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Meltdowns Have Brought Progressive Advocacy Groups to a Standstill

31 points by barry-cotter 4y ago

barry-cotter 4y ago
> The silence stems partly, one senior leader in an organization said, from a fear of feeding right-wing trolls who are working to undermine the left. Adopting their language and framing feels like surrendering to malign forces, but ignoring it has only allowed the issues to fester. “The right has labeled it ‘cancel culture’ or ‘callout culture,’” he said, “so when we talk about our own movement, it’s hard because we’re using the frame of the right. It’s very hard because there’s all these associations and analysis that we disagree with, when we’re using their frame. So it’s like, ‘How do we talk about it?’” > For years, recruiting young people into the movement felt like a win-win, he said: new energy for the movement and the chance to give a person a lease on a newly liberated life, dedicated to the pursuit of justice. But that’s no longer the case. “I got to a point like three years ago where I had a crisis of faith, like, I don’t even know, most of these spaces on the left are just not — they’re not healthy. Like all these people are just not — they’re not doing well,” he said. “The dynamic, the toxic dynamic of whatever you want to call it — callout culture, cancel culture, whatever — is creating this really intense thing, and no one is able to acknowledge it, no one’s able to talk about it, no one’s able to say how bad it is.”
- Akronymus 4y ago
  > dedicated to the pursuit of justice. That sounds vaguely cultish.
wrycoder 4y ago
> A looming sense of powerlessness on the left nudged the focus away from structural or wide-reaching change, which felt out of reach, and replaced it with an internal target that was more achievable. “Maybe I can’t end racism by myself, but I can get my manager fired, or I can get so and so removed, or I can hold somebody accountable,” tl;dr: entitled employees don’t want to take direction, and changing the management doesn’t help.
ALittleLight 4y ago
I'm reminded of a line from Tolkien - evil will oft evil mar. Basically, fractious, grievance seeking, narcissistic, and combative people will have a hard time organizing and accomplishing anything because their nature will lead them to fight with each other.
rdtsc 4y ago
> Instead, Sanders implored, according to multiple campaign sources, the campaign should focus on bringing on people interested first and foremost in doing the job they’re hired to do. Interesting. At some level it’s like a test how dangerous is the kool-aid an organization is brewing, and whether the people working there should drink it or not themselves. “Sorry, our particular kool-aid is too potent for our own staff. It’s for selling to outsiders only” kind of deal. The marketing adage is “not to drink your own kool-aid” could apply to some organizations that are ideologically based. But then, if people don’t believe in the mission, won’t they end up hiring cynical people only?
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
rexpop 4y ago
It's also true that management at for-profit firms introduce ostensible DEI programs to undermine unionization efforts, [0] but I don't think it's useful to refer corporate managers as "the left." 0. https://www.protocol.com/workplace/employee-resource-group-weaponization https://www.protocol.com/workplace/employee-resource-group-w...

31 points by barry-cotter 4y ago

> The silence stems partly, one senior leader in an organization said, from a fear of feeding right-wing trolls who are working to undermine the left. Adopting their language and framing feels like surrendering to malign forces, but ignoring it has only allowed the issues to fester. “The right has labeled it ‘cancel culture’ or ‘callout culture,’” he said, “so when we talk about our own movement, it’s hard because we’re using the frame of the right. It’s very hard because there’s all these associations and analysis that we disagree with, when we’re using their frame. So it’s like, ‘How do we talk about it?’” > For years, recruiting young people into the movement felt like a win-win, he said: new energy for the movement and the chance to give a person a lease on a newly liberated life, dedicated to the pursuit of justice. But that’s no longer the case. “I got to a point like three years ago where I had a crisis of faith, like, I don’t even know, most of these spaces on the left are just not — they’re not healthy. Like all these people are just not — they’re not doing well,” he said. “The dynamic, the toxic dynamic of whatever you want to call it — callout culture, cancel culture, whatever — is creating this really intense thing, and no one is able to acknowledge it, no one’s able to talk about it, no one’s able to say how bad it is.”

Akronymus 4y ago
> dedicated to the pursuit of justice. That sounds vaguely cultish.

wrycoder 4y ago

> A looming sense of powerlessness on the left nudged the focus away from structural or wide-reaching change, which felt out of reach, and replaced it with an internal target that was more achievable. “Maybe I can’t end racism by myself, but I can get my manager fired, or I can get so and so removed, or I can hold somebody accountable,” tl;dr: entitled employees don’t want to take direction, and changing the management doesn’t help.

ALittleLight 4y ago

I'm reminded of a line from Tolkien - evil will oft evil mar. Basically, fractious, grievance seeking, narcissistic, and combative people will have a hard time organizing and accomplishing anything because their nature will lead them to fight with each other.

rdtsc 4y ago

> Instead, Sanders implored, according to multiple campaign sources, the campaign should focus on bringing on people interested first and foremost in doing the job they’re hired to do. Interesting. At some level it’s like a test how dangerous is the kool-aid an organization is brewing, and whether the people working there should drink it or not themselves. “Sorry, our particular kool-aid is too potent for our own staff. It’s for selling to outsiders only” kind of deal. The marketing adage is “not to drink your own kool-aid” could apply to some organizations that are ideologically based. But then, if people don’t believe in the mission, won’t they end up hiring cynical people only?

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

rexpop 4y ago

It's also true that management at for-profit firms introduce ostensible DEI programs to undermine unionization efforts, [0] but I don't think it's useful to refer corporate managers as "the left." 0. https://www.protocol.com/workplace/employee-resource-group-weaponization https://www.protocol.com/workplace/employee-resource-group-w...