I wrote previously about the difficulties of handling class within identitarian frameworks. I called out two main problems. First, poor people do not identify together as a coherent group. Second, to the extent that poorness is an identity, it is one we are trying to eliminate, not empower. Lifting up poor voices and experiences is… Continue reading Class and intersectionality
Author: Matt Bruenig
More on student issues not being poor people issues
Are there poor kids who attend college against all the odds, take on student debt to finance it, and graduate with terrible job prospects under mountains of debt? The answer of course is yes. But that is not the typical case for students. As I have mentioned before, only 3 percent of students in the… Continue reading More on student issues not being poor people issues
The problem with the community consensus approach
Anarchists and other leftists in the United States have seized upon an unfortunate procedural justice crutch: community consensus. That is, they have decided to locate justice in decision-making processes, and have lifted up community consensus as the only just way to go. The community consensus approach puts forward the following principle: everyone that is affected… Continue reading The problem with the community consensus approach
Purity leftism
One of the most frustrating things about being on the left is the profound number of clowns who situate themselves beside me. We’ve got generational warfare clowns. We’ve got New Age gibberish clowns. We’ve got conspiracy theory clowns. And of course, we’ve got hippie drum circle clowns. I call these, and others, clowns because their… Continue reading Purity leftism
Line-by-line rebuttal of Robert Applebaum’s student debt comments
Robert Applebaum, creator of forgivestudentloandebt.com, has positioned himself as an authority of sorts in the student loan debate. I came upon his editorial in The Hill today, and I was frankly surprised by just how misleading and incorrect much of his argument was. Applebaum first identifies what he believes is the culprit of higher tuition:… Continue reading Line-by-line rebuttal of Robert Applebaum’s student debt comments