General Discussion

Some of the arguments I saw used to defend Swalwell are ones that can apply to a very different type of leftwing male who is nothing like a very establishment friendly type of person like Swalwell, who is likelier to be popular with the national security types who would not like people like Yasha Levine who are honest.

Yeah politics is not straightforward. Its why I dislike Ralph Nader and Jill Stein etc.

But that’s different from shilling some types of narratives that are somewhat discredited like Russiagate.

I am very sympathetic to Zelenskyy and Ukraine and obviously Putin, like Xi Ping (that’s a serious blindspot the left has with the China humping and defending Hamas etc) is a dictator. But I still don’t like an aggressive dem national security state type that pushes narratives that are not true and they do help Republicans.

I don’t think the best parts of the left can pull off these scammy Republican tactics. Those work better if you are honestly warlord and cult sympathetic.

It is not that hard to have a consistent worldview. In fact I find the other thing a nightmare.

I would be more inclined to suspect sabotage if Christopher Ketcham or Yasha Levine, who are both left, but edgy the real way. Which is what I am sympathetic to. I don’t like a toothless, bloodless left as the sole option. No swearing. No joking. Edginess is the tool of the disempowered.

Those are two men I have worried would be attacked as sexist - total bs and in Yasha’s case even more disgracefully as some kind of Russian plant and in Ketcham’s case what I was always worried about spiteful slander as an “ecofascist”. That is the left sabotage I am wary of.

Nathan Robinson is correct enough that he doesn’t have to worry (not a bad thing - that is just his personality. We are all different). He is another person I respect. But he, Ed Zitron etc are less likely to end up getting ostracized for pushing back verbally in ways assholes like the creeps on my street can exploit.

I used to try to pretend to be toothless enough to pass. It was never a very good fit but I tried.
But between the real harassers at this moment being misogynists to the hilt as is typical of the locals and sabotage from a type of bogus “left “or “healthcare” I have been at my wit’s end.
Totally malicious the shit where I live.

Lucien Greaves has already faced that but from the type of left I wish well but think..even I think should find better priorites and not like Sam Miller Macdonald write entire opeds passionately making a case for men’s wear while giving Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald a pass, when they are both pretty compromised by now.

Actual real honesty without invasive surveillance and tests is the only way to weather this era.