Thomas Zimmer: There it is: A position completely untethered from empirical evidence, as ridiculous analytically as it is dangerous politically, propagated by anti-liberal leftwing intellectuals who are solely animated by their disdain for “the Libs” and have abandoned any regard for accuracy.

There it is: A position completely untethered from empirical evidence, as ridiculous analytically as it is dangerous politically, propagated by anti-liberal leftwing intellectuals who are solely animated by their disdain for “the Libs” and have abandoned any regard for accuracy.

I wrote about a this particular camp of prominent leftwing academics who are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right and on politics in general: thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-l...

The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problemthomaszimmer.substack.com Prominent leftwing intellectuals are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right

That’s also why this camp of leftwing intellectuals is stubbornly refusing to engage seriously with the fascism argument and the radicalizing tendencies on the Right. Their overriding concern is a political struggle against what they believe is the real enemy: The (neo-) liberal elites.

In their view, Liberals are using the “fascism” bogeyman as a way to distract from their own culpability; to discipline the Left into accepting a popular front under liberal leadership; to reinvigorate the (neo-) liberal project by conjuring fears of the ultimate evil.

To them, the fascism talk is intended to make people flock to the liberal cause; to expand power by using tyrannophobia as a way of entrenching liberal rule. It’s all just liberal dishonesty, self-exculpation, and self-aggrandizement that needs to be opposed aggressively.

The problem is that their devotion to this anti-liberal struggle has led them to propagating positions that are completely untethered from what is happening on the Right – sophistry in defense of a premise that is utterly at odds with empirical evidence. thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/the-anti-l...

The Anti-Liberal Left Has a Fascism Problemthomaszimmer.substack.com Prominent leftwing intellectuals are allowing their singular, disdain-driven focus on (neo-) liberalism to completely distort their perspective on the Right

To be very clear: I am not criticizing “the Left,” which doesn’t exist as a monolithic bloc. My issue is with this specific camp, and as much as they like to pretend they do, they really don’t represent “the Left.” In fact, they hate lefties who disagree with them at least as much as “the Libs.”

Ernst Thallman and his Communists thought the bigger enemy was Weimar, rather than Hitler. He ran for President of Germany in 1932, took 10% of the vote which helped weaken Hindenburg and Von Pappen - and ended up dying in Buchenwald for his efforts.

I hope these kind of people suffer greatly for their fuckery.

I find it very frustrating because while imo this tweet is basically true (liberal deflection) and liberalism has much to answer for, it is now unfortunately up against something much much worse. It's a bit hopeless.

This is also the guy who wrote the "Q Anon has a point" article

I have a friend who REGULARLY points out this inability to correctly analyze the real enemy is what led to the rise of Hitler in Germany.

It's objectively insane, given that the Biden administration's policies have quite literally been the opposite of neoliberalism!

I saw a fairly prominent public historian claim that the Roberts Court is neoliberal. Hot damn!

Picante!

Its objectively insane that a leftist invoking the term bog standard Republican as a positive.

That too.

also depressing that neoliberalism within the party is also almost completely out on everything but education

Oh man, these people have driven me crazy for a full decade! I swear they just want to deny racism and sexism and find a way in the Marxist class wars to position themselves as somehow victims.

You are proof of the value of a historians perspective on contemporary events.

But it worked out so well for the KPD in Weimar times!

remember, neoliberal ain’t liberal

📌

means you must be a closet Trotskyist or something /s

I actually wish to avoid being governed by even bog-standard Republicans but that's just me

They're quite bad, actually

"Governed like a standard Republican"? Did they sleep through 2016 to 2020?

The key to all of Bessner's downplaying is that he once co-authored a column that said that admitting Trumpism is fascism would mean that the left should ally itself groups outside the left in order to stop it. And that, apparently, would be a step too far for him.

I talk about this at length in my piece.

Did I just do that entire explaining someone's own writing to them? How embarrassing.

Nah, no worries - I meant it as: You’re right, this is what’s going on here, and I’m dissecting this stuff in the piece.

And the answer is: yes, we should put everything else aside to defeat this threat.

the fucking frustrating thing about this is we're only 4 fucking years from the opportunity to have a real progressive in 2028 but that definitely 100% won't happen if trump wins, there won't be an election in 2028.

And Biden has been way more progressive than most people expected! The IRA is outstanding, CHIPS, is great, his regulatory agencies are aggressive, student loans, all kinds of stuff.

Oh don’t worry, by the time that real progressive is running the usual suspects will be ready to announce they’re not a real progressive anymore.

Headmitit.gif

Standard Republicans are fascists who are disconnected from reality, so, I agree with that part of his analysis. I don't think a dude who's slightly older than the alternative is worse, mostly because I'm not a member of the murder-suicide pact that is the modern right-wing.

untethered from empirical and historical evidence is that guy’s whole thing

How can you possibly keep track of all of these people

it’s so good that the people of the state of Washington are paying for this garbage

That’s just a pro-Trump account. Not all that well veiled either.

Seeing some radical academics decided that yes, they can make common cause with reactionary freaks over hating liberals, the early days of Italian Fascism are making more sense to me.

Don’t forget the Spanish Civil War.

Everything is just an abstraction to them. True poaster's madness, it is all just hypotheticals to win arguments online. It's also why so many "dirtbag left" types easily switch to conservative bullshit. Top priority: dunking on people they don't like.

Surely Blue-Maga liberals and their lukewarm politics are going to bring about the change this country needs.

They actually win elections, dumbfuck.

They can get the hands too who said anything good about them?

You assholes can’t win an argument, never mind an election, never mind a revolution. Get bent.

They won’t throw the left out of helicopters and that is reason enough to vote for them over someone who will. That doesn’t mean voting is the only thing to do.

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