I'm old enough to remember when "well, then, you're a Democrat" was the rhetorical trick of choice, most commonly used when asking a person about their opinion about the abortion issue. Why anyone thought this strategy would work better the other way around, I have no idea.
I think this mentality where you need permission to call yourself a real leftist/progressive is something that emerged when the left-consensus among cool people was stronger. When you're a cool leftie in a cool leftie social circle, being able to exclude someone for not being pure enough is power - at least there, locally. For most people that aren't preoccupied with real severe problems with obvious connections to politics, that local social power is so juicy and delicious that it psychologically overshadows how strategically counterproductive it is for any wider political movement. And when you're deep in an echo chamber the idea that you should have to convince someone can seem sort of alien. Everyone already wants to think what I think (and some embarrassingly fail to live up to it). People who aren't even trying must be evil, irredeemable, bad faith actors that can never be changed anyway.
Sometimes I feel like this particular social dynamic is what broke the online left. A small subgroup of self-centred people treating politics like high-school took over. Choosing that personal clout over actually expanding the political movement you're supposedly a paragon of, at this time, it's a mix of naive and shitty. I think (and hope) it's bound to disappear when the actual stakes become more clear for people. Maybe these people will play up how naive they once were, but I don't think you can escape the shittiness of how it's basically driven by a sort of status-greed.
I'm old enough to remember when "well, then, you're a Democrat" was the rhetorical trick of choice, most commonly used when asking a person about their opinion about the abortion issue. Why anyone thought this strategy would work better the other way around, I have no idea.
I think this mentality where you need permission to call yourself a real leftist/progressive is something that emerged when the left-consensus among cool people was stronger. When you're a cool leftie in a cool leftie social circle, being able to exclude someone for not being pure enough is power - at least there, locally. For most people that aren't preoccupied with real severe problems with obvious connections to politics, that local social power is so juicy and delicious that it psychologically overshadows how strategically counterproductive it is for any wider political movement. And when you're deep in an echo chamber the idea that you should have to convince someone can seem sort of alien. Everyone already wants to think what I think (and some embarrassingly fail to live up to it). People who aren't even trying must be evil, irredeemable, bad faith actors that can never be changed anyway.
Sometimes I feel like this particular social dynamic is what broke the online left. A small subgroup of self-centred people treating politics like high-school took over. Choosing that personal clout over actually expanding the political movement you're supposedly a paragon of, at this time, it's a mix of naive and shitty. I think (and hope) it's bound to disappear when the actual stakes become more clear for people. Maybe these people will play up how naive they once were, but I don't think you can escape the shittiness of how it's basically driven by a sort of status-greed.