Thanks for posting this. As someone who has been enmeshed in liberal and left wing organizing in one way or another since I was a kid 30 years ago, I have seen SO MUCH good organizing get destroyed by the types you call out here.
I was booted for saying Daniel Penny is a hero who saved women on a subway train. I guess crazy homeless dudes have more rights than women, or something???
Sorry you were born without courage, and are cool with women being attacked. You would have stood back and recorded to post it for views to boost your account. Typ
I couldn’t read the linked article but this sounds like a nightmare—the real life example that fits every stereotype of liberals that the Right promotes.
If you see your fellow liberals pulling this Red Guard/Cult crap, call it out loudly and early. No good faith liberal (or anyone really) should have to be cowed by such nonsense. Our side is supposed to be about free thought, tolerance and reason. And when the shrill extremists (whether they are in good faith or not) tramp on those core values to score virtue points from an unseen referee, they make it that much harder for us to accomplish any real world liberal goals.
And whatever their claim of special class, it sure takes some seriously entitled privilege to willingly repel allies at a time when real victims are suffering as a result of our being out of power.
I had no idea about the lesbian bar nonsense until I read this article in the Atlantic today, but it really is ground zero as to how conservatism remains viable despite being consumed by MAGA over the past decade 😒🙄 The other thing it highlights is that just being part of a marginalized group does not insulate one from also being an insufferable narcissist.
In A Few Good Men, Colonel Markinson tells Santiago's parents " Your son is dead for only one reason: I wasn't strong enough to stop it." Why weren't liberals strong enough to stop this shit?
I think if they were right wing chaos agents they wouldn't have bothered with that much subterfuge. They could have just firebombed the place and manufactured a story or something.
I think it's fair to say this kind of fanaticism-and the inability to give any sort of grace-*is* bad faith. Something that has nothing to do with oppressed groups is going on here.
great piece, Stephen, I was staying away from details on this story, but the owner's tragic surrender to her tormenters is awful. I only experienced the very fringes of this dynamic in really minor skirmishes online during the 2016 campaign, when a couple times someone I didn't know hopped on a comment of mine and 30 more chimed in with "gfy" and other epithets. and that was pre-Elon Twitter. but the whole "you must submit to correction from the community" following a personal confession of wrongness drove me off real fast. I've always been fascinated by the McCarthy era and the peculiarities of demanding confession and betrayal of friends, and many years ago read Navasky's great book Naming Names, and learned that all the naming was a ritual required to be readmitted to the community—the Committee already had full lists of all Community Party members. but it's so chilling that no level of self-debasement satisfies the jackals; they dehumanize their targets so any level of abuse is not only allowed but somehow heroic in their addled minds. I hate that these jerks are as rotten as their counterparts on the right, and that they give credence, at least in this case, to yet more both-sidesism.
It exists but I don't think it's a serious problem. I've been on the wrong side of some serious dog piles, but after the entirety of US history an everything going on right now I've got no right to be angry if someone snaps at me because I'm the latest white guy to step on their toes, accidentally or not.
Not a serious problem??? The Democrats attacking Harris on Israel are a big part of the reason we have Trump… how many assholes stayed home because of that shit?
if it were just "snaps at" the target of their rage there wouldn't be a problem. it's the relentless persecution, characterizing the repentant "offender" as disgusting and irredeemable, that's so poisonous. the bar owner living in her car, presenting herself to express her remorse, mocked and pilloried. an odd way of attracting supporters and building a coalition. actually, it renders coalition-building impossible bc going in they're doing Robespierre—they've reversed the usual order, which is revolution first, purges to follow.
Not just this case. There is a reason left wing politics have a hard time getting real traction in this country despite the egregious excesses of the right.
Thanks for posting this. As someone who has been enmeshed in liberal and left wing organizing in one way or another since I was a kid 30 years ago, I have seen SO MUCH good organizing get destroyed by the types you call out here.
There’s certainly a lot of tone policing and purity testing among the left. It’s even worse on BluSky.
One cannot be liberal enough while being a white cys/het/male to really have a voice in some circles.
That’s a Republican talking point…
A talking point grounded in reality.
I was booted for saying Daniel Penny is a hero who saved women on a subway train. I guess crazy homeless dudes have more rights than women, or something???
No, rando self-appointed WHITE knights don’t get to be judge, jury, and executioner.
But, if he were black, you’d cheer. Got it.
Sorry you were born without courage, and are cool with women being attacked. You would have stood back and recorded to post it for views to boost your account. Typ
BluSky is full of idiot children, you nameless and faceless jackass.
You literally just said that straight cis guys don't get a fair shake.
Do you even know what a straw person is, babe?
I said that they have a hard time having a VOICE in some circles on BluSky. That doesn’t mean the same thing at all, you fucking moron.
I had to stop going to Bluesky. It's just too much of a lefty circlejerk over there.
You’ll get no argument from me
Wait... it's 2026... we have vaccines for COVID... if anything, the bar should be having six non-mask nights to one masked up night.
Wearing a mask to a restaurant or bar is a little ridiculous anyway since you have to take if off regularly to eat and drink.
And people are upset at this?
Jesus, people need a hobby.
This is the kind of thing that drove me out of Bernie's camp in 16. It gave me flashbacks to the evangelical churches my family went to.
Never been to a Hillary rally, huh? It shows.
I couldn’t read the linked article but this sounds like a nightmare—the real life example that fits every stereotype of liberals that the Right promotes.
If you see your fellow liberals pulling this Red Guard/Cult crap, call it out loudly and early. No good faith liberal (or anyone really) should have to be cowed by such nonsense. Our side is supposed to be about free thought, tolerance and reason. And when the shrill extremists (whether they are in good faith or not) tramp on those core values to score virtue points from an unseen referee, they make it that much harder for us to accomplish any real world liberal goals.
And whatever their claim of special class, it sure takes some seriously entitled privilege to willingly repel allies at a time when real victims are suffering as a result of our being out of power.
Here's a gift link:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/09/bar-masking-greenfield-boston-globe/688772/?gift=cT0mCwn5JiWuTFEScMqJGgcT0LRqDC2bp9AmVHr95Ho&utm_source=copy-link&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=share
Thanks!
I had no idea about the lesbian bar nonsense until I read this article in the Atlantic today, but it really is ground zero as to how conservatism remains viable despite being consumed by MAGA over the past decade 😒🙄 The other thing it highlights is that just being part of a marginalized group does not insulate one from also being an insufferable narcissist.
Just as an aside, I mused about this very thing the other day…https://substack.com/@jddrew/note/c-346360782?r=1659j
In A Few Good Men, Colonel Markinson tells Santiago's parents " Your son is dead for only one reason: I wasn't strong enough to stop it." Why weren't liberals strong enough to stop this shit?
Because they are terrified they’re next, mostly
That is a really, really sad story. And unfortunately this kind of fanaticism also leaves one susceptible to people who engage in bad faith.
*glances at TYT, chapo, grenwald*
Sure does.
If these extremists were acting in bad faith—if they were in fact right wing chaos agents—what would they be doing differently?
I think if they were right wing chaos agents they wouldn't have bothered with that much subterfuge. They could have just firebombed the place and manufactured a story or something.
I think it's fair to say this kind of fanaticism-and the inability to give any sort of grace-*is* bad faith. Something that has nothing to do with oppressed groups is going on here.
great piece, Stephen, I was staying away from details on this story, but the owner's tragic surrender to her tormenters is awful. I only experienced the very fringes of this dynamic in really minor skirmishes online during the 2016 campaign, when a couple times someone I didn't know hopped on a comment of mine and 30 more chimed in with "gfy" and other epithets. and that was pre-Elon Twitter. but the whole "you must submit to correction from the community" following a personal confession of wrongness drove me off real fast. I've always been fascinated by the McCarthy era and the peculiarities of demanding confession and betrayal of friends, and many years ago read Navasky's great book Naming Names, and learned that all the naming was a ritual required to be readmitted to the community—the Committee already had full lists of all Community Party members. but it's so chilling that no level of self-debasement satisfies the jackals; they dehumanize their targets so any level of abuse is not only allowed but somehow heroic in their addled minds. I hate that these jerks are as rotten as their counterparts on the right, and that they give credence, at least in this case, to yet more both-sidesism.
Yes! The moral McCarthyism is a serious issue among the left
It exists but I don't think it's a serious problem. I've been on the wrong side of some serious dog piles, but after the entirety of US history an everything going on right now I've got no right to be angry if someone snaps at me because I'm the latest white guy to step on their toes, accidentally or not.
Not a serious problem??? The Democrats attacking Harris on Israel are a big part of the reason we have Trump… how many assholes stayed home because of that shit?
if it were just "snaps at" the target of their rage there wouldn't be a problem. it's the relentless persecution, characterizing the repentant "offender" as disgusting and irredeemable, that's so poisonous. the bar owner living in her car, presenting herself to express her remorse, mocked and pilloried. an odd way of attracting supporters and building a coalition. actually, it renders coalition-building impossible bc going in they're doing Robespierre—they've reversed the usual order, which is revolution first, purges to follow.
This particular case is bad, yeah. But I don't think it's as widespread a problem as people make it out to be.
Not just this case. There is a reason left wing politics have a hard time getting real traction in this country despite the egregious excesses of the right.
It is called propaganda, most Americans are too brainwashed to imagine anything better as the boot presses on their necks.
Uh huh