Will the Left survive millennials?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/23/opinion/will-the-left-survive-the-millennials.html

Key passage:

As a lifelong Democratic voter, I’m dismayed by the radical left’s ever-growing list of dos and don’ts — by its impulse to control, to instill self-censorship as well as to promote real censorship, and to deploy sensitivity as an excuse to be brutally insensitive to any perceived enemy. There are many people who see these frenzies about cultural appropriation, trigger warnings, micro-aggressions and safe spaces as overtly crazy. The shrill tyranny of the left helps to push them toward Donald Trump.

Ironically, only fellow liberals will be cowed by terror of being branded a racist (a pejorative lobbed at me in recent days — one that, however groundless, tends to stick). But there’s still such a thing as a real bigot, and a real misogynist. In obsessing over micro-aggressions like the sin of uttering the commonplace Americanism “you guys” to mean “you all,” activists persecute fellow travelers who already care about equal rights.​

 

its impulse to control, to instill self-censorship as well as to promote real censorship, and to deploy sensitivity as an excuse to be brutally insensitive to any perceived enemy.

TINMHITTMAL

 

Will the Right survive racists?

 

Do the demo's not show that generation supported Sanders in huge numbers? Does that not suggest that the generation leans far left, philosophically, even if they reject the safe space credos?

 

We have for 150 years!

 

Millennials (if people who disagree with what Shriver says can all be classified as such) have made her more famous than she deserves to be.

 

Another question, of course, is whether liberals will survive themselves.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/21/opinion/campaign-stops/clintons-samantha-bee-problem.html

 

If you can be that easily persuaded to vote Trump, you weren't that liberal* to begin with.

*Not automatically the same thing as Democrat

 

The sad truth is that racists and racism aren't limited to specific groups.

 

I think it's fair to say that young leftists need to toughen up. The world is a vile, nasty place. It's a noble thing to want to change it. It comes across as whining to spend half your life being offended to the point where you barely function because you're so outraged that people hold views you find offensive. However, this endless quest to find some "other" reason to explain the rise of Trump that is not fear and bigotry is absurd.

I do think that social media has given the voiceless platforms they did not previously have, and there is a desire on the left to leap to the defense of people who previously might have felt powerless. Unfortunately, the "leaping to the defense" has less to do with, say, campaigning or organizing for progressive causes, and more to do with firing off a clever tweet and jumping in as part of a social media pile on. I think we've talked plenty about Hashtag Activism here. That's a real symptom of a culture that is too lazy to do certain things, but likes the attention for believing in things.

21 used to make this point about being a female sports writer, and I wish she was here to make it herself, but essentially it went like this: Yes there is sexism in sportswriting. Of course there is. Of course it's awful and infuriating and you battle it the best you can. But if you spend your entire career complaining, if you seem soft, you'll never get to do what you want. It's an unfair hand to be dealt, and you have to find a way to win anyway. I always admired the shit out of that approach, because it reflects real life.

I think people on the left who find themselves constantly aggrieved have the right intentions. They want a world where behaviors like bigotry and sexism don't exist, and so do I, but I don't live in a fantasy world, I live in the real world, and so you put your head down and you keep moving forward. Is that "fair?" Nope. But it's reality.

The idea that you shouldn't read fiction that potentially offends you is nuts. Bad fiction is bad fiction. But the idea that, say, Clockers might not be a good novel because Richard Price is white? I don't get that kind of analysis at all, which seems to be what Shriver is getting at.

I wonder, to be honest, how The Wire might be received today if it came out in 2016. I'm certain Simon would be accused, in some circles, of cultural appropriation in a way that would drive me nuts. And there would be various criticisms about the lack of strong female characters, how they don't have their own agency, etc.

That Douthat column is almost too stupid to comment on.

 

That article was pretty interesting.

That headline is hot trash.

 

Left and right are just measurements on a scale. There will always be people on the left, and there will always be people on the right.