Sorry, but I'm just not understanding the apocalyptic tone of all of this. We have a student-led protest movement against what Israel is doing in Gaza. Many Liberals respond to this with fear, and frustration and anger because they see it as hurting Biden's chances. So people who we might have thought were our allies really aren't, and are even supporting a police crackdowns on us. Does this represent some new "lurch to the right" in our politics? (Is this really what you're claiming? I think I may be misreading this part.) But isn't this just how liberals have always been? King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail is about precisely this thing, about how White moderates can't be trusted, how they always favor order over justice.
So this seems to me like a totally predictable backlash that any lefty social-justice protest would draw. And every social advance inspires a backlash, but we also know that the gains of social movements outlive the backlash against them. What I see happening now is a massive shift of the Overton Window to the LEFT, because a thing we could never discuss before, US support for Israel, is now open for debate. And of course that "debate" is ugly and brings lots of hateful things to the surface, but we're still better off now that we were before, when support for Israel was just accepted and hardly debated at all.
Or, to take another recent example, the very successful Black Lives Matter movement, which also shifted public opinion massively to the left, because a thing that hadn't been debated before - support for the cops no matter what - was now open for debate. And that movement inspired its own backlash, and we see that in all the right-wing attacks against DEI. But I'm still confident that the long-term change in attitudes inspired by that movement will outlast the backlash (which, even now, is paying diminishing returns in elections for the Republicans.)
In short, cheer up! The fact that we're getting these reactions means we're WINNING.
I think you’re right, but that’s almost always joined by a violent rightward move and outright violence. I think there are some unbelievable crises coming and each of them is going to be ripe with good and awful possibilities.
Thanks for your reply, it's just that I'm tremendously inspired by these protest encampments popping up everywhere, so it's hard for me not to be optimistic for the future, and especially this new generation.
Great conversation.
Sorry, but I'm just not understanding the apocalyptic tone of all of this. We have a student-led protest movement against what Israel is doing in Gaza. Many Liberals respond to this with fear, and frustration and anger because they see it as hurting Biden's chances. So people who we might have thought were our allies really aren't, and are even supporting a police crackdowns on us. Does this represent some new "lurch to the right" in our politics? (Is this really what you're claiming? I think I may be misreading this part.) But isn't this just how liberals have always been? King's Letter From a Birmingham Jail is about precisely this thing, about how White moderates can't be trusted, how they always favor order over justice.
So this seems to me like a totally predictable backlash that any lefty social-justice protest would draw. And every social advance inspires a backlash, but we also know that the gains of social movements outlive the backlash against them. What I see happening now is a massive shift of the Overton Window to the LEFT, because a thing we could never discuss before, US support for Israel, is now open for debate. And of course that "debate" is ugly and brings lots of hateful things to the surface, but we're still better off now that we were before, when support for Israel was just accepted and hardly debated at all.
Or, to take another recent example, the very successful Black Lives Matter movement, which also shifted public opinion massively to the left, because a thing that hadn't been debated before - support for the cops no matter what - was now open for debate. And that movement inspired its own backlash, and we see that in all the right-wing attacks against DEI. But I'm still confident that the long-term change in attitudes inspired by that movement will outlast the backlash (which, even now, is paying diminishing returns in elections for the Republicans.)
In short, cheer up! The fact that we're getting these reactions means we're WINNING.
I think you’re right, but that’s almost always joined by a violent rightward move and outright violence. I think there are some unbelievable crises coming and each of them is going to be ripe with good and awful possibilities.
Thanks for your reply, it's just that I'm tremendously inspired by these protest encampments popping up everywhere, so it's hard for me not to be optimistic for the future, and especially this new generation.
Me too. The conflict is worrisome and escalating. But I’m very inspired.
I tried to follow Karl on X but I was blocked. Most likely he blocks people he doesn't know.
I enjoyed the video. I'll share it with my son because you have discussed so many things that I believe.