I made this thread yesterday, and I just want to share a bit more about what I believe is a changed trajectory that people don’t account for.

[e.g. how “harm reduction” is typically allowing forms of right-wing harm and what it means that the US is “an empire in decline”] https://twitter.com/tamanishajohn/status/1299836831882784769

Yes I’m expanding because the “privilege” discourse is happened due to my thread.

First: no matter who wins the election, the “left” (at base meaning those who would advocate for the further expansion of public goods via a welfare state) will be at a loss because

the right (neoliberal) trajectory of US politics decreases the likelihood of public goods being given or even expanded— because a welfare state is in *stark opposition* to neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism is also a corrupting social force, seen in others defenses of it.

When you lend credence to the status quo, you always weaken your movements, because when something becomes that entrenched the amount of necessary actions— for even *minor* reform becomes that much harder

For instance, BLM is one of the largest and *ongoing* protest movements that I’ve seen— yet, regardless of political party no one has even budged in even minimally reducing police budgets. The “better” corporate party even wants to give them more funding.

So not only have you weakened the capacity for movements to be radically effective. But enabling the status quo also makes small changes (3-10% cut to military budget) nearly impossible (and this is bipartisan)

I also think that when we speak about “the left” in the US— we also have to reckon with the fact that (1) People in the US are not ready to confront neoliberalism and (2) instead of popularised “leftists” connecting broader calls to social justice to the broader neglect of our

public and political institutions, they’re (a) actively talking against social progress, (b) actively levying defenses in favor of the status quo, (c) deriding those who don’t as “privilege” — yes, even as they rail against social progress via social justice

And all of that presents a real barrier to education.

There is no litmus test for US leftists— which has only helped corporatists strip the working class from political institutions (meaning poor people don’t receive adequate help in the form of public goods/welfare Dems/GOP)

To ignore this reality for broader appeals at electoralism that further decreases the chance for change— no matter who wins— again, just seems like a loss.

We are in the middle of a pandemic with mass unemployment and evictions (ignoring the fact that people didn’t have healthcare prior to or make enough prior to) and neither corporate party can effectively respond to this to send help.

Voting doesn’t fix this. It legitimises it.

That people think the policing powers of Trump are unique is troubling. In the US no matter whose in power, police unions + policing remain strong; both corporate parties express they value property over human lives, and support of policing over people crying for change