TOP 10 THINGS WRONG WITH THE LEFT

The Right Wing has been doing the same thing for centuries… They kill the indigenous Indians, push Puritan propaganda, they hang innocent teenagers for blasphemy (Thomas Aikenhead), upset governments and stash the cash.  Predictably – boringly. The contemporary Left has bought into the spin, and with the exception of AIDS activism in the early 90s, hasn’t had a truly formidable opposition for decades. Here’s why:

10. The left is lead by  wimps.

Obama is the great compromiser. Clinton was the great centrist. Both sold out the left. We can’t get a few good firebrands in office because it appears folk are afraid of ‘offending’ somebody. Being ‘offensive’ to the opposition is a key component of winning.

Dear OWS: Get a real leader and a message. Quick.

9. The left is too tied into Hollywood.

Hollywood, MTV, the media are not friends. They are businesses, in the business  of selling shit. Mostly shit. Parading stars around as heroes, or worse ‘Royalty’ does nothing for a progressive political agenda. (See: #3, awareness).

We wait for Letterman to host, CNN to exonerate, Fox to acknowledge. *sigh*

8. The left is too tied into mainstream media.

If the Murdoch wiretapping and illegal surveillance scandal doesn’t scare the hell out of you, you’re brain dead. If the fact that even the New York Times has turned bright yellow – towing the line for the status-quo, under-reporting and diminishing activism doesn’t shock you, well…

7. The left believes the ‘awareness’ myth.

‘Awareness’ – whether achieved by money, Hollywood ‘royalty’, or facebook clicks is not progress, it’s only awareness: the key ingredient to apathy today. We do not need any more awareness,the left needs across the board, active, ‘engagement’.

example: With AIDS activism – when the movement was ‘engaged’, HIV infections went down; now that the movement is owned lock, stock & barrel by special interest PR entities spreading ‘awareness’, HIV is back to where it started in a lot of places. Same thing with Women’s right to choose, drug prevention, et. al.

6. Real education has been hijacked by corporate bureaucrats and voodoo. Kids are growing up stupid.

I remember in about 1978, when a group of suspect characters showed up unannounced to my Junior High School class: we were to hand in our traditional textbooks. ‘English’ was now ‘Language Arts’; ‘History’ became ‘Social Studies’. We’ve been confused, and unable, as a society, to reason, cognitively consider, and apply broad logic to our surroundings ever since.

5. The heart of proper Education has been sucked out through the syringe of political correctness and unmitigated extreme radical feminism.

‘Everyone’s a Winner’ is the mantra. Can anyone else see the problem with that statement? This, and this in education alone, is the basis for an entire generation of young people growing up with an unshakable attitude of entitlement. You can’t challenge them, you can’t discipline them, you cannot teach them.

4. The left has been consumed by unmitigated extreme radical feminism.

I didn’t say ‘women’ and I didn’t say ‘all feminists’. ‘Feminism’ and ‘women’ are not even synonymous. However, the she-woman man-haters do as much to undermine a truly progressive agenda on the left as the CIA and the Socialist Workers Party. The Rush Limbaugh’s of the world use this as a battering ram.

Men in the West are suffering an identity crisis. They dress like the matrons of the past, and have little sense of place. They’ve on the whole been shamed from good parenting, good behaviour, and good lives. They’re ashamed to be quintessentially male.

Like Virginia Woolf astutely stated in ‘Three Guineas’ – I paraphrase: When feminism has attained its primary goals, it too should be destroyed, lest it become the same kind of oppressor as the original patriarchy it replaced.

“Ours is not a movement for women alone, it is an idea of men and women working together.” –Josephine Baker

3. The left is too involved in Israel.

Yeah, I said it. The whole thing’s a f*ing mess. I hope they fix it. But all sides have blood on their hands, are instigators and if blue Pennsylvania and red Ohio can share a border, then this should be fixable. It is not the 40s, the Nazi holocaust while atrocious, is in the past. 20th Century genocides in Rwanda, Somalia, Cambodia, China and other places are equally atrocious. We need solutions to brutal dictators, especially the ones funded by the West.

If Netanyahu wants to build walls & settlements, let him do it on his own time & dime. If Hamas can’t get a grip…same thing.

2. The left does not support its leaders.
Howard Dean makes one mistake on camera, as a human being, and everybody runs. Dennis Kucinich is short, not ‘Hollywood’, and willing to speak out on tough issues. Just two examples of viable leaders left to flounder. I wonder how many up & commers are waddling in the wings.

1. In the US especially, the left needs a real party.
The Democratic Party has been hacked by centrists and ‘be everything to everybody’ Pollyannas, like the Republican Party has been engulfed by religious psychopaths. The only way forward is with a viable, structured third party.

© mlb 2011