And what is with the line about the 'country folk' being some kind of savior to the left. Oh, how I've hated that crap since the early 80s when they lefties spread out from the metropoles to come convert. How annoying. We were not noble savages then and they aren't now. and we especially weren't noble savages for the left to redeem itself then -- and they aren't now either.
......................
Onlist, a lot of this sort of belly aching has recently been coming from Jim Straub and a few others who seem to believe that lefties, by and large, huddle around hipster doofus enclaves. 'Move out!' they say.
Which is odd because it suggests, as you say, that we're some sort of evangelists coming to save the heathens from sin. Not only that, but left-leaning people are *already* scattered across the US (as anarchist Chuck, has said many times): in small towns as well as the "metropoles", sub and exurbs.
In short, no great exodus is necessary or desirable.
Regarding the supposed "left ghetto"...
>From time to time, someone will point to people's
participation in this very list as evidence of the
left's regrettable navel gazing. That really annoys
me because it overlooks the purpose of spaces like
this: to provide us with an opportunity to chat,debate
and organize with reasonably like minded comrades -
something I consider to be a minor, but still
noteworthy, mental health issue.
In spirit, it's really not that different from my high-performance computing 'community' discussions. While I'm never put out by questions from noobs or the lightly interested, it's nice to be able to discuss MIPS and Beowulf clusters for example with folks who know precisely what I'm talking about without a need for lengthy background explanations.
The same goes for this wee pub: Doug can freely mention neoliberalism or the bourgeoisie and most folk will go on from there to get to the meat of his arguments without requesting definitions. Nothing wrong with explaining to the uninitiated of course - in fact, it's often a pleasure. Still, from time to time, it's nice to be able to just go full power ahead .
It's just plain silly to say we're talking too much to each other when most of us spend most of our days talking to people who are very much not "us". I'm involved in serious political discussions and shared activist work almost every week with people who are Repubs, libertarians or flag waving Dems. That's in addition to the "left ghetto" activities - mostly climate concerned. And even in those "ghetto" situations there's a wide range of opinion on critical topics.
Just as there is here, left-leaningness notwithstanding.
So the raps on puppets and lattes and people's supposedly odd and 'unreal' lifestyles when compared to some mythologized salt of the earthers has gotten as old and dusty as the the Giza pyramid complex.
.d.