AbsentEmpire t1_isc0vup wrote on October 14, 2022 at 8:23 PM

Reply to comment by Kyrthis in Penn students face disciplinary hearings for campus protests by dotcom-jillionaire

Same, though I largely stopped during the end of the Bush administration, start of the Obama administration when I became disillusioned with the Occupy movement.

Trying to organize on the left is like trying to herd cats. It's next to impossible, and if you get them into one place they'll just start attacking each other.

31November t1_isc5456 wrote on October 14, 2022 at 8:51 PM

A lot of people don't understand image. I get it: You have the right to say catchy but inaccurate slogans, make broad statements, dye yourself different colors, tattoo your face, and have 7 piercings per ear. I think that's really a cool look, tbh.

But, if you do that, you should not be representing a movement that needs to appeal to people in the center of the political spectrum. The left needs to learn political messaging, and we need to present ourselves like we want to have a seat at the table.

It sucks that we get judged by our looks and not our ideas, but that's the world we live in.

AbsentEmpire t1_iscdv4h wrote on October 14, 2022 at 9:51 PM

I think the bigger issue is the inability to focus on an issue, correctly identify its components, and stay on message about it.

I've seen some pretty outlandish looking people show up to anti-abortion rallies, and going in the way back machine, tea party rallies. They looked (and were) dumb as hell, but they were absolutely focused on one issue, with focused messaging and overly simplistic sloganeering to go with it.

You just rarely see that level of focused and consistent messaging on the left.

colourcodedcandy t1_isdnn45 wrote on October 15, 2022 at 4:08 AM

Well it’s not really the looks as much as the motivation behind the (far?) left (I’m liberal) wanting everything to be ripped out and transformed from the ground up. Abolish the police, all men are trash, or in the case of these protesters, gentrification kills. It’s not that there is absolutely no merit to any of their arguments - it’s that the extreme stances reduce them to caricatures that most people trying to go about their day (center of the spectrum) couldn’t care for. It’s not like these ideas “look bad”, some of them just lack nuance. There is good evidence from economists on building more and increasing supply even if they are “luxury” units because it reduces neighborhood housing prices. Rent control isn’t a good idea even according to Brookings but you won’t find any dearth of people railing against capitalism calling for rent controlling ALL units on r/nyc. (Before you come at me, I’m a brown liberal but not an American, if i could I would vote blue always.)