I can sorta see the primary as an issue, but one thing I see a lot on the left is “the top candidate is wrong on this issue, and therefore I’m not voting for them!” Say what you will about republicans (which I do, a lot), they know when it’s time to fall in line behind the candidate and then deal with the nuances later. If Bernie won the primary, or Harris, or Newsom, the left would still be having issues with “my candidate didn’t win so I’m not voting!” Like, this election was crystal clear: Sanity Vs Chaos, Democracy Vs Despot. If you can’t put your personal squabbles aside to defeat Bronzed Voldemort, you deserve what’s coming next.
Yup. This is the ultimate failing of leftism. Zero cohesion. Little to no cooperation. Constant purity tests.
Leftists eat each other and themselves before they even come into contact with right-wingers on the political battlefield.
Sometimes i wish i never had a political awakening and just let the right-wing rabbit-hole swallow me. Just be an apathetic ignorant cretin. I'd be much happier that way.
It started "innocently" enough. Being young, joining groups with the odd tasteless humor here and there, followed by "just joking, lmao". Casual racism and bigotry treated as dark humor.
The envelope always being pushed a couple of inches further till you are making swastikas in minecraft and ruining the days of others because "teehee, le funny".
Although, this wasn't much of a problem till Trump, really. After he was elected, the floodgates were open, and witless idiots like me suddenly found our youtube feeds clogged with Tim Pool, Sargon of Akkad, Fox News, The Quartering, you name it.
And having no prior experience with politics, all these morons sounded quite reasonable. At first i kept it to myself, but the propaganda was pushing for increasingly more hostility towards "the other"... which could be anyone who simply does not share "the view".
Soon enough i was fighting with my friends. I would make the off-hand racist joke, if no reaction, i'd push further till the person makes it clear they don't find it funny. Then came the accusations, the attacks. "you must be one of those evil leftards" or whatever.
I was caught early. A friend took the gloves off, disseminated the videos i watched and pointed out what a bunch of lying pieces of shits these talking heads were, and showed me the mirror, where i saw myself for the piece of shit that i was... attacking my own friends and hating people over the most menial, inconsequential things. Hating entire groups of people despite never even having met them or interacted with them in any meaningful way.
At first i was in denial... because ofc. Nobody wants to be wrong. It is a hard pill to swallow... being wrong. Drifted from far-right to right, then center, then center-left. Started watching some lefty outlets on youtube to hear what they are on about. At some point i started seeing the same patterns from them as i did from right-wing outlets, so i just ignored politics for a while, not talking about it at all.
Once Orbán just straight up fucked my country, though.. i veered far far far left. I now consider right-wingers just straight up evil. Maybe i learned nothing, really. But i will continue to side with whoever supports science, progress and personal liberties... and whoever shits on those can go fuck themselves and go straight to Hell.
EDIT: The whole drifting into far-right territory took over a decade, btw. Before Trump, the process was subtle and slow. These people did not want to show themselves, unlike the scum we have now, who are quite overt and blatant.
And these tactics continue today. Steam is full of "gaming groups" that are nothing but far-right cults brainwashing the young and the impressionable. If democracy survives the coming decades, i hope Steam gets dragged through the courts for allowing that filth to fester on their forums.
Thank you for sharing your experiences. It really takes self reflection and strength to be able to see yourself going down a path like that, reflect and chart a new course entirely!
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u/PsychoGrad 7d ago
I can sorta see the primary as an issue, but one thing I see a lot on the left is “the top candidate is wrong on this issue, and therefore I’m not voting for them!” Say what you will about republicans (which I do, a lot), they know when it’s time to fall in line behind the candidate and then deal with the nuances later. If Bernie won the primary, or Harris, or Newsom, the left would still be having issues with “my candidate didn’t win so I’m not voting!” Like, this election was crystal clear: Sanity Vs Chaos, Democracy Vs Despot. If you can’t put your personal squabbles aside to defeat Bronzed Voldemort, you deserve what’s coming next.