What Piker, Tolentino and other progressives always elide from these types of account are the millions of working people - subject to the exact same pressures as others - who don’t act out in the same way. They aren’t out shoplifting, they aren’t out and about trashing their own communities and essential services.
Piker and co also absolve individuals of any kind of personal responsibility or agency. People are apparently not possessive of any notion of community over individual and everything they do is wholly determined by external conditions and therefore at least excusable, in fact it’s a desirable inevitability.
There is much more that could be said, but whatever these ideas are, they are not serious ones.
The restoration of the shattered social contract between the state and citizens shouldn’t just be an organising principle; a commitment to its restoration is a pre condition for the success of any left project.
Rebuilding communities is intrinsic to rebuilding its confidence.
The expulsion of anti social elements and those ‘in the life’ by choice necessary to rebuilding social solidarity.
This "whatever this is" is so bad, it inspired me to donate $5 just to write this garbage comment. You have an interesting definition (or lack of one?) on social disorder. You also slide between radically different phenomena with different causes and think lumping them into "social disorder" makes you sound... fuck, I don't know.
I am not the biggest fan of Piker and am not super familiar with Tolentino but this is just stupid. I would consider deleting this if I were you, even if it did earn you $5.
This is embarrassing drivel and someday you won't want your name attached to this writing. Haha. I hope no one with any sway is actually reading this deranged nonsense.
Considering you don't even explain what it is that makes it sound so deranged, nor explain what your idea of "social disorder" is. Just sounds like you're grasping way too hard.
Furthermore. This wide, nonsensical use of "social disorder" that the author frames. What's to stop ANYONE from extending social disorder to like, say, autonomous Marxists? Or even labor strikes? Or sabotage? Is that "social disorder" too?
Disorder is disorder. Something obviously people want addressed but the construction of it laid out by this author just is baffling.
I think he's just a confused labor centrist who thinks he is pulling a fast one on people.
1 major issue with this piece is the framing and conflation of left and progressive. Hasan Piker is a progressive centrist Bernie liberal, not a leftist. Pinning this entire "social disorder" thing on a bunch of liberals and then projecting that onto "the left" is just starting this piece off on the wrong foot. Some upscale progressives are both a) not "the left" or anything WE have to answer for and b) are not remotely a coherent bloc
There's no analysis here. The writer is attempting some bogus rhetorical move.
2nd major issue is all these issue drops.
Shoplifting from whole foods, public drug use on transit, turnstile jumping, vandalism, littering, and lack of public restrooms. Very different issues with very different things animating them at different times. These are real problems we have to address, but I don't know anyone on the left who is genuinely embracing any of this. Maybe there are some who don't care, and I am one of them for the most part, but I think we have far larger problems to worry about. I also DO NOT TRUST our institutions and elected officials to manage this shit humanely and there's not a WELL-FUNDED WELL-INTENTIONED ANYTHING ANYWHERE to begin the process. So what does this author propose we do in the meantime? I am sure it is going to be very humane. Aha!
I don't know. I honestly could not believe I was reading this piece. It just doesn't make sense in the reality we find ourselves in. And working class people are not as fruitcake as this author thinks they are. Working class people everywhere live in dire conditions and with all of this around them and they accept it or understand it. Not everyone is some white enraged MAGA fuck.
This piece just reads like we should care about right-wingers above all else and their feelings and worries. Of course we should strive to improve conditions and quality of life FOR ALL of us. I see nothing here that the author cares about anyone except the outrage of some right-wing blowhards. I don't come here to read centrist Democrap arguments, which is all this nonsense is.
“These are real problems we have to address, but I don't know anyone on the left who is genuinely embracing any of this. Maybe there are some who don't care, and I am one of them for the most part, but I think we have far larger problems to worry about”
And therein lies another problem. You accept that this problems exist, and are real and pressing problems for those on the receiving end. But you don’t care. It’s not your problem. Your priorities lie elsewhere. These are not uncommon responses from those on the left.
Of course their are problems. But what solutions does this piece even offer? It's just a hit job saying let's complain about some vulnerable people who make our lives uncomfortable. And let's write some little things saying "yeah, I know the social contract sucks and society has broken down BUT..." and then this guy thinks that there are enforcement systems and mechanisms in this hellworld country to adequately and humanely solve this. I don't think so. I live in Los Angeles and have lived in San Francisco. I see what these non-profits and systems that we fund are like. I've worked in non-profits for job training and workforce development for ex-incarcerated individuals. And so on.
Pieces like this are not helpful. And I don't know who the target audience is and why we should care about this centrist messaging that's concerned far more about some right-wing media than about actual lived reality.
Maybe there are some valid points here, but the author did a terrible job expressing and framing them.
And so what if I am? At least I'm not writing pieces on a "left-wing" site punching down at vulnerable people with little power and worrying more about how some right-wing fucks and a corrupt media system portray us. What about that?
There's some valid discussion to be had from this piece, but this whole framing was just advanced brain cancer to me. I paid the $5 to speak my mind on that and wondering what this substack really is about.
What Piker, Tolentino and other progressives always elide from these types of account are the millions of working people - subject to the exact same pressures as others - who don’t act out in the same way. They aren’t out shoplifting, they aren’t out and about trashing their own communities and essential services.
Piker and co also absolve individuals of any kind of personal responsibility or agency. People are apparently not possessive of any notion of community over individual and everything they do is wholly determined by external conditions and therefore at least excusable, in fact it’s a desirable inevitability.
There is much more that could be said, but whatever these ideas are, they are not serious ones.
The restoration of the shattered social contract between the state and citizens shouldn’t just be an organising principle; a commitment to its restoration is a pre condition for the success of any left project.
Rebuilding communities is intrinsic to rebuilding its confidence.
The expulsion of anti social elements and those ‘in the life’ by choice necessary to rebuilding social solidarity.
This "whatever this is" is so bad, it inspired me to donate $5 just to write this garbage comment. You have an interesting definition (or lack of one?) on social disorder. You also slide between radically different phenomena with different causes and think lumping them into "social disorder" makes you sound... fuck, I don't know.
I am not the biggest fan of Piker and am not super familiar with Tolentino but this is just stupid. I would consider deleting this if I were you, even if it did earn you $5.
This is embarrassing drivel and someday you won't want your name attached to this writing. Haha. I hope no one with any sway is actually reading this deranged nonsense.
...Projecting much, bro?
Considering you don't even explain what it is that makes it sound so deranged, nor explain what your idea of "social disorder" is. Just sounds like you're grasping way too hard.
Furthermore. This wide, nonsensical use of "social disorder" that the author frames. What's to stop ANYONE from extending social disorder to like, say, autonomous Marxists? Or even labor strikes? Or sabotage? Is that "social disorder" too?
Disorder is disorder. Something obviously people want addressed but the construction of it laid out by this author just is baffling.
I think he's just a confused labor centrist who thinks he is pulling a fast one on people.
Ok where do I begin?
1 major issue with this piece is the framing and conflation of left and progressive. Hasan Piker is a progressive centrist Bernie liberal, not a leftist. Pinning this entire "social disorder" thing on a bunch of liberals and then projecting that onto "the left" is just starting this piece off on the wrong foot. Some upscale progressives are both a) not "the left" or anything WE have to answer for and b) are not remotely a coherent bloc
There's no analysis here. The writer is attempting some bogus rhetorical move.
2nd major issue is all these issue drops.
Shoplifting from whole foods, public drug use on transit, turnstile jumping, vandalism, littering, and lack of public restrooms. Very different issues with very different things animating them at different times. These are real problems we have to address, but I don't know anyone on the left who is genuinely embracing any of this. Maybe there are some who don't care, and I am one of them for the most part, but I think we have far larger problems to worry about. I also DO NOT TRUST our institutions and elected officials to manage this shit humanely and there's not a WELL-FUNDED WELL-INTENTIONED ANYTHING ANYWHERE to begin the process. So what does this author propose we do in the meantime? I am sure it is going to be very humane. Aha!
I don't know. I honestly could not believe I was reading this piece. It just doesn't make sense in the reality we find ourselves in. And working class people are not as fruitcake as this author thinks they are. Working class people everywhere live in dire conditions and with all of this around them and they accept it or understand it. Not everyone is some white enraged MAGA fuck.
This piece just reads like we should care about right-wingers above all else and their feelings and worries. Of course we should strive to improve conditions and quality of life FOR ALL of us. I see nothing here that the author cares about anyone except the outrage of some right-wing blowhards. I don't come here to read centrist Democrap arguments, which is all this nonsense is.
“These are real problems we have to address, but I don't know anyone on the left who is genuinely embracing any of this. Maybe there are some who don't care, and I am one of them for the most part, but I think we have far larger problems to worry about”
And therein lies another problem. You accept that this problems exist, and are real and pressing problems for those on the receiving end. But you don’t care. It’s not your problem. Your priorities lie elsewhere. These are not uncommon responses from those on the left.
Can you see the issue here?
Of course their are problems. But what solutions does this piece even offer? It's just a hit job saying let's complain about some vulnerable people who make our lives uncomfortable. And let's write some little things saying "yeah, I know the social contract sucks and society has broken down BUT..." and then this guy thinks that there are enforcement systems and mechanisms in this hellworld country to adequately and humanely solve this. I don't think so. I live in Los Angeles and have lived in San Francisco. I see what these non-profits and systems that we fund are like. I've worked in non-profits for job training and workforce development for ex-incarcerated individuals. And so on.
Pieces like this are not helpful. And I don't know who the target audience is and why we should care about this centrist messaging that's concerned far more about some right-wing media than about actual lived reality.
Maybe there are some valid points here, but the author did a terrible job expressing and framing them.
Damn dude you’re a real loser if you’re admitting to spending $5 just to bloviate into the void.
And so what if I am? At least I'm not writing pieces on a "left-wing" site punching down at vulnerable people with little power and worrying more about how some right-wing fucks and a corrupt media system portray us. What about that?
There's some valid discussion to be had from this piece, but this whole framing was just advanced brain cancer to me. I paid the $5 to speak my mind on that and wondering what this substack really is about.
Was Tolentino wearing a onesie?
Fantastic piece