The greater achievements of "the left" in the US have been in the area of social relations rather than economics, more in the realm of "identity politics" than "class politics." There are many reasons for this. In part it reflects the extraordinary power and hegemony of capitalism, which has more successfully deflected class-based politics here than elsewhere. But it also reflects the distinctive character and history of the US "left," as opposed to European and other lefts. The centrality of identity politics to the left-wing project in the way it has played out in the American context has been a defining feature of the left for as long as there has been a left.
Recall the 60s feminist slogan that "the personal is the political." It's a slogan that has been much derided and ridiculed, but didn't they have a point, after all?
Getting rid of racism and sexism and homphobia in American society, for example, isn't just a matter of changing a few laws. "Racism, sexism, and homophobia," that oft-invoked triad, are embodied in a lot of everyday behavior, in a lot of small ways, that in turn reflect beliefs and attitudes, which are deeply held and to some degree "unconscious." Behavior can be addressed to some extent prescriptively, but changing the behavior, in the long run, requires changing the underlying beliefs and attitudes. That makes emotional demands on people, which are going to be resisted. One form that resistance will take is painting those who make such demands as "self-righteous" and "humorless." It is "no accident" that the adjective "humorless" is most especially applied to feminists.
Aren't equality and inclusion core left values that can't just be set aside (in favor, perhaps, of a purely class-based politics) because they have a way of making ordinary, non-political people uncomfortable?
Left media don't need to be humorless and dull and badly designed, but isn't the deeper issue of the left's alleged "self-righteousness" and lack of "humor" to some degree a real dilemma, and not just a matter of style? It's a dilemma the right doesn't have but that we do, and it's one that they can exploit.
Jacob Conrad
P.S. Eat your peas!