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Is there anything a leftist could say that wouldn’t invite you to post like this?
Now, one can't go back in time and say these things on November 3, 2024 when they would have been more costly in terms of status among the left, before it became common knowledge that these "progressive" positions were less popular or more hated than was believed by many/most mainstream leftists. So to demonstrate lack of cowardice today would require doing something similar: plant one's flag at a position that, even after the recent election created this common knowledge, would be considered low status and/or attract abuse from leftists. E.g. one option would be, don't just say that these "progressive" positions went too far, but say that the very structure that created these positions is rotten to the core, and that the electorate were correct in choosing the "fascist" over it, because the alternative is just that rotten. I suspect that such a statement would still face heavy censure from the Democratic mainstream and would thus be a demonstration that the person isn't just being cowardly and saying something only now that it's established that it's safe to do so.
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to add to what SteveKirk already said that I agree 100% with, I would consider the poor smuck on twitter that was sounding the alarm about the poor messaging for men days before the election, for which he was dragged by his own side (can't remember his handle, but he had his 15 min of fame), as a more valuable signal than the Ezra Klein or Matthew Yglesias of the world.
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Saying it in 2020 rather than once it became the safe party line, perhaps?
Because if they're only saying it now and actively worked against the conditions that led to them being comfortable saying it, you can safely conclude they will go right back to 2020 speaking-in-tongues academic leftism the second it becomes fashionable again. People quickly emboldened by circumstances can be deboldened just as easily.
Or at the very least, they'll go back to denying that it exists, they've never seen it personally at their job, you're paranoid and probably racist if you notice it because hit dogs holler. You know what and who I'm talking about.
For myself, I did make a list of good, trustworthy liberals who spoke out in 2020, who I will always trust to tell me the truth regardless of social pressure. Unfortunately it is much shorter than the other list.
Do you expect us to just forget Ezra Klein wanting leftist policy to generate a "haze of fear and confusion"? To make young men "feel a cold spike of fear"? When he hasn't even apologized for it, let alone been made to pay for his crimes and make restitution to the victims?
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