Categories
Opinion

The Case for Taking Over the Democratic Party

I swear I’ll try to do something lighter next time, but right now I want to talk some politics. I want to make a case for the socialist left to try taking control of the Democratic Party in America.

This isn’t my first, best, most ideal path forward. I would like a new party to form in this country, one which isn’t beholden to the old ones which have brought so much misery to America and to the world. So what I decided to do was take a look at the times in which the two-party orthodoxy in the US has been challenged.

Categories
Opinion

Deep Waters

The thing about blogging, if that’s what I’m doing, is that I have to do it in the middle of the day. I can’t save it for later. And that’s a lot of why I haven’t done it that much, I don’t always hang onto things that I want to talk about in this medium. But I’ve got a bit of time and something on my mind so let’s talk.

If you’ve followed me on social media for a while, and if your timeline isn’t too cluttered, you’ve probably seen me doing a thread on an argument before. Not an argument thread, but a thread about an argument which is taking place somewhere else. It’s typically me breaking down how I think things went, devices I think worked, when people overextended, etc. A kind of post-game report.

If you don’t really know me, you might assume that what I’m doing is gloating, and there’s a little bit of that. But these aren’t like popular threads and I don’t do them with the expectation that other people are going to be interested. That’s why you will very rarely see me do that other popular move: arguing by quote tweeting. If I quote tweet it’s generally because someone has said something particularly absurd to where I’m not even taking it seriously. Much more often, you’ll see the other person quote tweet and then I’ll follow them with a regular reply. I don’t need an audience, though I don’t reject one; my arguing style is not sneaky, so there’s nothing to hide.

Categories
Opinion

Anti-Intellectualism on the Left

I just want to write about a trend that I have noticed on the “online left”, one which is probably common through all of the history of leftism, socialism, communism, anarchism, etc., but which is really striking me recently. I don’t know how long I will write but I need to put this into a space which is different than the one where I usually talk, and maybe having to slow down will help me come to more useful thoughts.

The trend I’ve noticed is anti-intellectualism. I could be specific and say “anti-academia” because that is how it usually manifests, but I believe that it is just garden variety anti-intellectualism.

Categories
Opinion

Friendship and Fandom

I’ve been thinking about submitting pitches and such again to publications, and that naturally led me to thinking about my hangups with submissions, promoting, and being in public in general. I feel as though I come off as unconfident but I’ve never felt like an unconfident person, and I’d say this comes out of a general not-fitting-in. A big part of this is that I am not a fan of things and I don’t make friends easily. It leads me to thinking that I should be seeking out somewhere else to lay my head, a place that I never seem to find.

Categories
Opinion

Unpleasantness

I know that this blog has had a kind of whiplash between wrestling posts and sad posts lately. I feel like I should apologize although I don’t want to. I like joy but I’m not a happy person. Rather than feeling as though I’m inflicting this on you, though, I hope you’ll see yourselves as taking part in an exorcism. I’ve got to get things out and for whatever reason it doesn’t work for me to put them in a diary for no one to read.

Part of it is that I’ve always looked to see myself in advice and posting online and I never did. I didn’t want to hold everything in and then be like why are people in my situation never represented well. I don’t think I have any answers for people like me, but I didn’t want this kind of perspective to be lost forever. If it’s just me, it’s an exhibit. If it’s more than just me, maybe it’ll help you to understand this type of person.