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Marlon James, profile picture

And while we’re at it, let’s talk about another thing that has been pissing me the fuck off recently. Lately, in the pages of liberal bastions like Atlantic, Slate, and New Republic, there has been this movement gaining steam largely because nobody wants to give it a name. So let me name this mofo: The Liberal Limit. You know it— in fact it’s been the view of many liberals and leftists, but particularly old white liberal men (yeah I said it), that progressiveness has gone too far, so far that even their privilege now feels attacked.

They’re tired of learning new gender pronouns. Tired of hiding that nigger joke book. Tired of having to figure out how to respond to a Rihanna video. Tired of feminists of colour pointing out fissures in whatever wave of feminism we got right now. Tired of black kids on campus whining all the time. Tired of everybody being so angry because without their alliance all you coloured folk would be doomed. Liberal but up to the point where it scrapes on privilege.

But here’s the news. You’re a progressive. You’re supposed to progress. You’re supposed to be more liberal today than you were yesterday. Yes, we’re supposed to passionately debate (not tear down) even the stance of our allies, even those who agree with us 60% of the time. You’re supposed to keep changing your views on race because even the most positive view is inherently flawed and needs work. The whole point to being liberal, to being progressive is to continuously evolve, continuously question, continuously debate, even continuously knock down and build up, sometimes even ripping everything apart to start again. My views on trans people are different in 2014 that they were in 2004. And you can bet your ass it will be even better in 2024 than it is now, because that's what makes me not conservative. The point to being a progressive is to fucking progress.

Frances-Anne Solomon, profile picture
Frances-Anne Solomon
love it
5 yrsMore
Kai Hsu, profile picture
Kai Hsu
As soon as being liberal requires the white liberal to grow or change or admit wrong, a lot of them suddenly become much less enthusiastic liberals.
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Scott Gold, profile picture
Scott Gold
There's a "nigger joke book?" Some terrible part of me wants to see one, but then I'm sure my face would melt off like at the end of Raiders. Just filled with evil Nazi ghosts.
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Murray Cohen, profile picture
Murray Cohen
Does this mean you're going to finally watch the Wire?
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Marlon James, profile picture
Marlon James
LMAO
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Ru Freeman, profile picture
Ru Freeman
So freaking true. I just read the college kids/Yale article and it made me furious. This particular line: "...they’ve been grievously ill-served by debilitating ideological notions they’ve acquired about what ought to cause them pain." What OUGHT to cause us pain? Because who the F is handing out the list of things that ought and ought not to? Because our pain (or in this case those kids), is not real unless some a-hole apologist decides it is real?
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David White, profile picture
David White
Well said.
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Leone Ross, profile picture
Leone Ross
I love that you are not afraid, Marlon. x
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Geimy Colón, profile picture
Geimy Colón
. . .and to be fucking unafraid to change your mind, and then act accordingly.
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Raymond Edwards, profile picture
Raymond Edwards
Exactly.
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Jon Bernstein, profile picture
Jon Bernstein
I sent your post to a friend because I thought it was spot-on. My friend sent me back this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u52Oz-54VYw
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Kyle James, profile picture
Kyle James
Preach!!
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Danielle Hoogenboom, profile picture
Danielle Hoogenboom
Booooomm! I vote Marlon James!
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Faizal Deen, profile picture
Faizal Deen
nice
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Joel Hernandez, profile picture
Joel Hernandez
"I'm going in for a fresh privilege scrape" sounds like a thing to have done on a regular basis.
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Kaylie Jones, profile picture
Kaylie Jones
I feel constricted by how far we've moved backwards since I was a kid. Seriously.
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Jon Anderson, profile picture
Jon Anderson
Progress is never easy, and no one should rest on privilege-- your laurels are all too easily snatched away by the forces of history, which are constantly in flux. It's a struggle to better oneself, to better society, to live up to the values one holds -- freedom, dignity, respect, tolerance, compassion, love. These things are difficult, but worth every bit of the struggle, which never ends. And if we accept that struggle, then we must recognize that we all struggle along unevenly, sometimes ahead of the curve, sometimes falling behind -- no one has a lock on it. Anyone at any time can and will experience lapses.

I dont know what fuss the Atlantic, Slate, NR, or "old white liberal men" are kicking up, and in the long run I dont think it matters much, because history moves on despite their griping. I am white, male, leftist (with an anarchic streak), and old enough to have lived through the Civil Rights Movement, The Feminist movement, the Student Movement, and a whole lot of other movements. I learned two things: collective organizing and resistance can change things for the better, so I refuse to despair or resign myself to things as they are; but rigid thinking of any type is anathema, and the Left can be just as guilty of that as the Right. We did it back in the 60s and 70s, and we are doing it again. Nowadays we call it (inaccurately) Political Correctness; in the 30s they called it Right Thinking. In the 60s and 70s we talked about raising consciousness, which sounds nice enough, but it sometimes functioned as a euphemism for some very unenlightened thinking. Personally I dont give a shit for any kind of thinking that cannot acknowledge the slipperiness of meaning and the paradoxical nature of human truths.

The media is full of strident, intolerant, hyperbolic and rigid argumentation, and it gets us nowhere. That is not progressive; it is regressive. We definitely need passionate debate, but I would like to see a little more of what Ortega y Gasset called "vital reason" -- reason with a heart -- and a bit less self righteous certainty. We are so caught up in labels and abstractions that we fail to see the complicated realities they mask. That is what I am tired of -- the paucity of the thinking, not the subjects. I think it's great to question our pronouns, parse videos, recognize the complexities of color, race, class, identity, etc. This is exciting stuff. But let's bring imagination and humanity to the discussion. Can we infuse our social media with the same energy, thoughtfulness, compassion and imagination that we find, for example, in our best novelists and poets and filmmakers . . . ?
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Julie Scelfo, profile picture
Julie Scelfo
Shirley Chisholm called it "compassion fatigue"
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Nadine McNeil, profile picture
Nadine McNeil
Yes IYAH! Vincent Brown, Anna Ruth Henriques, Danica Anderson. Who was it that said the more things change the more they remain the same?!
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Joan Morgan, profile picture
Joan Morgan
All THIS!
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W Stuart McDowell, profile picture
W Stuart McDowell
Fuckin yeh!
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Morgan Grigonis, profile picture
Morgan Grigonis
Amen!!
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Marie Myung-Ok Lee, profile picture
Marie Myung-Ok Lee
Yep ~ "Liberal but up to the point where it scrapes on privilege." Brilliant.
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Anita Cherian, profile picture
Anita Cherian
Yes. Brilliant!
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Carleene Debbie Samuels, profile picture
Carleene Debbie Samuels
Yes. Amen.
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Rhone Fraser, profile picture
Rhone Fraser
Thank you.
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Avonie Amos, profile picture
Avonie Amos
Moving forward is inherent to progress eh. Dim and lacking wit
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Thaisa Frank, profile picture
Thaisa Frank
who in the hell said that progressive were supposed to progress? I ask you?
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