this through the Instagram story of someone else I follow.
She's somewhat popular among vegans as she talks about animal rights in addition to some of this sociopolitical stuff. She validates the existence of "cancel culture" and has a podcast called "Fucking Cancelled" to lean into that "contrarian, edgy" vibe that reeks the same exact way a lot of right-wing podcasts would. I can't give an in-depth analysis of that podcast because I haven't listened to a single episode (nor do I plan to). Oddly enough, she restricted comments on this post (she does with all of her posts, and I don't necessarily know why, so I'm not immediately accusing her of hypocrisy, but... maybe it is?)
Anyway, without further ado, here's the whole post formatted on a different site
And let me give my own analysis here:
- Due to the vague nature of the wording of this post, a lot of it is agreeable in a very abstract sense. Disagreements over how to handle things like tactics, direct action, and applications of theory are obviously expected and healthy to discuss with established boundaries of basic decency and respect.
- That being said, this is not the vibe I'm getting from this post. It doesn't sound like, "What are the best ways we can reach most people with education about class consciousness?" or "What are the best ways we can work towards liberation for a certain oppressed group of people?" It gives off more of a, "Stop whining and being so authoritarian just because a white leftist called you the N-word! Why are you asking for basic decency!? You're taking things too far with that!" vibe.
- The use of terms like "free thinker" and (potentially) framing leftists who uphold standards of basic decency as being akin to a "religion" or a "cult" reeks of 2016 "anti-SJW" style rhetoric.
- This post being extremely equivocal and abstract can be interpreted the wrong way specifically because the left has not even worked out it's issues with basic decency! The left is far from being completely comprised of people who truly oppose racism, sexism, ableism, transphobia, etc. These issues continued to get erased and swept under the rug, and people aren't being held accountable because they think that them not being explicitly bigoted is enough.
- Extending from this last point, though I agree that some takes about identity politics can be reductive (as Zionists have shown us...), this framing still can be a slippery slope to giving a pass to privileged people, like white men, disingenuously speaking over marginalized people, like Black women, in a condescending way.
- This post embodies something I like to call the "contrarianism paradox." When you're so invested in contrarianism that you reject critical thinking because such critical thinking may lead you to a conclusion that you find too mainstream. Yeah...
Well, that's my two cents on this shit.
