I've long held, perhaps as an article of faith, that many 'radical liberals' would be the most likely to defect to a structural, explicitly socialist form of politics, but I'm increasingly convinced they're as limited to the concerns of their habitus as any trump supporter is

and frankly this is a problem within north american leftist circles as well.

say what you will about the often shallowness late 90s/early 00s 'no logo'/adbusters deal but at least there was some genuine concern for the exploitation of people not in your immediate social circle.

about sweatshops and corporations dumping sewage into nature reserves in india or el salvador, about how consumer culture rests on the brutal exploitation of many of the world's most vulnerable, about even 'passe' topics such as fair trade and farmers trying to live in dignity.

I get that not every issue can be 'in vogue' at the same time and many of the issues that are in vogue now are long overdue and necessary. but it has reoriented politics to many people in the core away from internationalism, away from militarism and imperialism towards the self.

and maybe the leftist politics of 20 years ago was predicated more on 'enlightened do gooder'-ism whereas now young people feel increasingly squeezed or marginalized and it necessitates more of a self-focus, but I do think it's sad in a way. it sort of reflects greater insularity

I think there are so many holes you can poke in the 60s New Left but I do think they did a better job balancing issues of the self with that of the greater world (in large part because of the rallying point of the vietnam war, no doubt). the black panthers got it, many others too

& maybe 'a materialist analysis' of the situation reflects a greater inability to approach those topics, that they've 'already lost causes'. that the anarchists valiantly got endlessly teargassed at G8 meetings to register their opposition to forces that now seem unassailable

opposing sweatshop labour maybe seems impossible now, it feels like a waste of time and mental concern to try to address. chevron dumping sludge in the amazon feels as inevitable as cancer and car crashes. far easier to focus on one's immediate material needs and social milieu.

I've never been naive that politics tends to speak to the personal and individual, and this is how most of anything good has ever gotten accomplished politically, but it's just weird that as our access to the greater world has increased our concern for it has dissipated

I think your twitter feed is as good of an indication as any. look at the issues which move the needle and get passed around, or you can even look valiant sharing. international issues are broadly ignored, concern for people often only extending as far as one's immediate country