I absolutely am one of these politically homeless types and I know exactly what my problem is.
I was always left wing because I was raised with Enlightenment values, namely that everyone is equal and that the truth matters.
Because everyone is equal (in terms of rights etc), I want every baby to be born with a fighting chance of success.
I want everyone to be educated well, but not indoctrinated, as is often the case these days.
I know that life will never be fair, but I think that we should care about making it as fair as possible.
And, in a similarly egalitarian vein, I believe that reality should be accessible to all, and that objective reality should be our focus, rather than the privately held “lived experience”.
Truth matters and people matter.
The left became too mired in postmodernism, undermining objective reality and then unequally doling out the power to shape a socially-constructed narrative. It gave itself the meta-power of deciding who should receive these advantages.
The left decided the ends justify the means, whereas, for me, upholding the principles of the Enlightenment always was the objective.
In short, the left became the right by deciding that some people are more important than others because of made-up stories. And the new hierarchy presented opportunities to gain power for those who toed the line.
That’s a pretty complicated way of speaking postmodernism ? What are you talking about some new Swedish chair lol ? Meta-power? Look to say I’m exceedingly well read would be an understatement, but I learned very young that there’s a certain form of intellectual navel gazing that is essentially the HomeWorld of intellectuals , there are no more useless creature on the planet than intellectuals , they don’t know how to screw in light bulbs are completely impractical, and they produce nothing , at least nothing of any use.
When I was six in the late 60s, I knew that “ all men are created equal regardless of race, creed or colour “ by the time I was eight it was pretty obvious that there was something essentially untrue about that . Created equal , even that’s not true , a baby born with down syndrome is not equal to one that doesn’t have it. The world is essentially horribly unfair, and that is sad , but it’s the case . There is a relationship between intelligence and empathy not always, but often . I’ve always been an empathic person, but a certain point practicality has to kick in. Once a life boat is full the first thing it does is row away from the mass of humanity still struggling in the water, and the reason is simple . If you hang out there, desperate people will overturn your life boat, and you will all die ..: the left historically was the default position of most people with any education … but the underpinnings of traditional left wing thinking, have completely been abandoned . You say that you are politically homeless . What you’re really saying is that there is no political niche in which you feel completely comfortable. That is a good thing because if you feel complete comfort you’re probably not applying critical thought . Complete orthodoxy to either left or right is insane … At best. It’s a smorgasbord at which you like some of it, and reject some of it. . Anyhow, I ground this out and I really have to get to work.
OMG, I feel you were writing with my words. I could not have expressed it better. Thank you for this. I am in the exact same position living in Canada and coming from a country that traditionally was center-left. I come from Venezuela, where we used to have a balance between socialism and democracy until Chavez, who masked himself as a socialist but, in practice, was an authoritarian dictator, got into power and never left.
Here in Canada, I was a liberal until Trudeau became woke, and we are getting to the point where soon we won't be able to breathe without apologizing about it.
Trudeau is an interesting phenomenon … something happened. Somebody got to him. He reminds me a bit of Jacinda Arden, except for she had the wits to run for the hills. I don’t want my tinfoil hat to ruin my credibility , but essentially Trudeau appears I have become WEF operative .
I'm a lifelong US leftist who has felt politically homeless since the beginning of the BLM movement. I saw how distorted some of these cases were. Of course I oppose racism and police brutality, but often this was being seen where it didn't exist. I began to see everyone being divided up into oppressed and oppressor groups, as we'd done decades earlier in a far-left group I was in for a while. Then there was the transgender movement. As a gender non-conforming lesbian who once considered a gender transition, I'm hardly a transphobic bigot. But I don't think we should be medically transitioning children, or telling children in school that they can be whatever sex they want, or having biological males in women's and girl's sports and safe spaces. But there's no room on the woke left to question any of this. One need only look at what has happened to JK Rowling.
Finally, I left my information silo, that I didn't know I'd been in, and began listening to and reading political commentary and news from all sides. I saw how the liberal media often lies, distorts and exaggerates...something I had previously believed only the conservative media did. I saw how strong our tendency is on all sides to confirmation bias.
Like you, I don't support cultural relativism, and I see problems with unrestrained immigration that I hadn't seen before. I was horrified when Trump first ran for president and then when he won. But by the time this election rolled around, although I voted (reluctantly) for Kamala, I found myself feeling relieved and hopeful when Trump won. It's not that I don't see any problems with him. I do. And I know he'll do some things I don't like. But I think in many ways he may turn out to be much better than the alternative would have been. I still support all those traditionally left issues such as caring for the environment, ending discrimination and injustice (racism, sexism, etc), having a strong social safety net and living wages and good working conditions, freedom of speech, and so on. But the woke left has gone off the rails in too many ways. So, thank you for your article.
I'm also a leftist with reservations, reluctant kamala voter, etc. I'm genuinely curious - what parts of Kamala's policy agenda felt like wokeness off the rails? From where I was sitting, she was aggressively campaigning as a center-right person. Genuinely curious to understand this perspective, there are definitely a lot of people who share it
Well said. Certainly it is the Left that moved away from sane people. Their own hubris and 24/7 gaslighting by leftist media keeps the brainwashed in their echo chamber and supplies the reinforcement they need to pretend it is they who see straight.
The left by nature cannot be satisfied because there is no Marxist utopia and as soon as they conquer one thing in the culture, they push leftward to the next level of schizoid. It's amazing to watch suckers swearing backward is forward, regressive is progressive, men are women. Being too dumb to read a history book doesn't help matters either.
The tide is turning in the USA, thank God People who positioned themselves too far to the right in reaction to the radical left should soon be able to come back to the sanity of the center where complex truth and reality is most often found.
In the meantime, it's fun to watch the hold outs swear that they, the most intolerant people on the planet, are the tolerant ones. Truth and beauty will win in the end because it is constant and doesn't need to constantly shift the goal post to fit the most recently concocted false narrative.
You're what we might call here in the US, a Libertarian.
Also, a weird twist is that Populism has recently been used as a pejorative, yet democracy IS populism. In the US, We the People is Populism. And what's the opposite of Populism? Elitism? Monarchy? Oligarchy? I mean, if the left is going to smear populism it really says a lot.
pop·u·lism - noun: A political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
We the people, the democracy of the US was founded as a populist uprising against a monarchy and designed a representative government elected from the people.
The void, well articulated. Like many products of public education, it was George Orwell who taught me that politics was everywhere, just as the threat of authoritarianism lurked on both ends of the political spectrum. What I would add is I am centrist by default, and holding a political position nowadays is akin to walking a tightrope to avoid tipping over either side into a wilful ignorance of history and rank, untenable hypocrisy.
It's worse. After the Left left us, they went into holy exile, bitching and moaning about their lost Eden which they had themselves abandoned, preferring the sweet fruit of self adolation to the bitter yet honorable grind of ordinary life in ordinary towns in ordinary relationships in ordinary pursuits.
Bingo. This is why so many of the "politically homeless" cast votes for Trump this election. It's one thing to feel like you never really belong on account of specific beliefs that you hold. For example, I grew up in the rural south and always felt like a bit of an outcast because I never really felt like 'God talked to me,' even though he clearly seemed to be speaking to my friends.
I've always been comfortable having white space between my views and the views of others. But the condescension that is so prevalent on the left right now is unbearable.
I moved to Canada 12 years ago, so I didn't vote. I have no love for Trump, but I definitely had a gleeful moment of schadenfreude watching the elitists take such a beating.
If it's any consolation, I feel more affinity with those "formerly identifying as 'left' " than with anyone on the so-called right. I've been unmoored from political affiliations for quite a while. It's only uncomfortable when nonsense compels me to attempt to explain Donald Trump, who I consider a talented buffoon. For some context, I thought the recent movie 'The Apprentice," irrespective of the facts, quite good as a dramatiic piece. I liked it.
Let's all meet in the middle and revive that ancient American tradition. Pointed quality discourse, disagreement and try to build mutual understanding and solutions together.
I would add this cultural relativism bullshit isn’t really left. Marx for example believed that culture advanced in stages, and that the earlier stages were primitive and inferior. In other words Marx would be canceled by modern progressives who are nihilistic lost souls.
Which makes them lost souls. They got the bumper sticker "God is dead," but they didn't read the actual Nietzsche parable it came from, and how terrified that made Nietzsche, and he was not a guy who often expressed fear.
I saw a video a couple years ago of a RATM reunion concert where they had text about abortion rights up on monitors by the stage that used “birthing persons” to denote women. So sad to see a band that used to be thought of as badass and fearless being kowtowed into using that ridiculous verbiage.
You nailed it. The Left is living off its history of being anti-authority while it marches to an authoritarian model. But, the jig is increasingly up, as your post reflects.
I generally agree, the modern left don’t seem to be liberal in the old sense of ‘anything goes as long as your not being a shit’ - it’s now a whole bunch of rules and trigger words nonsense.
I guess I’m more of a libertarian in that sense, although I’m fully aware of the limitations of libertarianism as a governing philosophy.
My worry is that a nationalistic authoritarian is just as bad as a left wing one like Chavez or Mao and I don’t think trump will be able to resist those instincts especially with his total immunity. I think the next 4+ years are going to be pretty rough unfortunately.
I’m in a wait and see mode. The early signals of a cabinet designed to deconstruct a standing authoritarian structure are at least promising. That’s gonna take some time and energy.
Well said, and your thesis rings true. Most people are turned off by sanctimonious cultists, and that’s what the base of each party is, but it’s especially tedious for me on the left, perhaps because I live in a university town and the far-left cultists are a constant presence.
FWIW, it’s the same problem on the right. As a never-Trumper, I didn’t leave the right, the right left me. Reagan, the first president I voted for, is rolling over in his grave for what has become of both parties.
" I don’t want to live under a Fascist dictatorship. But equally, I don’t want to live under a Communist one either." - We labeled Hitler's Germany as fascist and Stalin's Russia as communist but there was no difference between them - they were both brutal dictatorships. A country is either a democracy or it isn't. We often forget that most of the world doesn't live in a free and democratic society.
Yes he was, that is how he first obtained power, just like almost every other dictator. After they get elected they seize absolute power by arresting the opposition, stacking supreme courts, suppressing the free media, then they rig elections to stay in power.
I absolutely am one of these politically homeless types and I know exactly what my problem is.
I was always left wing because I was raised with Enlightenment values, namely that everyone is equal and that the truth matters.
Because everyone is equal (in terms of rights etc), I want every baby to be born with a fighting chance of success.
I want everyone to be educated well, but not indoctrinated, as is often the case these days.
I know that life will never be fair, but I think that we should care about making it as fair as possible.
And, in a similarly egalitarian vein, I believe that reality should be accessible to all, and that objective reality should be our focus, rather than the privately held “lived experience”.
Truth matters and people matter.
The left became too mired in postmodernism, undermining objective reality and then unequally doling out the power to shape a socially-constructed narrative. It gave itself the meta-power of deciding who should receive these advantages.
The left decided the ends justify the means, whereas, for me, upholding the principles of the Enlightenment always was the objective.
In short, the left became the right by deciding that some people are more important than others because of made-up stories. And the new hierarchy presented opportunities to gain power for those who toed the line.
For all of these reasons, the left has left me.
That’s a pretty complicated way of speaking postmodernism ? What are you talking about some new Swedish chair lol ? Meta-power? Look to say I’m exceedingly well read would be an understatement, but I learned very young that there’s a certain form of intellectual navel gazing that is essentially the HomeWorld of intellectuals , there are no more useless creature on the planet than intellectuals , they don’t know how to screw in light bulbs are completely impractical, and they produce nothing , at least nothing of any use.
When I was six in the late 60s, I knew that “ all men are created equal regardless of race, creed or colour “ by the time I was eight it was pretty obvious that there was something essentially untrue about that . Created equal , even that’s not true , a baby born with down syndrome is not equal to one that doesn’t have it. The world is essentially horribly unfair, and that is sad , but it’s the case . There is a relationship between intelligence and empathy not always, but often . I’ve always been an empathic person, but a certain point practicality has to kick in. Once a life boat is full the first thing it does is row away from the mass of humanity still struggling in the water, and the reason is simple . If you hang out there, desperate people will overturn your life boat, and you will all die ..: the left historically was the default position of most people with any education … but the underpinnings of traditional left wing thinking, have completely been abandoned . You say that you are politically homeless . What you’re really saying is that there is no political niche in which you feel completely comfortable. That is a good thing because if you feel complete comfort you’re probably not applying critical thought . Complete orthodoxy to either left or right is insane … At best. It’s a smorgasbord at which you like some of it, and reject some of it. . Anyhow, I ground this out and I really have to get to work.
There’s a few typos errors I cannot edit them 😬
OMG, I feel you were writing with my words. I could not have expressed it better. Thank you for this. I am in the exact same position living in Canada and coming from a country that traditionally was center-left. I come from Venezuela, where we used to have a balance between socialism and democracy until Chavez, who masked himself as a socialist but, in practice, was an authoritarian dictator, got into power and never left.
Here in Canada, I was a liberal until Trudeau became woke, and we are getting to the point where soon we won't be able to breathe without apologizing about it.
Thanks again for eloquently writing about it.
Thank you for your kind words. I’m happy to have written a piece that resonates with so many people…
Trudeau is an interesting phenomenon … something happened. Somebody got to him. He reminds me a bit of Jacinda Arden, except for she had the wits to run for the hills. I don’t want my tinfoil hat to ruin my credibility , but essentially Trudeau appears I have become WEF operative .
I'm a lifelong US leftist who has felt politically homeless since the beginning of the BLM movement. I saw how distorted some of these cases were. Of course I oppose racism and police brutality, but often this was being seen where it didn't exist. I began to see everyone being divided up into oppressed and oppressor groups, as we'd done decades earlier in a far-left group I was in for a while. Then there was the transgender movement. As a gender non-conforming lesbian who once considered a gender transition, I'm hardly a transphobic bigot. But I don't think we should be medically transitioning children, or telling children in school that they can be whatever sex they want, or having biological males in women's and girl's sports and safe spaces. But there's no room on the woke left to question any of this. One need only look at what has happened to JK Rowling.
Finally, I left my information silo, that I didn't know I'd been in, and began listening to and reading political commentary and news from all sides. I saw how the liberal media often lies, distorts and exaggerates...something I had previously believed only the conservative media did. I saw how strong our tendency is on all sides to confirmation bias.
Like you, I don't support cultural relativism, and I see problems with unrestrained immigration that I hadn't seen before. I was horrified when Trump first ran for president and then when he won. But by the time this election rolled around, although I voted (reluctantly) for Kamala, I found myself feeling relieved and hopeful when Trump won. It's not that I don't see any problems with him. I do. And I know he'll do some things I don't like. But I think in many ways he may turn out to be much better than the alternative would have been. I still support all those traditionally left issues such as caring for the environment, ending discrimination and injustice (racism, sexism, etc), having a strong social safety net and living wages and good working conditions, freedom of speech, and so on. But the woke left has gone off the rails in too many ways. So, thank you for your article.
And thank you for this comment. Brilliant, authentic & insightful
I'm also a leftist with reservations, reluctant kamala voter, etc. I'm genuinely curious - what parts of Kamala's policy agenda felt like wokeness off the rails? From where I was sitting, she was aggressively campaigning as a center-right person. Genuinely curious to understand this perspective, there are definitely a lot of people who share it
Well said. Certainly it is the Left that moved away from sane people. Their own hubris and 24/7 gaslighting by leftist media keeps the brainwashed in their echo chamber and supplies the reinforcement they need to pretend it is they who see straight.
The left by nature cannot be satisfied because there is no Marxist utopia and as soon as they conquer one thing in the culture, they push leftward to the next level of schizoid. It's amazing to watch suckers swearing backward is forward, regressive is progressive, men are women. Being too dumb to read a history book doesn't help matters either.
The tide is turning in the USA, thank God People who positioned themselves too far to the right in reaction to the radical left should soon be able to come back to the sanity of the center where complex truth and reality is most often found.
In the meantime, it's fun to watch the hold outs swear that they, the most intolerant people on the planet, are the tolerant ones. Truth and beauty will win in the end because it is constant and doesn't need to constantly shift the goal post to fit the most recently concocted false narrative.
Brilliant amigo
You're what we might call here in the US, a Libertarian.
Also, a weird twist is that Populism has recently been used as a pejorative, yet democracy IS populism. In the US, We the People is Populism. And what's the opposite of Populism? Elitism? Monarchy? Oligarchy? I mean, if the left is going to smear populism it really says a lot.
In what sense is “We The People” populism?
pop·u·lism - noun: A political approach that strives to appeal to ordinary people who feel that their concerns are disregarded by established elite groups.
We the people, the democracy of the US was founded as a populist uprising against a monarchy and designed a representative government elected from the people.
"We the People" was written 11 years after independence, which I'd say was a popular uprising rather than a populist uprising.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union..."
Forming a more perfect union doesn't sound very populist.
'populism is the idea that society is separated into two groups at odds with one another - "the pure people" and "the corrupt elite"'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-43301423
In what sense is it not?
Restacked, with the following note:
The void, well articulated. Like many products of public education, it was George Orwell who taught me that politics was everywhere, just as the threat of authoritarianism lurked on both ends of the political spectrum. What I would add is I am centrist by default, and holding a political position nowadays is akin to walking a tightrope to avoid tipping over either side into a wilful ignorance of history and rank, untenable hypocrisy.
Thank you. And well said...
https://substack.com/@ashleymgraetz/note/p-152043425?r=22fayp
Unified undefined living
It's worse. After the Left left us, they went into holy exile, bitching and moaning about their lost Eden which they had themselves abandoned, preferring the sweet fruit of self adolation to the bitter yet honorable grind of ordinary life in ordinary towns in ordinary relationships in ordinary pursuits.
You might like my latest post then on the Flyover Country
Bingo. This is why so many of the "politically homeless" cast votes for Trump this election. It's one thing to feel like you never really belong on account of specific beliefs that you hold. For example, I grew up in the rural south and always felt like a bit of an outcast because I never really felt like 'God talked to me,' even though he clearly seemed to be speaking to my friends.
I've always been comfortable having white space between my views and the views of others. But the condescension that is so prevalent on the left right now is unbearable.
I moved to Canada 12 years ago, so I didn't vote. I have no love for Trump, but I definitely had a gleeful moment of schadenfreude watching the elitists take such a beating.
If it's any consolation, I feel more affinity with those "formerly identifying as 'left' " than with anyone on the so-called right. I've been unmoored from political affiliations for quite a while. It's only uncomfortable when nonsense compels me to attempt to explain Donald Trump, who I consider a talented buffoon. For some context, I thought the recent movie 'The Apprentice," irrespective of the facts, quite good as a dramatiic piece. I liked it.
Let's all meet in the middle and revive that ancient American tradition. Pointed quality discourse, disagreement and try to build mutual understanding and solutions together.
Welcome back from the edge.
I would add this cultural relativism bullshit isn’t really left. Marx for example believed that culture advanced in stages, and that the earlier stages were primitive and inferior. In other words Marx would be canceled by modern progressives who are nihilistic lost souls.
It is precisely because they are relativist that modern progressives believe they are superior
Which makes them lost souls. They got the bumper sticker "God is dead," but they didn't read the actual Nietzsche parable it came from, and how terrified that made Nietzsche, and he was not a guy who often expressed fear.
Now “rage against the machine “ not only will do what they’re told , but they want you to do it as well …fucking sell our pieces of shit that they are
I saw a video a couple years ago of a RATM reunion concert where they had text about abortion rights up on monitors by the stage that used “birthing persons” to denote women. So sad to see a band that used to be thought of as badass and fearless being kowtowed into using that ridiculous verbiage.
It is shocking to see Rage Against the Machine become fully supportive of the machine (to put it mildly).
It’s like they had lobotomies or something …
So many progs and supposed radicals did, it's sad.
Rage in service of the machine....
There is a left wing and a right wing on a Pelican
You nailed it. The Left is living off its history of being anti-authority while it marches to an authoritarian model. But, the jig is increasingly up, as your post reflects.
I generally agree, the modern left don’t seem to be liberal in the old sense of ‘anything goes as long as your not being a shit’ - it’s now a whole bunch of rules and trigger words nonsense.
I guess I’m more of a libertarian in that sense, although I’m fully aware of the limitations of libertarianism as a governing philosophy.
My worry is that a nationalistic authoritarian is just as bad as a left wing one like Chavez or Mao and I don’t think trump will be able to resist those instincts especially with his total immunity. I think the next 4+ years are going to be pretty rough unfortunately.
I’m in a wait and see mode. The early signals of a cabinet designed to deconstruct a standing authoritarian structure are at least promising. That’s gonna take some time and energy.
Well said, and your thesis rings true. Most people are turned off by sanctimonious cultists, and that’s what the base of each party is, but it’s especially tedious for me on the left, perhaps because I live in a university town and the far-left cultists are a constant presence.
When the Overton Window moves due to extremism and you are forced to centre.
FWIW, it’s the same problem on the right. As a never-Trumper, I didn’t leave the right, the right left me. Reagan, the first president I voted for, is rolling over in his grave for what has become of both parties.
" I don’t want to live under a Fascist dictatorship. But equally, I don’t want to live under a Communist one either." - We labeled Hitler's Germany as fascist and Stalin's Russia as communist but there was no difference between them - they were both brutal dictatorships. A country is either a democracy or it isn't. We often forget that most of the world doesn't live in a free and democratic society.
Hitler was elected by the German people
Yes he was, that is how he first obtained power, just like almost every other dictator. After they get elected they seize absolute power by arresting the opposition, stacking supreme courts, suppressing the free media, then they rig elections to stay in power.