1/ The left need to work on creating an environment where people feel confident enough to ask questions, and to respectfully disagree

I can't count the amount of conversations I've had with people on the left privately that say they censor themselves out of fear of retribution

2/ And these aren't people with extremist views - these are people with fair questions, or experiences, that may challenge some mainstream left opinions

The fact that they feel they can't speak their mind because of extreme backlash is deeply disturbing, because everybody...

3/ ... needs to be challenged on, and exposed to new, ideas - we grow from them, and develop our world view

Throughout all of human history, the human race has grown and developed by being exposed to new ideas and new perspectives

But to do that, there must be...

4/ ... patience, restraint, and mutual respect - and an end to the trend of having a bad faith reading of everything, which is so rife on Twitter

Far too often, I see this absent within leftist spaces - which has resulted in people feeling alienated and alone, and it...

5/ ... also leaves outsiders looking in bemused, particularly working class people, who may not have the political education a lot of middle-class leftists put on a pedestal

I remember being at uni in a sociology lecture and finding it extremely alienating that...

6/ ... people from backgrounds like mine were being spoken about through political theory rather than plain English - as if we're specimens, not people

When I started uni, I'd never heard of people like Marx or Foucault - and most people don't know much about them either

7/ Yet in mainstream leftist spaces they're spoken about so often, as if it's working class knowledge 101

I also feel, at times, there is a lack of ability to differentiate between people who simply disagree, and people that actively want to seek harm

8/ i.e is that person talking about concerns about immigration automatically racist?

Or could that specific individual be concerned that immigration to areas without the investment in infrastructure (schools, hospitals etc) in place to support it risks overburdening local...

9/ ... infrastructure and resources - and ultimately risks reducing the quality of life for anyone living in, or immigrating to, these areas?

On the left, we must differentiate between those that hold ideas that pose a legitimate existential threat, and those that simply have...

10/ ... a new or alternative view

A failure to do so is undermining progress towards a better society

It makes normal people feel alienated, and gives those that seek to cause harm ammo to try and delegitimise progressive causes - and act as if *they're* the reasonable ones

11/ Also, the issue of condemning someone in perpetuity for making a mistake or misspeaking is an issue on the left - this political puritanism is corrosive

Learning and redemption is in many ways a leftist principle - yet it can be so sparsely applied within leftist spaces

12/ Ultimately, if good people with good intentions are scared to say what they think, or too scared to get something wrong and learn from it, the left has a serious problem

And I'm seeing a lot of this at the moment