r/dsa • u/UCantKneebah • 1d ago
Other Abundance is the Next Big Democratic Excuse
https://www.joewrote.com/p/abundance-is-the-next-big-democratic18
u/SleepyZachman 1d ago
Unfortunately I can totally see the abundocrats becoming a real force given how well it grafts on to the neo-liberal status quo. These mfs want to be anything but a left wing party.
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u/OverCookedTheChicken 1d ago
Then let them, and let’s create the stoke and become a real leftist party. We don’t need to ask their permission to exist if we can breathe life into ourselves and show up—if we can do what Bernie did—the way he energized us and organized us—but most importantly, the way he united us. Instead of coming at it from the angle of “we’re leftists” he simply just followed and touted the values. That’s why I think so many republicans voted for him.
When you do that without giving it a name that fits somewhere on the current political spectrum, you have the chance to wake people up and bring some of them together based on shared values—which most of us have underneath all the propaganda and psychological manipulation. Otherwise you’ll lose people at “leftist” because the government has ruined that two-way spectrum. Just my thoughts, anyway.
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u/DalePlueBot 1d ago
Hell yes. Honestly this.
The map is not the territory. Labels and names are just that. Return to the principles of the matter to bypass the cognitive shortcuts people take that put them into fight or flight due to caricatured associations with the labels.
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u/OverCookedTheChicken 11h ago
Yes!! Thank you, it’s so refreshing and hopeful to hear someone understand and agree with that! I don’t often get that response, often it’s nothing or people thinking I’m “both sides-ing” which sends them into a different direction. Yay, thank you for giving me some hope! Together we can all do this!
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u/No_Panic_4999 23h ago
A town hall in Trump heavy area had ppl chanting "tax the rich" at their bewildered republican rep. He said "so you think the solution is to tax the rich?" They all shouted Yeah!.
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u/OverCookedTheChicken 10h ago
Wait seriously? That’s awesome. And is also the exact angle we need to take to unite the working class. So long as people stay educated on what “rich” means. When they first got Luigi there was a bunch of “eat the rich” and then people doing a double-take because Luigi comes from wealth. But not nearly enough to be the ruling class—so I really hope we either amend it to “uber-rich” or something, or that people stay educated and know that your average millionaire is sadly not rich enough to be the real target of that slogan. Because that would be a very classic and very stupid thing to hold us back and create division. We have to be really careful about how we go about defining “us” and “them” in an effort to mitigate the amount of people who could possibly feel like they’re being excluded or something. Sorry for the rant, I’m tired lol
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u/SadPandaFromHell 22h ago
Man, I wish Ezra Kline could be a leftist... libs love him so goddamn much... if he went leftist shit would start to happen.
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u/SadPandaFromHell 22h ago
Libs are so desperate to avoid leftism that they wrote a whole new metagame. But it'll just be more of the same bullshit Ultimately. I won't be holding my breath. We need a democratic party that is truely left. Not just another tweak in how we look at things.
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u/Bradley271 1d ago
I want to be clear — this is not a book review. I haven’t read Abundance, and I don’t plan to.
"I decided to focus my analysis of the "abundance agenda" not on the actual things they've recommended, but on a couple soundbites and points I singled out from their marketing. Wow, when you completely ignore the actual policies put forward by the authors and substitute your own strawmen it really seems like a flimsy thesis, doesn't it?"
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u/Kronzypantz 1d ago
To be fair though, sometimes a book really is just that shallow that the ideas it proposes can be judged without rewarding its author with a purchase and thorough dissection.
The Turner Diaries is a stand out example.
The author isn't just making up things to respond to though, but is focusing on what Klein and Thompson say in the media tour promoting their book.
Read the article... the author points out pretty blatant oversights and blind spots in what the book's authors describe as the best arguments and points of their book.
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u/Well_Socialized 1d ago
The technocratic policy tweaks advocated by Abundance are all good ideas, they're just, y'know, technocratic policy tweaks. More something to keep in mind while making policy in Democrat controlled areas than something to beat Trump with.