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PaperclipPerfector  19d ago (text post)   30928 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 2, 2024

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Freddie deBoer posted an article today that espoused that idea that “Cthulhu always swims left”, but flipped so that, effectively, “Cthulhu always swims right”. He doesn’t say those exact words, but that’s his general conclusion. In the aftermath of Harris’ defeat, many in the Democratic party are claiming that the party needs to move to the center after being too far left for many years. Americans mostly agree with this idea, but the remaining leftists like FdB are horrified at that conclusion. To people like them, Harris basically ran as a Republican, and so saying that the party needs to go even further right is anathema. If this all sounds utterly ridiculous… I wouldn’t disagree with you. Saying the country always moves right shares all the flaws as those saying it always moves left. I explicitly disagree with this piece, but I still think it serves as a useful example of what it’s like when the sides are reversed.

FDB although he makes many good points, like about IQ and education, does not really have a consistent worldview. I have seen him make the argument that the Democrats going too far to the left like on defund the police, or education policy, or social justice, also has hurt them, so...The dems lost because they didn't have good candidates, having put all their eggs in the Biden basket. They need seething closer to Obama or Bill Clinton , which Kamala didn't fit the bill.

“Cthulhu always swims right”.

This shows the limitation of memes, as only approximations of reality. I would say American society has moved right in some ways, leftward in others. It's not that useful of a framework for understanding society even by meme standards, imho

I would say American society has moved right in some ways, leftward in others. It's not that useful of a framework for understanding society even by meme standards, imho

It partly depends on personal perspective too. If you are left you might see Tulsi Gabbard and RFK Jr joining Trump as proof they shifted right, whereas if you are right leaning you might see it as Trump moving the party left. Who is correct?

Neither - it is a realignment on a pro/anti establishment axis instead of a left/right one.

MAGA is anti-establishment right, and now control the Republican Party. Corporate America and the shooty bits of the Deep State are pro-establishment right. The crowning heights of academia, the MSM, the non-shooty bits of the Deep State, and the Democratic Party are pro-establishment left. The anti-establishment left currently control no important centres of power, although they have burrowed into less-important parts of academia like English departments.

If you are on the anti-establishment left and your pet issue is something other than economic inequality or wokism (foreign policy for Gabbard, medical quackery for RFK Jr) then you are now closer to the anti-establishment right than the pro-establishment left. Something similar was going on with pro-Palestinian activists. (Particularly the ones who mean it, see the election results in Dearborn). On the other side of the fence, the pro-establishment right is mostly NeverTrump (even if they end up holding their noses and voting for tax cuts).

Those aren't contradictory views, both those things can be true. They could have met in the middle.

Lol that is similar to how I described that merge to my ma, I said they were putting America before politics. I was adding another reason that framework isn't particularly useful - it depends on your perspective aligning with the speaker's.

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