Leftism invites us to imagine a kinder world. One in which people care for their neighbors, not entirely unlike preindustrial society. One in which people feel genuine empathy for one another. This is not the leftism I see today. There is a certain level of social and emotional intelligence that I think was lost in the process of the commodification of labor, and which has only been worsened by the rise of the internet. Now, this isn't something which is the fault of technology. This is a result of our own deprioritization of socialization in general.

And do you know what I think the solution is? We need to grow the fuck up. I'm tired of seeing leftists try to flex on each other with virtue signalling and going off on unhinged rants against anyone perceived to be to their right. We're all in this together trying to topple the liberal status quo, and biting each others heads off is no way to make progress. As a community, we need to learn to be civil to one another, and further than that, call out this kind of toxic behavior when we see it. I'm not suggesting this will be easy. Not even remotely. It's hard to grow and change as a person. But we spend so much time laughing at conservatives for being so emotionally stunted and intellectually dishonest, yet we can't be real with ourselves that there are a lot of assholes in our camp too.

I've also heard the argument thrown around that rhetoric isn't as important for us because we're obviously right, and by engaging in praxis onlookers will have some sort of epiphany about mutual aid or some shit. Or, to paraphrase an actual conversation that I saw on telegram, that optics is for neoliberals. Well, I hate to say it, but you do have to actually convince people that you're right by actually talking to them. And this is another realm where leftism has failed horribly. Neoliberalism too, for that matter. Conservatives have obviously been winning the rhetoric game since basically the beginning of the cold war, and we need to accept that our current methods are simply not working. Personally I'm not above pandering to patriotic values like they do, but that's a conversation for another time. The least we can do is engage with people on an empathetic level, and that requires a level of emotional maturity that, honestly, I don't really think I've seen much of recently. Let alone the kind of cohesion which would be required to determine a cohesive messaging platform.

What I envision is a community where we trust one another. Not simply as people sharing a common ideology or goal, but just because we're all people, and we're all trying. I want to see a world where it's not the wild exception to see a debate end in someone conceding that their position was not entirely well founded, and wishing their interlocutor a good day. I want to see a world where we can take pride in the work that we all do together. If we can actually cooperate with each other as empathetic individuals, I believe we can achieve much more than any purely rationally motivated group ever could.

Now, I realize that I'm essentially shouting into the void here. I'm nobody, and you probably are wondering why you should give a shit about my bitching and moaning. And the reason is that you probably feel the same way that I do. And this is me officially giving you permission to vent those frustrations on a public forum. In fact, *please* do. This is the sort of message which is only effective if it becomes widespread enough to spark discourse in the leftist sphere at large. For far too long we have been shamed into pretending that we are all perfectly functional adults, but it's okay to have some growing left to do! In my wildest dreams, social and emotional wellbeing would become central components of leftist communities, rather than at best being an afterthought, and at worst being actively harmed.

As always, this has been your cringey diatribe from your ego-tripping captain. Peace y'all

https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/exiting-vampire-castle/ forgot to post this a few weeks ago

Dead channel

my favorite xkcd

Credit to poorly drawn lines

Has AI gone too far?
https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.06275