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Originally Posted by niwell
It's interesting how many (most?) examples of the crazy left inevitably veer to campus politics. Which, wait for it, has always been kind of crazy. Having heard first-hand accounts from some friends in academia (including someone with an office down the hall from JP!) it honestly doesn't seem much different than my time in school over a decade ago. The people making noise remain a small percentage but just have a bigger voice. The big game changers being social media and increased politicization monetization by groups that are very good at it. Things that should have never left campus newspapers are making national news.
On the whole the North American left is at a bit of a quandary right now - for too long there's been a focus on performative identity politics meanwhile actual economic policies remain solidly neoliberal with its associated erosion of social programs. Things are beginning to change now, or at least the writing is on the wall. It will be interesting to see how it shakes out in Canada.
CBC Radio is still the best but the pandering aspect can get obnoxious.
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You made me think of an article I read some time ago by Montreal columnist Richard Martineau. He isa kind of a lapsed leftist urban hipster, and as a result is seen as a turncoat by many here in Sweden-on-the-St.-Lawrence.
Once upon a time the left used to be about defending the interests of labourers and working stiffs.
They’re now all about sexual, religious and ethnic minorities.
Why focus on working conditions on the shop floor when you can talk about much more critical stuff like bathrooms for transgender people, cultural appropriation or sexism in the French language? (Note from Acajack: French has genders for inanimate objects.)
In 2012, the left-wing think-tank Terra Nova told France’s Socialist Party just that: forget about the poor and workers – that leads us nowhere; anyway they’re all gonna vote for the right anyway, so…
Look instead to minorities and students. They’re gonna be your bread and butter!
It seems like many left wing organizations got the message…
The translation is by yours truly,
In case some of you can read French, here is the full column:
http://www.journaldemontreal.com/201...mal-aux-fesses
(Have fun with the title BTW.)