I’m seeing some alarming posts lately from leftists that are little more than conspiracy theories where everything, even the good aspects of our democracy and gains civil rights movements have made, are just a sham and method of control, and everyone except them, the cynical leftists, are either stupid sheeple who have been hoodwinked into thinking there are any human rights at all or are bad actors cynically utilizing the appearance of democracy for control

not only is this desolately cynical but it’s also kind of arrogant and really, really counter-productive. we (and I say we because I am also a leftist!) cannot sustain a movement without recognizing victories. for one thing, if you don’t celebrate victories, you burn out and you succumb to hopelessness. for another, you don’t learn anything. you basically wipe the next generation clean of any tools or insights they can gain from progressives who came before us. and you don’t recognize opportunities that exist in our system to fight right now without a complete revolution. im not against revolution, but how do you make the revolution happen and how do you ensure it is sustainable or successful? if you just want to burn everything to the ground then you can’t use anything we currently have to achieve your goals and you turn your back on people who want to be your allies. if only the tiniest sliver of our society is “woke” and the rest are sheeple or bad actors, that’s a lot of ppl you’re going to have to kill or coerce for your revolution, isn’t it?

so it’s a dangerous and counter-productive way of thinking. oddly it’s not that different from fascists like trump who think the world is rotten and everyone is ultimately self serving, which is why trump thinks protesters are paid actors. fascists cannot fathom that someone has principles and might be fighting for something bigger than themselves. the only difference is deeply cynical leftists believe this about everyone but themselves. they think that all liberals and moderates are just sheeple or bad actors and they don’t see how some of the achievements or ideas theyve come up with can be utilized, reformed or built on toward our goals. they dont acknowledge the rights and gains we need to protect that can be lost. they dont see the important work that has been done and is being done right now. they dream of a blood-soaked revolution from their armchairs instead of joining those already doing important work. because, to them, those people are just sheeple serving the bad actors controlling society - and everyone has bought into the whole sham except them, the enlightened few who see the charade of it all. <<<that my friends is a conspiracy theory