I’ve been good, glad I ran into you again

The cultural repression especially around trans people & immigrants is the most obvious wellspring of authoritarianism in all these different types of libs

Republicans ARE all bad but they weren’t all fascists specifically at the beginning of this, the part of the party who didn’t hop enthusiastically onto the Trump train would have been included in this broad liberalism

Oh no the economic rejection is secondary here the cultural rejection is the real mover also you still seem to be using a definition of Liberal that’s too small, Elon & the tech right, anti Woke Matty & Noah are all of a piece but it’s also Joe Rogan & anti-anti-trumpism from republicans

I think that techs right pivot, the right pivots of journalists like Noah Smith & Matt Y & the politicians itching to bolt in that direction are all linked & exist in spite of their previously stated principles & it’s way more emotional, way more about being uncomfortable & challenged than you think

I think a more precise framing & one that csilverandgold could assent to would be “institutional actors within liberalism” as opposed to liberalism writ large- sure the modal lib loves democracy & Kamala & Online Cultural Democracy but those institutional actors didn’t *in spite of their liberalism*

And then after the stool collapsed what was left was bigotry, just kind of floating it there on its own.

But what I might say now is the rational motivations for conservatism collapsed, leaving only the libidinal motivations.

The radical left (who reject markets & thus aren’t Liberals) were aching for such a democratizing shift & the fascist adjacent right(who aren’t liberals bc they reject rights) had already long ago turned on modernity but the great swathe of ppl between those two poles bolted to the right (eg. Elon)

opinions vary re: how strong each ingredient should be in the cocktail

He means Liberalism in the European/academic political science sense- meaning: everyone who purports to believe that the ideal society is a cocktail of democratic political & cultural institutions, capitalist market economics & universal & consistent legal rights

& as a leftie who can read, I think that all the asterisked points are all at least defensible if not outright correct & so I see no reason to let the moderates own this issue or use it against us. Process fetishism is lib revisionism. Left Abundance for all & Solidarity Forever!

* mainly housing, transit &
energy

** by increasing overall
supply &
efficiency

*** which we need to stay
competitive in the House
& Electoral College

**** by allowing Dems to
present themselves
credibly as
Capable “Get Things
Done” types

We need to return to Lincoln’s perspective on SCOTUS: (1) make me and (2) we are going to decide this legislatively

& I work at a prison so most of my coworkers regardless of age are white hick republicans

My favorite bar’s clientele is middle aged, generally whiter & very bourgeois & much less lib