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[ShadowSwordmaster]

The GOP tried to do a Blitzkrieg and failed in the end.

 

[sphagnum]

the man loves his coke

 

[BoogieWoogie]

https://twitter.com/johnjharwood/status/857619795033903105


It's been a minute since Ryan looked like a fool. Whew.

Yes Lil Paul, I'm sure this isn't just a way to divert from the fact that you don't have the votes for it.

This is never going to actually be brought to a vote in the House.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

the man loves his coke

In more ways than one

*sniff* *sniff*

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Before Trump this was the biggest scandal

Paul Reek

I really miss Obama. I did not agree with him on a lot of topics, but he was so much better for my stress level.

 

[teiresias]

Ryan's life is just a constant series of humiliations now.

I picture Punished Paul Ryan in a leather harness and chaps getting paddled. It's honestly kinda hot...

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Obama looked amazing in that tan suit.

Men's fashion in politics is so boring

 

[sangreal]

Obama looked amazing in that tan suit.

Men's fashion in politics is so boring

preach

Yes Lil Paul, I'm sure this isn't just a way to divert from the fact that you don't have the votes for it.

This is never going to actually be brought to a vote in the House.

yeah, honestly I'd rather they tried to get a vote on it this week since it would fail but I can see where Pelosi is coming from. word from yesterday's whip count was they don't have the votes yet. The GOP granted themselves the power to bring it up any time without notice through Saturday

On the other hand, holding off should get us a CBO estimate which will tank the bill further

 

[Teggy]

Why is this entire site on some off-white rose tint? It's fucking killing me.

That's the color of the print edition of the financial times.

 

[Poodlestrike]

Obama looked amazing in that tan suit.

Men's fashion in politics is so boring

Somebody post that gif of him dressed as the president of space, where he's chewing gum.

yeah, honestly I'd rather they tried to get a vote on it this week since it would fail but I can see where Pelosi is coming from. word from yesterday's whip count was they don't have the votes yet. The GOP granted themselves the power to bring it up any time without notice through Saturday

On the other hand, holding off should get us a CBO estimate which will tank the bill further

This also scores a significant narrative win for the Dems. Makes them look strong and capable and actively fighting against the AHCA. People like to be on the winning team, and while Republican infighting isn't a BAD narrative, you also want your own guys opposition to be visible.

 

[B-Dubs]

That's the color of the print edition of the financial times.

It's pretty famous for it at this point so they'll never change it.

 

[gutter_trash]

hahaha Spicey is blaming Obama for Flynn's security clearence reknewl

 

[balladofwindfishes]

Democrats gain a win against the repeal, embarrassing Ryan, Flynn's investigation heats up, Trump's tax reform is basically dead after 24 hours and he still continues to flail around for any win what so ever

What a nice end to his first 100 days!

 

[Trouble]

Democrats gain a win against the repeal, embarrassing Ryan, Flynn's investigation heats up, Trump's tax reform is basically dead after 24 hours and he still continues to flail around for any win what so ever

What a nice end to his first 100 days!

I was actually convinced not long ago that his 100th day would be in the middle of a government shutdown.

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I was actually convinced not long ago that his 100th day would be in the middle of a government shutdown.

Still got 2.5 days to make the dream into reality.

 

[Sobriquet]

Holy shit Spicey blaming Obama for Flynn

 

[modernlifeisANDY]

And just doubling, tripling down on it. Wow.

 

[B-Dubs]

Spicey has got to be kidding with this shit. He can't think this will work.

 

[teiresias]

Spicey has got to be kidding with this shit. He can't think this will work.

If our generals were paid better they wouldn't need to take half million pay outs from Russia!!

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Would Trump have the audacity to pardon flynn?

 

[dramatis]

That feeling when your embattled progressive mayor is going to walk to reelection with no real effort on his own part.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/pol...ane-mccray-remark-gop-event-article-1.3105738

Even without those comments, guy couldn't follow instructions on a sheet of paper to register as a candidate. Wouldn't trust him to be mayor.

 

[Dominican Power]

Been binging on Veep. Up to season 4. Trump's team can only hope to be as competent as Selina's team.

 

[Abinash117]

Would Trump have the audacity to pardon flynn?

He probably does. Although, I assume his people and Republican Congressmen would pressure him not to.

 

[Hindl]

Still got 2.5 days to make the dream into reality.

I thought they extended the deadline a week?

 

[balladofwindfishes]

I thought they extended the deadline a week?

I don't think that's happened yet. That was the leverage the Democrats were using to cancel the Obamacare repeal vote

 

[kirblar]

After seeing Obama's upcoming HC Speech come up on Fox News and be used an excuse to bash him with pretty much the same talking points as the far left, that part of this article really resonated. (I'd post it in the dedicated thread if it were on the front page, but I'd rather not dredge that monstrosity up.)

The Far Left Is Still Out Of Touch With Black Voters

In late 2016, nearly 9 out of 10 Black voters approved of President Obama. To many Black voters, he is the symbol of success for Black America. You might not agree with everything he has done, and I certainly haven’t agreed with everything, but you have to respect him for what he means to Black Americans-making it to the height of American politics and withstanding eight years of racist attacks. Sanders and his movement see Obama as symbolic of evil neoliberal corporate interests. Therein lies the disconnect. The far right holds disdain for Obama for some of the same reasons that the far left does: they see him as beholden to special interests instead of “those of the people.”

Black people can see this, they aren’t stupid. They see that the political fringe on the left and most of the right hates Obama for some of the same reasons. So when the far left comes out and says that the first Black President should be held to a different standard than Presidents before him — that he doesn’t deserve to get paid for his post-Presidential work or shouldn’t be compensated — the Black community feels that one of its largest symbols of success is under attack from an overwhelmingly white political movement.

Why does the far left believe the first Black president should be held to a standard of making less money? Why does the far left believe that the first Black president doesn’t deserve to be compensated for his work? These are the issues that resonate with the black community. The rebuttal will be, well, the money is corporate, the money is from Wall Street. Well, nobody in the far left was coming for Sanders when he invested his money on Wall Street. Nobody on the far left was coming for The Young Turks when they took $4 million from Republicans. There are a plethora of organizations and publications on the far left that take big money from corporate donors, Republicans, and Wall Street investment bankers. But they are not viciously attacked for making money or taking in millions in donations. Why do they hold the first Black President to a standard they don’t hold themselves to? They haven’t just come for Obama either. They’ve heavily criticized activist DeRay and the Black women behind Safety Pin Box for making money for their work, accusing them of being beholden to corporate interests. When Obama, DeRay, or Safety Pin Box is making money, all of a sudden the far left has a problem with it. But when their own organizations and publications are taking Wall Street or corporate donations, there is no anger, no criticism, no vitriol.

Do you see how Black people see this? How we look at this and say “They don’t want Black people to succeed or to be represented in politics, business, or media? They don’t want Black people to make money?” This is a movement that hates identity politics, refused to campaign in the diverse southern states, and calls out prominent successful Black people for getting paid for their work. Vox wrote an article saying that Obama shouldn’t have taken the money not because it was corruption (it clearly wasn’t) but because of the optics could make it appear so. Well, think about how the optics of how the far left appears to Black people. From a Black perspective, you can see how the far left and the far right’s criticisms of prominent Black people appear very similar?

 

[RastaMentality]

the far left won't ever connect with black voters as long as they see black people as an impediment to their wall street-free s0cialist future.

 

[nature boy]

Would Trump have the audacity to pardon flynn?

Nope, what's in it for him?

 

[Tall4Life]

the far left won't ever connect with black voters as long as they see black people as an impediment to their wall street-free s0cialist future.

i would consider myself far left and I'm fully in support of things like BlackLivesMatter and even affirmative action...

get off your high horse

 

[StopMakingSense]

i would consider myself far left and I'm fully in support of things like BlackLivesMatter and even affirmative action...

get off your high horse

"My best causes are black!"

This isn't about you connecting with them, it's them connecting with you.

Get off your high horse.

 

[Hindl]

After seeing Obama's upcoming HC Speech come up on Fox News and be used an excuse to bash him with pretty much the same talking points as the far left, that part of this article really resonated. (I'd post it in the dedicated thread if it were on the front page, but I'd rather not dredge that monstrosity up.)

The Far Left Is Still Out Of Touch With Black Voters

I agree with the general premise, but I'm not sure if I agree with the writer's arguments. The far left has a problem with understanding racial issues, but the writer uses the fact that they are holding Obama to a different standard than other Presidents in regards to making post-political money. I think they just generally don't like any politician doing that, look at how Bill Clinton is attacked on the left now. I think the far left doesn't like Obama because he was a pragmatic centrist, and they don't want any of their politicians leaving the political life to then get paid for Wall St speeches. Again, I agree that the far left has a huge problem understanding racial issues, and I doubt they'll ever fix it, but I think there are other things you could hold up as evidence vs the optics of him taking money from corporate interests, even though it's completely benign. I could be misunderstanding their argument though

i would consider myself far left and I'm fully in support of things like BlackLivesMatter and even affirmative action...

get off your high horse

There are members of the far right with Jewish spouses. That doesn't make the far right not Neo Nazis

 

[balladofwindfishes]

i would consider myself far left and I'm fully in support of things like BlackLivesMatter and even affirmative action...

get off your high horse

One has to wonder why the far left has such an issue courting black voters.

 

[kirblar]

I agree with the general premise, but I'm not sure if I agree with the writer's arguments. The far left has a problem with understanding racial issues, but the writer uses the fact that they are holding Obama to a different standard than other Presidents in regards to making post-political money. I think they just generally don't like any politician doing that, look at how Bill Clinton is attacked on the left now. I think the far left doesn't like Obama because he was a pragmatic centrist, and they don't want any of their politicians leaving the political life to then get paid for Wall St speeches. Again, I agree that the far left has a huge problem understanding racial issues, and I doubt they'll ever fix it, but I think there are other things you could hold up as evidence vs the optics of him taking money from corporate interests, even though it's completely benign. I could be misunderstanding their argument though

The issue with the way the populist far left borrows uses the same attacks as the populist far right attacks when they go after more moderate candidates is a thing though. (Populism in general is majoritarian (aka white) and rural.

 

[Tall4Life]

"My best causes are black!"

This isn't about you connecting with them, it's them connecting with you.

Get off your high horse.

Are you trying to imply that I'm a BernieBro or something? That because I consider myself far left that I secretly don't care about social issues? If anything I'm way more engaged in fighting for social issues than economic issues.

I really don't know what you're trying to imply here. "The far left" isn't a codeword for people who are well-off, white, super liberal in economics, and don't care about minorities.

I have strong left views. We absolutely need to stop police brutality and work at destroying racism and sexism and more at its roots. That's what I care about the most. I wrote a 50 page research paper about how horrific private prisons are, especially in how they push for the further incarceration of black people in America. There is nothing I'm a moderate or conservative about, I'm a leftist in basically every sense of the word. I don't consider Bernie a far left politician. I eagerly voted for Hillary the first day early voting was available.

I absolutely do not identify with BernieBros or other people like that that consider themselves "far left". Just like how most feminists are not TERFs, most of the far left are not BernieBros.

So please, explain where the fuck you are coming from with this.

 

[Coriolanus]

After seeing Obama's upcoming HC Speech come up on Fox News and be used an excuse to bash him with pretty much the same talking points as the far left, that part of this article really resonated. (I'd post it in the dedicated thread if it were on the front page, but I'd rather not dredge that monstrosity up.)

The Far Left Is Still Out Of Touch With Black Voters

this would carry a lot more water if the far left didn't attack pretty much anyone for giving those kinds of paid speeches. Their stance usually is "if you getting bank pay, you tainted. dont matter who you are".

 

[B-Dubs]

I agree with the general premise, but I'm not sure if I agree with the writer's arguments. The far left has a problem with understanding racial issues, but the writer uses the fact that they are holding Obama to a different standard than other Presidents in regards to making post-political money. I think they just generally don't like any politician doing that, look at how Bill Clinton is attacked on the left now. I think the far left doesn't like Obama because he was a pragmatic centrist, and they don't want any of their politicians leaving the political life to then get paid for Wall St speeches. Again, I agree that the far left has a huge problem understanding racial issues, and I doubt they'll ever fix it, but I think there are other things you could hold up as evidence vs the optics of him taking money from corporate interests, even though it's completely benign. I could be misunderstanding their argument though

Bill was only ever attacked because it was a way to hit Hillary during the campaign. Notice how he's not really brought up anymore?

I mean, you can not like anyone doing it, but it's a matter of optics. It could look like something it's not, but looking at it from the perspective of the black community you can say the same thing. It's optics. No one really cared about this issue until the lady and the black man started to take advantage of it as well. That's where he's coming from and it's more than a valid critique, it's true. It might just be unfortunate timing that this sort of thought came into the mainstream when it did, but it showed up when the black guy started to take advantage as well.

If people are going to complain about optics, then they have to be willing to take that same sort of criticism.

this would carry a lot more water if the far left didn't attack pretty much anyone for giving those kinds of paid speeches. Their stance usually is "if you getting bank pay, you tainted. dont matter who you are".

In fairness, it started when the woman started doing it. It's an issue of timing, ironically of optics. The optics of them complaining about the optics of the black guy and woman getting paid don't look good.

 

[tuxfool]

this would carry a lot more water if the far left didn't attack pretty much anyone for giving those kinds of paid speeches. Their stance usually is "if you getting bank pay, you tainted. dont matter who you are".

The article does show that they make exceptions or at least don't argue as vehemently for some people.

 

[ArkhamFantasy]

Nope, what's in it for him?

Keep flynn from talking in exchange for a pardon.

 

[cooljeanius]

Anyone got a working stream for the SASC Cyber Subcommittee hearing? I tried the one on the official Senate website but it seems stuck for me: https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings/17-04-27-cyber-enabled-information-operations

 

[RastaMentality]

i would consider myself far left and I'm fully in support of things like BlackLivesMatter and even affirmative action...

get off your high horse

Okay and? Should white liberals get cookies handed out every time they support common sense policies that help black people? I'm sure a lot of the far left supports BLM. Whether or not that support continues on when BLM toronto does something unfavorable to people's tastes or a riot happens is left to be seen.

A lot of black people's primary concern with government is police brutality and systemic racism. If the far left gets bewildered that it's not speeches! and wall street! then that's a start for why they're not connecting with black people.

 

[Tarydax]

Their stance usually is "if you getting bank pay, you tainted. dont matter who you are".

Like the article says, Bernie invested money in Wall St. and TYT took 4 million dollars from a Republican, but neither are as criticized as Obama and Clinton have been when they took Wall St. money. To the far left, the who really does matter and some people will come out of it completely untainted while others turn into evil corporate shills.

The people who have been tainted by it are a black man and a white woman, which is part of the problem.

 

[StopMakingSense]

Are you trying to imply that I'm a BernieBro or something? That because I consider myself far left that I secretly don't care about social issues? If anything I'm way more engaged in fighting for social issues than economic issues.

I really don't know what you're trying to imply here. "The far left" isn't a codeword for people who are well-off, white, super liberal in economics, and don't care about minorities.

I have strong left views. We absolutely need to stop police brutality and work at destroying racism and sexism and more at its roots. That's what I care about the most. I wrote a 50 page research paper about how horrific private prisons are, especially in how they push for the further incarceration of black people in America. There is nothing I'm a moderate or conservative about, I'm a leftist in basically every sense of the word. I don't consider Bernie a far left politician. I eagerly voted for Hillary the first day early voting was available.

I absolutely do not identify with BernieBros or other people like that that consider themselves "far left". Just like how most feminists are not TERFs, most of the far left are not BernieBros.

So please, explain where the fuck you are coming from with this.

'Where the fuck I am coming from with this' should be pretty evident, and clearly by listing all your bonafides, and focusing on you you you, you are clearly not getting the point about talking about the outside-in perception of the far left by large swaths of POC communities.

The conversation was about the optics of the far-left attacking the first black president for high speaking fees and you come in running talking about how you supported "Black Lives Matter" like it's relevant or some shit.

 

[Hindl]

The issue with the way the populist far left borrows uses the same attacks as the populist far right attacks when they go after more moderate candidates is a thing though. (Populism in general is majoritarian (aka white) and rural.

Oh yeah that I totally agree with that makes sense. I guess I can see that argument now.

Bill was only ever attacked because it was a way to hit Hillary during the campaign. Notice how he's not really brought up anymore?

I mean, you can not like anyone doing it, but it's a matter of optics. It could look like something it's not, but looking at it from the perspective of the black community you can say the same thing. It's optics. No one really cared about this issue until the lady and the black man started to take advantage of it as well. That's where he's coming from and it's more than a valid critique, it's true. It might just be unfortunate timing that this sort of thought came into the mainstream when it did, but it showed up when the black guy started to take advantage as well.

If people are going to complain about optics, then they have to be willing to take that same sort of criticism.



In fairness, it started when the woman started doing it. It's an issue of timing, ironically of optics. The optics of them complaining about the optics of the black guy and woman getting paid don't look good.

Yeah ok I guess I see the point where this only started once it suddenly wasn't the white man doing it. I guess I attributed that sentiment more to a coincidence of timing, since this all happened while income inequality for most of the far left (young white college kids coming out of school) exploded with the 08 crisis. So I could have easily seen the same thing happening if Obama was white and doing this. But agreed, if they are going to complain about optics, then they should concern themselves with the optics of going after the most successful black man in America, regardless of its validity

Are you trying to imply that I'm a BernieBro or something? That because I consider myself far left that I secretly don't care about social issues? If anything I'm way more engaged in fighting for social issues than economic issues.

I really don't know what you're trying to imply here. "The far left" isn't a codeword for people who are well-off, white, super liberal in economics, and don't care about minorities.

I have strong left views. We absolutely need to stop police brutality and work at destroying racism and sexism and more at its roots. That's what I care about the most. I wrote a 50 page research paper about how horrific private prisons are, especially in how they push for the further incarceration of black people in America. There is nothing I'm a moderate or conservative about, I'm a leftist in basically every sense of the word. I don't consider Bernie a far left politician. I eagerly voted for Hillary the first day early voting was available.

I absolutely do not identify with BernieBros or other people like that that consider themselves "far left". Just like how most feminists are not TERFs, most of the far left are not BernieBros.

So please, explain where the fuck you are coming from with this.

You constantly do this across multiple topics, and it's so frustrating. Whenever someone lays out a criticism of a group that you identify with, you immediately assume they are putting that criticism on you and you alone. Can you not recognize that large factions of the far left have racist ideas? Or at the very least would be very willing to throw social issues under the bus to advance their own goals? Realize that when someone is criticizing a group you belong to, that doesn't mean they are criticizing you

 

[Tall4Life]

Okay and? Should white liberals get cookies handed out every time they support common sense policies that help black people? I'm sure a lot of the far left supports BLM. Whether or not that support continues on when BLM toronto does something unfavorable to people's tastes or a riot happens is left to be seen.

A lot of black people's primary concern with government is police brutality and systemic racism. If the far left gets bewildered that it's not speeches! and wall street! then that's a start to why they're not connecting with black people.

The far left is not a fucking hivemind! Can you please understand that? You probably assume Bernie and his followers to be what the far left is. They think we should ignore identity politics. I don't! I absolutely don't! There are different sects and views associated with being far left. I define myself as being far left, ESPECIALLY in social issues. Just like there are different views of what feminism should be, or even what communism or conservatism should be, there are different views of what being far left should be. The far left is not a hivemind.

You can identify parts of the "far left" like how you were talking about; BernieBros and such that really don't give a shit about minority issues or really any social policy. But you cannot make a sweeping claim that all of us are like that.

And I totally understand that I am in the minority in regards to this. There are very few politicians in the US that are ACTUALLY far left in the true sense of the word. I fully accept that, and that's why I was quick to vote for Hillary in the general. She's not perfect but no one is, and I completely accept that.

You all are trying to assume that I'm secretly or subtly actually a BernieBro or something similar. I'm not. I'm a far left liberal.

 

[Coriolanus]

In fairness, it started when the woman started doing it. It's an issue of timing, ironically of optics. The optics of them complaining about the optics of the black guy and woman getting paid don't look good.

In fairness, the "far" left hated Gore so damn much they voted Nader. Kerry apparently was never particularly big on giving paid speeches (or my google skills are shite today). Dredging up Bill, there are a lotta articles raising awareness about his speech fees back in 2012, but then, Bill was no candidate.

If we going for optics, calling them far left already is a needless attempt at stigmatizing people that are quite unlikely to be that (unless there's been an uptick in people defending the abolition of private property and the like that i somehow missed) and already are closer to you than to the oppo (in theory, anyway).

Either way, what im finding particularly odd in the article is this sentence

Why are Bernie’s horrible turnout rates among young people of color not used as evidence of him being a poor candidate that couldn’t connect with Black and Brown voters?

since what i'm finding via google is this

but that article was from may 26, so im assuming this changed later?

 

[kirblar]

He's not talking about actual vote %s, he's talking about overall turnout rates not indicating that there was a groundswell of massive enthusiastic support for him.

Kerry's very well off already. Neither Bill, Obama nor Hillary came from super-well-off families.

 

[StopMakingSense]

You all are trying to assume that I'm secretly or subtly actually a BernieBro or something similar. I'm not. I'm a far left liberal.

Nobody assumed anything about you! You don't have to internalize every criticism of the far left as a personal attack!

In fairness, it started when the woman started doing it. It's an issue of timing, ironically of optics. The optics of them complaining about the optics of the black guy and woman getting paid don't look good.

Actually, Bill got a tiny bit of flack when he started it up. Though the fees were closer to 200k per speech back in 2000. And it was more just the amounts, not 'conflict of interest' More people not aware of the public speaking fee market.

Nothing like this reaction, though.

 

[Coriolanus]

He's not talking about actual vote %s, he's talking about overall turnout rates not indicating that there was a groundswell of massive enthusiastic support for him.

Kerry's very well off already. Neither Bill, Obama nor Hillary came from super-well-off families.

At the start of the paragraph, yes, that is what he did. At the end he chose to constrain the focus to young poc. I'm not getting why he chose to constrain the argument like that when there was no need to. Overall rates absolutely crush the old fart, no need to stunt your own argument with that bit. Would make a whole lot more sense if he replaced it with "old".

 

[B-Dubs]

In fairness, the "far" left hated Gore so damn much they voted Nader. Kerry apparently was never particularly big on giving paid speeches (or my google skills are shite today). Dredging up Bill, there are a lotta articles raising awareness about his speech fees back in 2012, but then, Bill was no candidate.

You're kinda missing the point. In 2012 these critiques weren't really mainstream. For better or worse they came into the mainstream in the last election and the optics don't look good. This last cycle is the first time a lot of people got exposed to that critique. If you're going to complain about optics, which is what complaining about paid speeches is, then you have to be willing to acknowledge complaints about optics about your complaints about optics. And the optics are that this wasn't really a thing until the woman and the black man started taking advantage of it.

Actually, Bill got a tiny bit of flack when he started it up. Though the fees were closer to 200k per speech back in 2000. And it was more just the amounts, not 'conflict of interest' More people not aware of the public speaking fee market.

Nothing like this reaction, though.

Like I point out, and like you point out, it wasn't really a mainstream thing. No one really cared until now and the optics of that aren't good.

I mean, if we're going to be complaining about the optics of something then we have to acknowledge the complaints about the optics of our complaints. Because they're just as real as our complaints, in that it's all optics.

 

[Tall4Life]

'Where the fuck I am coming from with this' should be pretty evident, and clearly by listing all your bonafides, and focusing on you you you, you are clearly not getting the point about talking about the outside-in perception of the far left by large swaths of POC communities.

The conversation was about the optics of the far-left attacking the first black president for high speaking fees and you come in running talking about how you supported "Black Lives Matter" like it's relevant or some shit.

The original argument was that the far left doesn't really care about any of that. I came in as a person that identifies as being far left but DOES NOT identify with the definition of the far left that you all were associating with it.

And yeah no fucking shit I'm an outsider to the issues of minority rights. I'm a white man from the upper class. I totally own that. I'm defending my own views here because you're assuming something that I am not. I can never say that I totally understand the issues that women face everyday in regards to sexual harassment and harassment in general for who they are. I can never say that I totally understand the issues that LGBTQ+ people face in regards to gender harassment and for who they are. I can never say that I totally understand the issues that black people face in regards to institutional racism, police brutality, the justice system, and so on. Those things I have not personally experienced myself because of who I am to society; an upper class white male. I get that. But I can still empathize and get closer to an understanding of the problems they face because of issues outside of their control by listening to them and learning of what THEY have experienced, and having an active voice.

When I was younger, I became a feminist after hearing the stories of my friends who were sexually harassed -- for example, one was cat called and called "a fine piece of ass" when she was NINE. I wanted to learn and I've educated myself more about these various issues over the years so I can be better informed. Because of my social identity I will never have that kind of harassment directed at me, but I greatly empathize in their struggle and I will join THEIR fight in changing the system the better. That's what I am, and that's part of my own beliefs as why I consider myself far left. If you see the far left as what was talked about before, then fine, I am not far left to you. But I still consider myself far left in what my views constitute.