Griscom Stream - Don't Be Vampires @ 5:15 Central
Added 2021-11-02 18:50:13 +0000 UTCHey ya'll,
Griscom streams are back this week! Come by at 5:15 Central for this week's stream & Q&A, I'll be taking questions from the chat. It'll also be on Twitch.tv/leftreckoning too!
Comments
Or maybe the posters are trolls who prey on immature and under-informed young leftists. The paradox of tolerance really shows up in these spaces. The thing to remember is that they are not allies and should be shown the door along with alt-right trolls. They have no contribution to make to building a socialist consciousness. If allowed to bully and dominate in chat forums, the dum-dum left Dimmy Jore types will wreck the brand and dynamite any attempts to develop a comradely consensus. Excise the poison. MIchael Brooks got that, for sure. I miss his clarity and wit.
Zen Ben
2021-11-04 21:34:56 +0000 UTCJust catching up on this stream from yesterday. I absolutely agree that we need to create a space on the left where we hold room for disagreements without this impulse towards shunning or moralizing. The first time I read Vampire Castle, I was somewhat conflicted. Perhaps it's because Russell Brand is not quite a hero of the left that he may have been in 2011 and he has a public record of treating women poorly. It's fair to hold him accountable for that. But after a few years of being witness to the toxic infighting on the left and seeing attacks on comrades that misrepresent and essentialize people in matters that should be taken with much more nuance, I really understand what Fischer was getting at. Having a space for accountability and also having a space for healthy disagreements among the people we fight alongside are not mutually exclusive. We can allow people to be wrong about something, give them space to possibly change their minds/actions (though they may not), and recognize that people are complex. I've definitely had the impulse to moralize and shun in the past. It can feel gratifying to the ego in the moment. But it's destructive to the broader movement. And nobody's mind is ever changed because they get called names or blocked online. That can only happen through dialogue and shared struggle.
Sean Kirkpatrick
2021-11-03 15:09:02 +0000 UTC
