2020 summer of discontent

[uebermann]

[ToddStarnes]

[ToddStarnes]

[Philly]

[ToddStarnes]

[Philly]

Social media exacerbates the problem but I don't think it's the main source of the trouble. That started long before social media. Civil Rights struggle (and all forms of left wing politics in America) in the first 2/3rds of the 20th century was attached at the hip to the organized labor movement. What happened as the boomers came of age is that the left moved out of the union hall and into the lecture hall. Academia and campus politics became the center of left wing politics. Once that process began, it became sadly inevitable that we'd reach today's conclusion. Academics are conditioned to be back-biting narcissists who put their prestige and careers above all else. You don't need to go to the level of political struggle to find this out: just ask any long-time academic about the petty jockeying and power struggles within their own department.

We've gone from having a left that sees the struggle for justice as one in which the working masses must stand in solidarity with one another against the exploitation and oppression to having a left in which no one can lead a broader movement but everyone is selling their own personal brand.

[uebermann]

[ToddStarnes]

[ToddStarnes]

[exploited]