This honestly may be your best piece to date Scarlet - beautifully written, explicitly precise, and bluntly honest and objective in the best possible way. You expertly dispelled the illusion that is "centrism" by making it undeniable just how barbaric its core beliefs are. I loved your re-invocation of one of your best pieces by reminding us that we owe each other everything, because it's undeniably and immutably true just how much we've forgotten and have been gaslit into forgetting; for the sole purpose of accepting the normalization of structural capitalist violence as "the cost of doing business." Your point about human nature really hits home for me, as that's effectively the world I grew up and was raised in. As a "vote blue no matter who!" establishment type of family, everyone around me kept telling me that "a collectivist society is “a great idea on paper but goes against human nature”" because we're supposed to believe that human nature is inherently "selfish" or "self-interested." I call bullshit. We can all likely recall moments of profound human selflessness and genuine solidarity - from mutual aid networks to everyday people putting their bodies on the line to fight back and protect each other against ICE - that make it easy to see that when we remember that we owe each other everything, what we're capable of feels truly limitless. I couldn't agree more that we must reject the comforting lie that centrism seeks to sell us and keep proclaiming loudly what is happening, so we can keep taking steps, together, towards building that better world. Thank you for all the work you put into these pieces Scarlet. Keep being that clap of thunder in people's minds.
Great article that underlines the radical and extreme nature of capitalist reality today. “Centrism” in this world is nothing more than “fascism with a human face.”
Thank you. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the wilderness wondering how people I used to admire are proposing ways to protect & remain within this parasitic economic system.
Another banger but this one is really well done thank you
This honestly may be your best piece to date Scarlet - beautifully written, explicitly precise, and bluntly honest and objective in the best possible way. You expertly dispelled the illusion that is "centrism" by making it undeniable just how barbaric its core beliefs are. I loved your re-invocation of one of your best pieces by reminding us that we owe each other everything, because it's undeniably and immutably true just how much we've forgotten and have been gaslit into forgetting; for the sole purpose of accepting the normalization of structural capitalist violence as "the cost of doing business." Your point about human nature really hits home for me, as that's effectively the world I grew up and was raised in. As a "vote blue no matter who!" establishment type of family, everyone around me kept telling me that "a collectivist society is “a great idea on paper but goes against human nature”" because we're supposed to believe that human nature is inherently "selfish" or "self-interested." I call bullshit. We can all likely recall moments of profound human selflessness and genuine solidarity - from mutual aid networks to everyday people putting their bodies on the line to fight back and protect each other against ICE - that make it easy to see that when we remember that we owe each other everything, what we're capable of feels truly limitless. I couldn't agree more that we must reject the comforting lie that centrism seeks to sell us and keep proclaiming loudly what is happening, so we can keep taking steps, together, towards building that better world. Thank you for all the work you put into these pieces Scarlet. Keep being that clap of thunder in people's minds.
Really perfectly done piece IMO, thank you.
Great article that underlines the radical and extreme nature of capitalist reality today. “Centrism” in this world is nothing more than “fascism with a human face.”
Thank you. Sometimes I feel like I'm in the wilderness wondering how people I used to admire are proposing ways to protect & remain within this parasitic economic system.
On target; as always. I’d love to discuss this with you via substack live and help promote your clarion take if you’re down. Check your DM 🙏