Instead of organizing boycotts, when will the left divert that energy to organizing support for shows like [Rachel] Maddow, Stephanie Miller, Free Speech TV and other media?If he were a shameless self-promoter I imagine he would have included his own show and the Patreon campaign he and Chez started to get their show into 5 day a week production. I'll include it because I listen to the show and read a lot of their articles on The Daily Banter so if I can help promote them it is the least I can do. The sentiment in his post sparked a lively discussion and I thought I would throw in my two cents worth here because it is somewhat lengthy and would just get lost in the sea of other thoughtful comments.
Since Bob started this push to expand his show and decided to crowd fund or crowd source in lieu of overly commercializing the show they have expounded at length on the difficulty of getting individual financial support. Chez has taken to scolding the audience for being cheap and noting that when a conservative monkey says "pay me" all the other little monkeys snap to and open their wallets. It is kind of a turn off but I get it, obviously. They have had kind of a wake up call as to why there isn't more Progressive media and why it is so hard to get any going. I personally am broke, neck deep in student loans and other debt that I have no hope of ever getting under control. My car is on it's last legs and my computers are dying. I literally cannot spare anything. And I understand how hard it is to generate any revenue from any kind of political writing, since I monetized this blog it has yet to pay anything. But I do this because I want to, not because I think it will make me rich.
I started getting into politics after I got out of the Army, and little by little learned more and figured out where I stand and what I believe in. By the time Howard Dean ran for president I had more or less "matured" on political awareness. Progressing through college then honed that awareness as well as encouraging study on matters I would not have undertaken on my own. I mention Dean not because his candidacy imploded on mainstream media hypocrisy but because I noticed during a meeting of his supporters among our local Democratic Party revealed a great deal about why left/liberal, center/left, etc. people have such a hard time getting anything going.
You see, at that meeting everyone wanted to talk and no one wanted to listen. Each person already had the answers, knew everything, and had no patience for anyone else. It could just be a Wisconsin thing but I think a lot of political ideas are held in isolation by liberals even in a big city. The feeling of being correct but unpopular pervades much of that thinking. So supporting a Progressive media figure or program means to many people an admission that they do not know everything and they have to listen to someone else. People active on the left tend to be more intelligent and better educated than the average American, they also tend to be more anti-authoritarian and do not want to take orders from anyone. However subtle, that is what a leader does. A media figure can be a leader, setting the agenda, formulating strategy, and coordinating followers but liberals resist being handled this way.
Speaking of resistance, maybe again it is just my Wisconsin upbringing but I have noticed a strong tendency among people I know to just be stubborn for stubbornness' sake. I have lived a lot, tried to learn as much as possible, and gain wisdom from experiences and mistakes. But so often I have ran into situations where someone will make a statement like "I wish I could save money on [cable, cell phone, tobacco, or some other thing]" that I have some experience with, so I casually mention a similar situation and how I dealt with it, the person immediately locks up, digs in their heels and dithers as though they just wanted to complain without any intention to do anything about the problem. Occasionally this phenomenon extends to political matters.
When someone complains that the rich are getting richer and they especially are getting left behind, a guaranteed way to watch them turtle up is to suggest raising taxes on the rich while making it easier to join a union or something like this. I believe it is because the right has so successfully seeded the framing of ideas with their own poison that the mere mention of progressive policies to fix social and economic problems is painful to think about. It is not simply through fox news and hate radio that disciples of the right get their message out. I remember enjoying the show South Park for a while, thinking that it stimulated out of the way ideas and had a rebel quality about it. Then I learned about libertarianism and how rotten it is, and how preachy Trey and Matt really are on that show. Even when you know that the things they do are bullshit you can't help mentally picturing images from South Park whenever an idea parodied on that show comes up in another media form. So people outside of the right wing bubble are still influenced by the garbage they peddle, liberals who explore around them and don't compartmentalize ideas the way conservatives do are likely to be infected.
Bob and Chez already talk to death about identity politics and how it balkanizes the left. The problem of "special snowflakes" who fight against the mere idea of being presented with ideas they disagree with. The inability to tolerate less than perfect political correctness among certain tribes of the left and the general condescending, even ham-handed, way liberals go about getting their message out. If you get 20 social justice warriors in a room you will probably get 19 different priorities and no one genuinely will set aside whatever their pet issue is for the sake of unity. There are others for sure, I hate to believe that is true. Perhaps because I am that rare animal, a liberal military veteran, I can tolerate differences among my teammates and set aside my ego enough to work with others but I have seen this "me first" attitude emerge in so many discussions that it is more than an unfounded generalization. The few other center/left veterans I know also have demonstrated a patience and team spirit not often found in civilians. This kind of solidarity can't be exclusive to the military, maybe more union organizing could help in this regard.
Or maybe we could all try to get a Niebuhrian Renaissance going. Reinhold Niebuhr was a champion of real justice and equality in society, and he did it while stressing humility. All three of these ideas are in short supply these days but the latter could be the key to the former. If we could agree that as the saying goes "an injustice to one is an injustice to all" also has the corollary that increasing justice for one increases it for all, then we could see that one issue does not preclude the rest. But we have to prioritize and be inclusive at the same time, more progressive media can be a means to this end. So I encourage everyone to support people like Bob Cesca and all the others he mentioned. If not financially then by other means but be part of the solution with thoughtful and humble interaction. We must all accept that we will make mistakes and be wrong on occasion. It's not the end of the world.
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