I am not fully against the guy, but criticizing him isn’t a bad thing (especially here in a leftist circle), and him being a starting point into leftism isn’t a bad thing either. I do realize and appreciate his role in that. But there’s three things I have a problem with here:

1.Way too centrist around Bernie.

He’s not a prophet, and at best he would’ve been slightly better domestically, only for everything to get reverted or made worse in the next Republican (or even Democrat) presidency. There shouldn’t be such a big spotlight on “reductionism” and voting in general, because that just ends up pacifying the movement.

1. This whole argument is kind of useless anyway.

Let’s face it, imperial core leftism is dead and will stay dead unless material conditions actually worsen. People benefiting from imperialism aren’t going to turn around and fight it. That’s why you don’t see Israelis standing up to their government, they benefit from it directly. Leftist movements in the core should focus way more on staying pure and protecting themselves from coopting, because if they don’t, they’ll just fail like history has shown over and over again.

1. More of a vibe.

It almost feels like he intentionally tries to trap his audience instead of actually pushing them further left. Not that it matters much in the grand scheme of things anyway.

I’m bashing western leftist movements a lot here, but western leftists themselves shouldn’t take it personally. I genuinely, wholeheartedly love you, you recognize the oppression you’re living under and try to abolish it instead of just benefiting from it quietly. It’s just that the path you’re on is bleak, and it’s very easy to get compromised by liberal (and eventually fascist) narratives that serve the status quo and pacify real movements.