Passenger on Nostr: (Chris, please tell me if you don't want to be part of this tangent thread.) The easy ...

(Chris, please tell me if you don't want to be part of this tangent thread.)

The easy answer is that empathy and solidarity are the Left's main weapons. These are very powerful weapons too.

Beyond that, though, I think a lot of it has to do with who you see as "like you." For example, I am White and I need to work if I want to be able to afford my rent. My landlord is White and wealthy. My neighbour is Black and also working-class. Which of the two is "like me"?

I think this is why a lot of Right-wing tendencies will seize on and aestheticise economic descriptors, for example by taking the term "working class" and redefining it as an aesthetic or cultural description, rather than one that describes everyone who needs to work for a living. As soon as they start seeing a poor White kid from a decaying estate as being the same as a poor Black kid who arrived as a refugee then they're on a very quick path away from the Right.

Likewise, it's why Left-wing tendencies will encourage concepts of internationalism, of the fellowship of ideas, and of seeing commonalities with minoritised groups. We view being heterosexual as no more or less weird than being homosexual or bi or pan or ace or demi or anything else, for example, despite heterosexuality being much more common, because as soon as we start viewing the world in "normal" and "not normal" terms then we're on a very quick path away from the Left.