I should add that this is only focusing on hard power. Where the “left” really shines is in using its networks to exert a lot of soft power. The state plays its

I should add that this is only focusing on hard power. Where the “left” really shines is in using its networks to exert a lot of soft power. The state plays its part, as do corporations, NGOs, media outlets, academic institutions, doxxing and harassment rings. All part of the same structure working to manufacture consent. I remember when transgenderism became a hot-button issue so quickly that most “liberals” in the colloquial sense were caught completely off guard. There was maybe a year where every voice of authority was proclaiming the new truth, but people weren’t yet ready. It was too much, too quickly, and a lot of these people resisted. But once it became clear that if you dissented on this, you weren’t allowed in the club anymore, many gave in. It did give rise to TERFs and other splinter movements, which is why such a hard push is so dangerous. But back to these networks, that’s how “left” power works. And “right” power consists of reactionary half-measures like “don’t push this on kids until they’re eight.” Again, I agree that there’s no left in America. But that’s increasingly true globally, especially among very-online political wonks. If Marx rose from the dead today, the entire left would condemn him as a crypto-fascist. And the right is much the same. It can’t conceive of itself as anything more than the half-hearted preserver of yesterday’s lies. It doesn’t have the vision or the will to be truly “right” in any historically normal sense of the word.