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Iván Vitta's avatar

Reading you has been a breath of fresh air. Thank you, comrade.

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Dante Lazlo's avatar

This piece really hits home for me. So much of this hyper-fixation on individual liberties and freedoms is making so many people forget about the greater collective. What use is there for "constructive criticism" when it never focuses on or targets the current systems of oppression that drives so much of the social conditioning and material realities people experience and deal with? Focusing on lambasting people for engaging in the social structure before them, rather than working to educate, inform and message in effective ways to try and help them see another perspective, really and truly feels antithetical to what the Socialist movement is all about.

What you wrote here stood out to me as well:

"On an individual level, this eschewing of materialism in favor of moralism manifests in the idea that if a person has backwards beliefs, they actively chose to be bad because they were born that way. If they’re bad they can never become “good” — they are permanently marked. An over-emphasis on the morality of individual choices that render a person “good” or “bad”, but cloaked in intellectual radical language is a poorly disguised surrender to the status quo."

Hasan's emphasis on 'rehabilitation over incarceration' feels like it can be applied more broadly as well, especially in this particular area. Why lock people away (brand them as irredeemably "bad") for disagreeing with you, when you can engage in a rehabilitative process that helps educate another person and perhaps, gets them to see another perspective as being possibly legitimate? Tying things back into the assassination of UHC CEO Brian Thompson is another great entry point that I fully agree on. Like you said, that moment showed us just how many people in this country understand and recognize "social murder" - providing us an opportunity to use this moment for education and proper guidance. Some people just need a little push in a positive direction, and us Socialists should be looking for any and all opportunities to provide said push.

Another wonderfully articulated and written piece Scarlet! Your writing is leaving me with plenty of things to think about, so I'll be looking forward to any and all pieces you publish going forward!

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