One socialist says to the other: “I notice you’re reading TheMotte! I can’t understand why. An alt-right subreddit! Are you some kind of masochist?”

“On the contrary. When I used to read the left-wing websites, all I learned about were concentration camps, mass shootings, and fascism in America. But now that I read TheMotte, I see so much more: that the left wing controls all the tech companies, that we dominate in academia, and that we’re on the verge of taking over the entire world. You know – it makes me feel a whole lot better!”

You guys, this is obviously true. Can’t you tell from all the leftist policies that society enacts like “locking children in cages” or “having a private insurance market” or “not punishing cops who murder black people”? That’s exactly what the left wants, and they have never complained about any of those things ever.

Oh my god, how dense are these people?

The goal of the left is not to dominate media and academia, the goal of the left is to stop people being shot by the cops for no reason or dying in the streets because they can’t afford insulin.

It’s like it’s completely alien to these people that the left might actually believe what we say and genuinely want to help people? Oh, so charitable.

i thought techbros were all persecuted “grey tribers” who were the good guys? this is all so confusing.

This is sadly bog standard right wing thinking, they just don’t get the left at all. Also note the nice setup for a motte/bailey that allows the poster to not think at all about the left via the ‘If you’re a hardcore Stalin-loving Marxist, I get it.’

Much of the left’s power is concentrated in consumer culture and TV, such as HBO, Disney, Target, and Netflix. And to a lesser extent in Washington and cable news.

Hahaha… this is what happens when you think the left only cares about diversity. Famous left wing organization, Disney.

How many political movements can get CEOs of major tech companies to cut short their holidays to fire some rando for posting a bunch of studies that contradict a part of their worldview? Or get an executive fired for donating his private money to organizations that oppose them?Or get people they don’t like cut off from tech infrastructure?

Somebody please think of the poor powerful CEO’s of tech companies who have to react to rare events.

There was a time when conservatives used to have this sort of power, but nowadays the progressive coalition has a virtual monopoly on it.

Conservatives firing gay people is the same as the left firing homophobes. Radical centrism.

There is a lot of ‘the left/progressives’ (because terms have little meaning and these things are the same /s) are both powerful and weak in that thread.

The OP claims to be “seriously trying to understand the thought process here”, which is why they asked /r/TheMotte, preeminent center of leftist thought.

So far, the incredibly charitable answers include: “They’re lying about feeling powerless!”, “They’re slavishly devoted to Whig history and feel betrayed that they haven’t totally triumphed yet!”, “Their organisations stoke fear to continue to exist!” and “they’re secretly aware progressive ideology is doomed!”.

Imagine calling CAP a Leftist organization. Stupid beyond parody

Mmm yes leftists just love it when their ideas and values are recuperated by corporations in order to profit off of left-leaning centrists looking to ease their conscience by altering consumption habits.

“It’s working, it’s working!” they chant, rubbing their hands together, as the US slips into a utopia of equal screentime for minorities and workplaces where saying racist things gets you fired.

I love how this completely obscures the very real animosity between academics, journalists and techbros as groups

It depends on what you mean by “the left”. If “left” is bland cultural liberalism then yeah, the left dominates a lot of institutions. If “left” is Bernie and AOC then no.

The silicon valley bros are on my side? That’s fucking news to me.

When they’re not neoreactionaries, libertarians, sociopaths, or literal vampires, they tend to be enlightened centrist utopians who think that machines and algorithms can solve problems that have social components. Which inherently means never taking sides and always treating your customers (data cows?) as equal, regardless of whether they are 4chan nazis or antifascists.

That’s a political stand, like it or not. And it’s anti-left, and not just against what one commenter in that thread calls “stalin-loving marxists” (real big demographic there, bud). This is how we get situations like Steven Crowder being allowed to be a total piece of shit in front of his millions of subscribers, spewing the vilest hate speech, knowing that his minions will harass his targets without mercy, all while YouTube says “he hasn’t broken any rules” on the one hand and impotently demonetizing him on the other – a “solution” that pisses off every party, ignores basic ethics and morality, and utterly fails to even approach any sense of justice.

Fuck silicon valley. It’s nothing more than an enclave of emotionally stunted nerds who want to build apps that take over the chores their mommies used to do for them, using machines and exploited human labour.

Y’know, there are times when I am really envious of the tools that conservatives have in their arsenal. Whenever I read some tedious whinging about the big mean SJW universities, media, big tech, blah blah blah I can’t help but think of how nice it would be to have some left-wing Trump pull out the “if you don’t like it you can leave” card.

They literally just said exactly the truth. Actual leftists are powerless, but milquetoast neoliberals like HRC, Booker, Harris, etc. have all the power in the world.

Edit: the tone they’re using seems to reveal the person who’s saying it is against the left in general, but even a broken clock is right twice a day

all of these alleged centers of leftist domination are corporate-run industries that are neutering the left.

• TV series like brooklyn 99 with its anti-racism and multicultural representation, while also being pro-police propaganda

• it’s common for movies to get some funding and filming locations from US natsec bodies and the result is blatant propaganda in every film depicting the US military, air force, CIA, FBI. this is public information that

• some academic scholars transform leftism (and especially marxism) into an intellectual pursuit rather than a robust political movement. it is also a hub of reactionary and neoliberal ideology. this is on top of tenorships being highly discriminatory

• silicon valley… honestly i don’t know where to begin, how broken does your brain have to be for this one

• you don’t have to be a “stalin-loving marxist” to see the NYT and other highly respected outlets constantly putting out natsec propaganda, racist shit, misogynist shit, pro-regime change shit, right-wing zionist shit, etc. look at what senior editors have done just this week!

this is just laughable honestly these dudes never bothered to find out who their opponents are and what they believe. they just KNOW feminists control google because james damore was fired for shitting on his colleagues

Left: The right has all three branches of government

Right: Because people love us more!

Left: But doesn’t that mean we’re powerless and isolated?

Right: No! The left has universities and news outlets! That’s cULTurAl power

Left: So if news is cultural power, then what about Fox and Sinclair? If researchers have cultural power, what about the need for grants and funding from corporations or right-wing government institutions?

Right: Well tHE rEPUBlicanS arEN’T gETTIng aNytHINg pASSEd iN cONGresS thAT’s clEARly the dEMOCRats’ fAULt

If you told them woke nonsense is a tool that capitalist gleefully use to neuter the left their heads would explode.