the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist)

'campism' is a critique (mostly) of the left where they will support or oppose certain factioms regardless of merit because they are seen to be working against a hegemonic power. it's how you end up with socialists supporting Assad or opposing NATO's defense of Ukraine. Bernie's stayed clear of that

many want to pretend they either don't exist or don't matter but they are the reason Trump is president and Harris isn't

One reason DSA is, hopefully, useful is that a party structure can filter out the maniacs and slopulists, and maintain some policy-oriented party members who can be the brains of the elected officials.

and are convinced 'reality' will reassert itself any day now, yes

messages and tactics that used to work, or only bother the Extremely Online, aren't just doing that anymore.

I follow Drop Site Media, I also haven't opted out of all Dem party fundraising comms because annoying as it might be I at least want to see what normies are seeing from guys like Ossoff or Kelly. I also do offline organizing.

man all I can tell you, from personal experience, is that coming at this sort of anti-system politics with a 'these people are beneath us' attitude is destined to end in disaster for your political tendency

It's why it's very important for Palestine solidarity work to not be antisemitic and also for American Jewish institutions to STOP FUCKING ABUSING antisemitism to suppress Palestine solidarity activism, even stuff that makes them uncomfortable. Because the alternative is erasing the barrier.

I'm devastated by the antisemitic attack at one of our nation's largest reform synagogues. My heart is with the entire Temple Israel congregation.

Antisemitism has no place in our country. We owe it to our Jewish siblings to stamp it out and ensure they can worship without fear.

he is honestly much dumber than this. he talks a lot about 18th-century absolutism but he seems to have no idea what it was or howit worked

we've been lucky in the US that the face of the resurgent left was an affable Jewish man mostly free of campist crankism and his immediate successors were women of color. that's how we've avoided the pitfalls of Corbyn and Melanchon, at least for now. but that may be changing if the moment isn't met

and Platner, totenkopf and all, is not the worst it's going to get. his rhetoric is actually pretty inoffensive, and frankly would not look that much more suspect than Talarico's if not for the context of who was saying it.

I'm not denying it's possible, I think particularly *because* it is breaking this taboo that has in practice been used to run interference for genocide and thus feels more 'authentic'. But Mamdani showed you could be clear in your opposition to Israel from a humanist perspective. more Dems need that

there is a crisis of credibility in the Democratic party. and either politicians answer it from a position of cosmopolitan solidarity or others will answer it from a position of crankish conspiracism.

and it can't be the same generation of politicians who got us into this mess in the first place. 'affordability' is an empty slogan coming from Chuck Schumer because he's had so long to fix it if he really cared

if we want Platner to be an anomaly, less problematic people need to appropriate his schtick convincingly

yeah there can be no waiting, we have to go to war with the people we have and try to get reinforcements as we go

I mean it's short of class war, because we are very much not ready for that yet, but it's in the same direction

life has gotten shittier and people that had the power have stood aside instead of stopping it. it's hard to beat conspiracy theorists when the conspiracies are real and in the open

I think you have to move against them when you have the opportunity and refuse to take money from them

part of the issue is that blaming all the ills of life on the other party is no longer a convincing explanation for many voters, even as it is ironically probably more true now than it has been in years. there are people at fault, and you have to identify them and deal with them.

it's a materially-grounded struggle framework, hardly orthodox marxist but sort of a kid's menu critique of capitalism

not even in the sense that 'all Democrats should be socialists,' a perfect example is Talarico's attacks on billionaires and how those are resonating

antisemitism has long been rightly described as 'the socialism of fools' and the recommendation here is not to be antisemitic it is to get rid of the 'fools' part

if Harris had won they'd be under a conservative government right now like come on guys you aren't that different

Broadly, it is bad that people (including partisan Democrats) do not trust or believe Democrats are moral and principled people who will do the right thing.

this is, if you know anything about non-profits, advocacy groups and most large unions, the exact reverse of how *their* endorsement processes work

DSA's internal democracy means, in our case, that a candidate who had near unanimous support from chapter leadership (and is a personal friend) did not get the endorsement, but a rank and file member who has joined more recently but has a more impressive track record did.

it takes a certain degree of charisma, accessibility, and smarts to get through the DSA endorsement process at a chapter level, and contrary to what some people think, we don't endorse anybody who yells Free Palestine, *because* our resources are limited.

we've just gone through our first endorsement process as a chapter since I've gotten here and I feel like there's something to the fact that even if DSA is inordinately PMC people who can talk them around still come off a lot less stilted to voters than people who had to impress other politicians