antiautonomy 🌹

Promoted grad student, expired adjunct professor, bitter prole

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@Marxicology No, but if you want to influence policy, you have to articulate your ideas in a way that make sense to people and they can support. Defund/abolish rhetoric fails to do that because it doesn't identify a public safety solution. That's why there is pushback against that rhetoric.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@hecubian_devil What's hilarious about his phrase "technical questions of utility regulation" is that neoclassical economics has been willfully and perversely misinterpreting utilitarian moral philosophy since the 1870s. It began as Jevons' classist, social darwinist appropriation of Bentham.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@barbarismcrit True but those politicians are picking their fights and responding to where their constituents are at. Changing their constituents' minds is our job. I think the left has done a very bad job of that because we were unwilling to admit that poor communities do not agree with us.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@barbarismcrit The problem is really with the rhetoric. The defund/abolish rhetoric is negative. It specifies what you are against, but it doesn't specify what you are for. Explaining what you are for is not lying to people. It helps them see that you care about their problems.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@just_a_red_bird The problem with "abolition" is that the rhetoric says what you are against but what not what you are for. It is, therefore, unpersuasive. The problem with ultras is that they are uninterested in persuading anyone. So, no, it is not easy at all.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@stevenlazarov No Burgis understands all of that full well. This is his point: "we must think carefully about... how to express unpopular but genuinely vital principles in a way that makes them as appealing as possible to the people we’re trying to win over." Do you disagree?

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@fullslack_ What evidence is there that she is "uneducated" about socialism? She said she was a small business owner, so technically she is a capitalist. Socialism, by contrast, is just what Jesus and John Lennon were talking about. Everyone already understands it and desires it.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@complicazion48 @DropSiteNews Engels was a capitalist and a socialist. Being a capitalist is a class position, not an ideology.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@DropSiteNews Her response is actually accurate and doesn't even mean that she is not a socialist! She admits that she is a "small-business owner," and so she is technically a capitalist. She may actually ideologically be a socialist as well. Who knows? Capitalism is not an ideology.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@lizkimtweets If you think that's scandalous, just look up Engels' class position. Only an idiot thinks there is a 1:1 correlation between class position and ideology. The left's claim is not that all socialists are workers; it's that all profit comes from the exploitation of workers.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@swamplandguv @harbingerofwoke Is endorsing a progressive candidate for Senate who is a DSA member in Florida in 2026 the same as endorsing a non-DSA presidential candidate from the neoliberal wing of the Democratic Party in 2024? Obviously not.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@ryangrim No, DSA's left is simply uninterested in taking power or in revolution. They are interested in showcasing their moral indignation. All of the ideas in the platform can be portrayed in a rational and thoughtful manner, but the left prefers to represent them in an inflammatory way.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@brianonhere Obviously we should support reducing social problems. But you cannot fully reduce those problems until you get to full socialism. And if the point is to focus on social problems, why not say that instead of using the negative (and inflammatory) rhetoric of "abolish" and "defund"?

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@brianonhere Ok cool. So what is the large constituency who agrees with you? And what is your plan to keep violent crime in poor neighborhoods under control? And if you are disagreeing with everyone why not just demand revolution right now instead of a meager reform like this?

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@JackGogol00 @JacobinBen @jacobin Those policies had large groups which supported them; Slaves wanted freedom; women wanted to vote; workers wanted better wages. The problem with police abolition is that the group which is supposed to support (black people) actually opposes it. See here:
https://t.co/qiGw8szEFQ

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@DanMKervick @jacobin So what's your plan for dealing with people who refuse to follow the laws in a socialist society? And why do you think ordinary people would find your plan compelling?

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@beninbf @jacobin It is hard to say that there is a "left-wing cause" which has been abandoned because those "causes" were never presented clearly. There is left-wing "rhetoric" that is being rejected, but the alleged "causes" were more slogans than policies or even ideals.

[antiautonomy 🌹 @antiautonomy]

@jacobin It's depressing that many on DSA's "left" just want to use silly, extreme sounding rhetoric that, in most cases, misdescribes the actual policy. They care more about looking radical than the well being of the movement. In reality, DSA's "left" is far to the right of its "right."