Prejudice on the Left

People have political journeys, but a lot of the biggest voices on the left have a lot to unlearn.

I believe Jessie Gender, F. D. Signifier, and Rebecca Watson do a good job at calling out the anti-feminism and racism on the left. I don’t think shaming or cancelling people is necessarily productive and I don’t particularly care if, for example, you like or dislike Hasan Piker (indeed I like him myself), but I believe the discourse itself helps us recognize our own biases we may not have yet interrogated, and how important intersectionalism is. This list should not be construed as a list of examples of the left “eating itself”.

I should also clarify I’m mostly referring to a handful of mainstream online voices, like Hasan Piker. They are typically not terribly multiply-oppressed, and their status as a mainstream figure in a heavily prejudiced society filters for those who still have prejudices not yet un-learned. This pattern, to a degree, is expected. There’s also an argument to be made they are still useful as part of a pipeline to less mainstream and more progressive voices.

Graham Platner

The initial sexual harassment claims against Platner on were dismissed by Kyle Kulinski, Hasan Piker, and Sam Seder on the basis of the victim having worked for the Heritage foundation. He also retained the support of Ro Khanna and even gained the support of Bernie Sanders shortly after the allegations went public. This precedent will likely have a chilling effect on future survivors who rightfully fear the amount of additional pain and suffering they’ll have to endure should they come forward.

It is absurd the amount of leniency Platner was granted between the harassment allegations, working for Blackwater, racist reddit comments, and a literal Totenkopf tattoo that at best he would have known was a Nazi tattoo well before the time he publicly claimed ignorance to it’s meaning. This leniency shows how women will not be liberated merely by progressive leadership. This video goes over it well and particularly how gross Kyle Kulinski’s response was.

Note

This is more tangential, but she made a followup video discussing how some reacted to the Platner controversy by arguing “true” leftists did not support Platner, and how this kind of argument suggests things like leftists can’t be misogynistic, which they can, and that it’s not worth calling out the people who supported Platner and are at least perceived to be leftists publicly, since they’re claiming the group is “truly” defined by those above the behavior now not being called out. Of course, it’s also quite silly calling the likes of Hasan Piker to not be leftist.

I also believe those who continued to defend Platner after the later rape accusations, which were more substantiated, severe, and from someone who supported Platner politically, deserve even harsher criticism. This includes Cenk Uygur and Stephen King.

It might be a bit tangential, but I like this video from Elliot Sang about progressives awaiting a patriarchal and white supremacist vision of a “hero” to save them from oppression, such as Platner. He argues progressives should instead recognize the prejudiced roots behind all the “hero” stories that shaped that belief, and work on things that are less glamorous and gloriful, like cooking and cleaning (in the home).

Amber Heard

During her trial with Johnny Depp, a PR firm hired by Depp worked to build a narrative against Heard, relying heavily on his fame and cultural significance, and exploiting the generally patriarchal biases of our society to paint Heard as the clear abuser and Depp as merely imperfect victim. Everything from how they dressed to when they got emotional would routinely be spun as positive and sympathetic whenever it was Depp and as manipulative whenever it was Heard.

This narrative was naturally embraced by conservative and “apolitical” online commentators, but it was also reproduced in the coverage of the case by Hasan Piker, Vaush, and Kyle Kulinski. These are all progressive commentators familiar with the exact mechanisms at work here, yet even when it was brought up to them they all largely continued to defend Depp.

Other Prejudices

The above were highlighted due to their utility for analyzing our own biases, but that’s only scratching the surface. Leftist online commentators have been accused of harassment, defended Zionism, and made countless remarks dismissive of the marginal communities they fight for. Point being that being a progressive doesn’t free you of the prejudices you’ve internalized. We all have our political journeys.