The Weird Rise of the ‘Post-Left’

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

Interesting article on the widening contingent of former leftists who have slid rightward in strange, non-uniform ways during the Trump and post-Trump years.  It’s a trend I’ve watched with some interest, and this is really the only piece I’ve read that seems to truly cover all the angles of its development: 

Losing the Plot: The “Leftists” Who Turn Right

INTHESETIMES.COM

---

What do we make of former friends who fell down the rabbit hole of the Right?

 

Quote

Over the past seven years, they — the intellectuals, the comedians, their fans, the growing cohort of voters now leaning toward RFK Jr. (22% in one November poll) — have taken “red pills” a la The Matrix, tumbled down rabbit holes in the Wonderland sense. In moments of great flux — the 1960s from which Horowitz fled, the post-9/11 years, the current clusterfuck of crises so vast and interconnected that they might more simply be called our condition — such portals, from one reality to another, are plentiful. And currently they’re mostly riddling the Left as fascism gathers force, drawing together tendencies that didn’t previously align. 

 

[GeneticBlueprint]

Quote

There are the intellectuals-in-exile, the scholars whose once contained complaints about free speech or diversity initiatives metastasized into a broad contrarianism that found new patrons. 

 

That's actually all of them. It's just people who want to do or say a racism and lash out at non-heteronormative people.

[Reputator]

A lot of them comedians who feel all types comedy should be allowable.

 

Seems more like social liberals with libertarian ideals that followed the same cow trail all libertarians eventually fall into towards the alt right.

[Signifyin(g)Monkey]

26 minutes ago, Reputator said:

A lot of them comedians who feel all types comedy should be allowable.

 

Seems more like social liberals with libertarian ideals that followed the same cow trail all libertarians eventually fall into towards the alt right.

I think audience capture is also a big factor, on top of this.

 

A lot of them realized they could make a lot more money and grow a much larger following by taking their traditional left-wing audience and tweaking their rhetoric slightly so as to draw sections of the alt-right into it.

 

I think there are even some cases in which they aren’t even aware that they’ve been captured this way. (Taibbi, for example, strikes me as an instance of this.  His books, which aren’t quite as focused on producing ‘red meat’ for his audience, are actually still quite insightful; his Substack, on the other hand, is in large part just outrage porn for what he takes to be his fanbase)

[Reputator]

Rage-baiting is big business.

[Air_Delivery]

2 hours ago, Reputator said:

Rage-baiting is big business.

Yeah IMO the "rise" of much of this comes down to money. This kind of rage baiting and conspiracy nonsense gets drives user engagement. 

[Jwheel86]

We deserve recognition for one of them being a former CEBer.

[GeneticBlueprint]

49 minutes ago, Jwheel86 said:

We deserve recognition for one of them being a former CEBer.

 

Lopez?

[Air_Delivery]

3 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Lopez?

I feel like Lopez is more of a contrarian than "post left". Or an "anti-anti-Trumper"

[Jwheel86]

10 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Lopez?

 

Michael Tracey was on the old IGN CEB. 

[marioandsonic]

40 minutes ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

 

Lopez?

I was thinking DVD

[ort]

HeyyouDVD didn't shift from shit. He's always been a shit brained mealy mouthed vile little dipshit who believes in nothing... whose brain is a pathetic lump of malleable jello that has been molded into a ball of pure hate and lunacy by his cruel manipulative overlords who lead him around like a braindead little twerp idiot.

 

He is an irrelevant moronic vile idiot and who makes the world a worse place simply for existing in it.

[unogueen]

Gen Z and Gen A have a strong bond to the manosphere society largely doesn't want to discuss. That's a goldmine for cash and influence.

It's SA -> 4ch -> gamergate all over again.

[TUFKAK]

11 minutes ago, ort said:

HeyyouDVD didn't shift from shit. He's always been a shit brained mealy mouthed vile little dipshit who believes in nothing... who's brain is a pathetic lump of malleable jello that has been molded into a ball of pure hate and lunacy by his cruel manipulative overlords who lead him around like a braindead little twerp idiot.

 

He is an irrelevant moronic vile idiot and who makes the world a worse place simply for existing in it.

He was an incel loser before incel losers were a thing.

[Air_Delivery]

1 hour ago, ort said:

HeyyouDVD didn't shift from shit. He's always been a shit brained mealy mouthed vile little dipshit who believes in nothing... who's brain is a pathetic lump of malleable jello that has been molded into a ball of pure hate and lunacy by his cruel manipulative overlords who lead him around like a braindead little twerp idiot.

 

He is an irrelevant moronic vile idiot and who makes the world a worse place simply for existing in it.

He definately believes in things, he just cloaks them behind a veneer of peudointellectualism. 

[Zaku3]

1 hour ago, Air_Delivery said:

He definately believes in things, he just cloaks them behind a veneer of peudointellectualism. 

 

Heyyoudvd is Jordan Peterson's alt.

[SoberChef]

 

This encapsulates it perfectly.

[Jason]

Is Maher actually doing content for Prager or are they just running clips of him? 

[TUFKAK]

1 hour ago, Jason said:

Is Maher actually doing content for Prager or are they just running clips of him? 

I can see it going either way. 

[SoberChef]

Nope still on HBO for 25 years now.

[stepee]

I don’t need to subject myself to watching that Bill Maher video to know that he is actually absolutely 100% right. He hasn’t changed at all and it is indeed the left that has changed over the last 50 years since when he probably formed his political identity. It just doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. 

[GeneticBlueprint]

23 minutes ago, stepee said:

I don’t need to subject myself to watching that Bill Maher video to know that he is actually absolutely 100% right. He hasn’t changed at all and it is indeed the left that has changed over the last 50 years since when he probably formed his political identity. It just doesn’t mean what he thinks it means. 

I was going to say something very similar. He’s a leftist for people who were old leftists in the 90s. The left has absolutely changed in that time. Not as much as the right, of course. But Maher is correct. 

[Air_Delivery]

1 hour ago, GeneticBlueprint said:

I was going to say something very similar. He’s a leftist for people who were old leftists in the 90s. The left has absolutely changed in that time. Not as much as the right, of course. But Maher is correct. 

It almost like the left doesn't stay static and progresses forward. 

[GeneticBlueprint]

4 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

It almost like the left doesn't stay static and progresses forward. 

So weird that the progress side of the spectrum isn't conservative in nature.

[stepee]

52 minutes ago, Air_Delivery said:

It almost like the left doesn't stay static and progresses forward. 

 

I certainly hope as I’m approaching 70, I’m not out there bragging about how I haven’t grown at all in the last three decades.

[Kal-El814]

16 hours ago, SoberChef said:

 

This encapsulates it perfectly.

 

Prager U content should be a bannable offense.

 

First of all, as it pertains to Maher... let's not forget this is a guy who needed to be told he shouldn't call himself a, "house n-word." So from jump, the dude is a fucking goober.

 

Secondly and aside from that though, his example of how progressivism has changes is... emoji? A pregnant man emoji? That's the shrapnel he's worried about catching in his imagined cultural war? Eat my ass. Trans men exist. Yes, ha ha ha, pregnant men, very funny and / or impossible depending on what grievance you'd like to hang out to dry, but it doesn't make it any less true. This isn't the WORST kind of boomerism when it comes from people of Maher's ilk, but it's one of the most common. Why? Because it's easy, it's fucking lazy. He gets to get out there and say that back in HIS day the struggle was REAL. The stuff people complained about ACTUALLY mattered. Again, eat my ass. There's always going to be something. ALWAYS. You can ALWAYS point to a marginalized group, a recent cultural victory of theirs, stamp your feet, pout, and say, WHEN'S IT GOING TO BE ENOUGH, and there will ALWAYS be SOMEONE who agrees with you. Roll back the clock and it's, "women got the right to vote, now they want the same job opportunities as men?" Roll it back more and it's, "god these negroes got their freedom now they want to exist in the same social spaces as white people?" Yes, you boob, you haven't changed. THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM. They give away this game every fucking time, with their false concern that gay marriage was going to lead to people marrying their blender, or their performative hand wringing that acknowledging the existence of trans people is going to cause the collapse of society for reasons they cannot articulate.

 

As it pertains to the Prager U content, it fucking blows. It's a confession masquerading as a concern. As it ever was and ever shall be. "Progressives have ranked orders of acceptable minorities." No dog, that's you. "You wouldn't want the government to compel behavior, would you." Bro that's the only reason the government fucking exists to begin with, what the actual fuck are you talking about. "You wouldn't force someone to go against their cherished beliefs to provide service to people." Actually yes I fucking would? The gay wedding cake is always used as an example because reasonable minds may disagree about queer marriage pastry but that falls apart in an instant when you apply that to someone objecting to interracial marriage, or providing healthcare to someone of a different religion, or serving food to someone of a different ethnic background, etc. No doubt someone's deeply held, cherished belief would compel them to not rent to, serve food to, provide medical care to, etc., people from certain cultures. Again, my ass, nom nom nom nom nom. So sorry, hiding your xenophobia behind a bulwark of faith shouldn't count for shit.

 

The whole premise is fucking stupid. Nothing here is encapsulated perfectly aside from people in possession of privilege electing to wield it as a shield or cudgel as it suits them, divorced from context and reason, given the veneer of respectability. It's always a giant fucking red flag when ostensibly serious and concerned white people either quote or channel MLK's "content of their character" perspective, because for them it inevitably means, "we're all going to agree to ignore the advantages of generational wealth, the cost of generational trauma, ongoing structural / institutional inequality, etc., which costs my white ass nothing, keeps you in your place, and allows me to point to exceptions and lament that those are not the rule."

 

It's garbage and it always has been. And yeah, if we could snap our fingers today and have trans people accepted and accommodated... it WOULD be some other group coming up asking when it's going to be their turn. There's no endgame when it comes to this, there's only the notion that some people accept that there's always going to be another nut worth cracking, and some people who draw a line in the sand and say, "I was down with rights for women, black people, and gay people, but an emoji of a pregnant man? OH THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME." And those people should be called out for their fucking nonsense.

[Jason]

29 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

Prager U content should be a bannable offense.

 

[SaysWho?]

2 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Prager U content should be a bannable offense.

 

You know you have the power to do that, brah.

 

2 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

You can ALWAYS point to a marginalized group, a recent cultural victory of theirs, stamp your feet, pout, and say, WHEN'S IT GOING TO BE ENOUGH, and there will ALWAYS be SOMEONE who agrees with you. Roll back the clock and it's, "women got the right to vote, now they want the same job opportunities as men?" Roll it back more and it's, "god these negroes got their freedom now they want to exist in the same social spaces as white people?" Yes, you boob, you haven't changed. THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM. They give away this game every fucking time, with their false concern that gay marriage was going to lead to people marrying their blender, or their performative hand wringing that acknowledging the existence of trans people is going to cause the collapse of society for reasons they cannot articulate.

 

Before the boards pre-2018 were wiped, we had some folks on d1p say the same thing after gay marriage was legalized, saying things along the lines of, 'This should make them happy, but they'll probably find something else to complain about," as if gay marriage was the only discrimination they faced.

[Greatoneshere]

7 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

It's garbage and it always has been. And yeah, if we could snap our fingers today and have trans people accepted and accommodated... it WOULD be some other group coming up asking when it's going to be their turn. There's no endgame when it comes to this, there's only the notion that some people accept that there's always going to be another nut worth cracking, and some people who draw a line in the sand and say, "I was down with rights for women, black people, and gay people, but an emoji of a pregnant man? OH THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME." And those people should be called out for their fucking nonsense.

 

Exactly. It's like every sci-fi allegory has gone over their head. There isn't supposed to be an endgame. We're supposed to just get better. Over time. About everything. Hopefully.

[SoberChef]

7 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Prager U content should be a bannable offense.

 

First of all, as it pertains to Maher... let's not forget this is a guy who needed to be told he shouldn't call himself a, "house n-word." So from jump, the dude is a fucking goober.

 

Secondly and aside from that though, his example of how progressivism has changes is... emoji? A pregnant man emoji? That's the shrapnel he's worried about catching in his imagined cultural war? Eat my ass. Trans men exist. Yes, ha ha ha, pregnant men, very funny and / or impossible depending on what grievance you'd like to hang out to dry, but it doesn't make it any less true. This isn't the WORST kind of boomerism when it comes from people of Maher's ilk, but it's one of the most common. Why? Because it's easy, it's fucking lazy. He gets to get out there and say that back in HIS day the struggle was REAL. The stuff people complained about ACTUALLY mattered. Again, eat my ass. There's always going to be something. ALWAYS. You can ALWAYS point to a marginalized group, a recent cultural victory of theirs, stamp your feet, pout, and say, WHEN'S IT GOING TO BE ENOUGH, and there will ALWAYS be SOMEONE who agrees with you. Roll back the clock and it's, "women got the right to vote, now they want the same job opportunities as men?" Roll it back more and it's, "god these negroes got their freedom now they want to exist in the same social spaces as white people?" Yes, you boob, you haven't changed. THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM. They give away this game every fucking time, with their false concern that gay marriage was going to lead to people marrying their blender, or their performative hand wringing that acknowledging the existence of trans people is going to cause the collapse of society for reasons they cannot articulate.

 

As it pertains to the Prager U content, it fucking blows. It's a confession masquerading as a concern. As it ever was and ever shall be. "Progressives have ranked orders of acceptable minorities." No dog, that's you. "You wouldn't want the government to compel behavior, would you." Bro that's the only reason the government fucking exists to begin with, what the actual fuck are you talking about. "You wouldn't force someone to go against their cherished beliefs to provide service to people." Actually yes I fucking would? The gay wedding cake is always used as an example because reasonable minds may disagree about queer marriage pastry but that falls apart in an instant when you apply that to someone objecting to interracial marriage, or providing healthcare to someone of a different religion, or serving food to someone of a different ethnic background, etc. No doubt someone's deeply held, cherished belief would compel them to not rent to, serve food to, provide medical care to, etc., people from certain cultures. Again, my ass, nom nom nom nom nom. So sorry, hiding your xenophobia behind a bulwark of faith shouldn't count for shit.

 

The whole premise is fucking stupid. Nothing here is encapsulated perfectly aside from people in possession of privilege electing to wield it as a shield or cudgel as it suits them, divorced from context and reason, given the veneer of respectability. It's always a giant fucking red flag when ostensibly serious and concerned white people either quote or channel MLK's "content of their character" perspective, because for them it inevitably means, "we're all going to agree to ignore the advantages of generational wealth, the cost of generational trauma, ongoing structural / institutional inequality, etc., which costs my white ass nothing, keeps you in your place, and allows me to point to exceptions and lament that those are not the rule."

 

It's garbage and it always has been. And yeah, if we could snap our fingers today and have trans people accepted and accommodated... it WOULD be some other group coming up asking when it's going to be their turn. There's no endgame when it comes to this, there's only the notion that some people accept that there's always going to be another nut worth cracking, and some people who draw a line in the sand and say, "I was down with rights for women, black people, and gay people, but an emoji of a pregnant man? OH THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME." And those people should be called out for their fucking nonsense.

 

To be fair, all I did was share a YouTube video, literally the first I found after entering "Bill Maher the left has changed". Whatever the fuck Prager U is or happens to be or is whatever the fuck you seem to have an issue with it, all not my problem as I had legit no idea who or what that even is. As for your response, thank you for coming through just like I knew someone would in this thread.

[TUFKAK]

8 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Prager U content should be a bannable offense.

 

First of all, as it pertains to Maher... let's not forget this is a guy who needed to be told he shouldn't call himself a, "house n-word." So from jump, the dude is a fucking goober.

 

Secondly and aside from that though, his example of how progressivism has changes is... emoji? A pregnant man emoji? That's the shrapnel he's worried about catching in his imagined cultural war? Eat my ass. Trans men exist. Yes, ha ha ha, pregnant men, very funny and / or impossible depending on what grievance you'd like to hang out to dry, but it doesn't make it any less true. This isn't the WORST kind of boomerism when it comes from people of Maher's ilk, but it's one of the most common. Why? Because it's easy, it's fucking lazy. He gets to get out there and say that back in HIS day the struggle was REAL. The stuff people complained about ACTUALLY mattered. Again, eat my ass. There's always going to be something. ALWAYS. You can ALWAYS point to a marginalized group, a recent cultural victory of theirs, stamp your feet, pout, and say, WHEN'S IT GOING TO BE ENOUGH, and there will ALWAYS be SOMEONE who agrees with you. Roll back the clock and it's, "women got the right to vote, now they want the same job opportunities as men?" Roll it back more and it's, "god these negroes got their freedom now they want to exist in the same social spaces as white people?" Yes, you boob, you haven't changed. THAT'S THE FUCKING PROBLEM. They give away this game every fucking time, with their false concern that gay marriage was going to lead to people marrying their blender, or their performative hand wringing that acknowledging the existence of trans people is going to cause the collapse of society for reasons they cannot articulate.

 

As it pertains to the Prager U content, it fucking blows. It's a confession masquerading as a concern. As it ever was and ever shall be. "Progressives have ranked orders of acceptable minorities." No dog, that's you. "You wouldn't want the government to compel behavior, would you." Bro that's the only reason the government fucking exists to begin with, what the actual fuck are you talking about. "You wouldn't force someone to go against their cherished beliefs to provide service to people." Actually yes I fucking would? The gay wedding cake is always used as an example because reasonable minds may disagree about queer marriage pastry but that falls apart in an instant when you apply that to someone objecting to interracial marriage, or providing healthcare to someone of a different religion, or serving food to someone of a different ethnic background, etc. No doubt someone's deeply held, cherished belief would compel them to not rent to, serve food to, provide medical care to, etc., people from certain cultures. Again, my ass, nom nom nom nom nom. So sorry, hiding your xenophobia behind a bulwark of faith shouldn't count for shit.

 

The whole premise is fucking stupid. Nothing here is encapsulated perfectly aside from people in possession of privilege electing to wield it as a shield or cudgel as it suits them, divorced from context and reason, given the veneer of respectability. It's always a giant fucking red flag when ostensibly serious and concerned white people either quote or channel MLK's "content of their character" perspective, because for them it inevitably means, "we're all going to agree to ignore the advantages of generational wealth, the cost of generational trauma, ongoing structural / institutional inequality, etc., which costs my white ass nothing, keeps you in your place, and allows me to point to exceptions and lament that those are not the rule."

 

It's garbage and it always has been. And yeah, if we could snap our fingers today and have trans people accepted and accommodated... it WOULD be some other group coming up asking when it's going to be their turn. There's no endgame when it comes to this, there's only the notion that some people accept that there's always going to be another nut worth cracking, and some people who draw a line in the sand and say, "I was down with rights for women, black people, and gay people, but an emoji of a pregnant man? OH THEY'VE GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME." And those people should be called out for their fucking nonsense.

[Keyser_Soze]

8 hours ago, Kal-El814 said:

Prager U content should be a bannable offense....

 

While not exactly the same your post kind of reminds me of this video (sorry couldn't find the original source) breaks down the boomer mentality pretty well

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

[TUFKAK]

9 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

While not exactly the same your post kind of reminds me of this video (sorry couldn't find the original source) breaks down the boomer mentality pretty well

 

  Hide contents

 

 

 

That was surprisingly insightful and based on my recent discoveries of my own ptsd being linked to generational trauma hits on a deep level.

 

 

[Greatoneshere]

51 minutes ago, SoberChef said:

 

To be fair, all I did was share a YouTube video, literally the first I found after entering "Bill Maher the left has changed". Whatever the fuck Prager U is or happens to be or is whatever the fuck you seem to have an issue with it, all not my problem as I had legit no idea who or what that even is. As for your response, thank you for coming through just like I knew someone would in this thread.

 

If this was the case, this just proves how quickly and easily it is for anyone to get red pilled if just searching for that leads to Prager U videos when you didn't even know what Prager U is.

[TUFKAK]

1 minute ago, Greatoneshere said:

 

If this was the case, this just proves how quickly and easily it is for anyone to get red pilled if just searching for that leads to Prager U videos when you didn't even know what Prager U is.

I can believe it, Prager U started showing up in my algorithm back when I was still active in bodybuilding and watching those videos, the pipeline to redpill chud is everywhere online now.