White nationalism bad. Rainbow diversity good. No fucking shitweasels.

Yo, hello! I’m sorry I haven’t been hanging out here recently, but I’ve been doing Stuff and Things. Yes, yes, it’s all very important, I am a very big man woman.

I joined Twitter a little over a week ago, at the behest of my friend Gallifreyan Jedi, who’s been showing me the ropes there. In order to get fully acquainted with Twitter and especially to figure out this “left Twitter” crap, I began by following most of the people GJ is following.

And, holy fucking shit, did I ever stumble smack-dab into a huge goddamned Twitter war that’s been waging for three solid weeks now and shows no signs of letting up anytime soon. Quite frankly, I’m surprised this hasn’t been diaried before on Daily Kos, because it’s probably headed for the MSM proper at this rate. CounterPunch has already picked it up, as well as being involved directly in said Twitter war, and ProgressiveArmy and several prominent bloggers have weighed in.

Here’s the scooby:

A popular Australian writer named Caitlin Johnstone — who calls herself a “Rogue Journalist” and seems to have a hard time understanding American politics — thinks the Bernie left should collaborate on taking down the “Deep State” and the MSM with one Mike Cernovich, the white nationalist rape apologist who probably has Roger Stone on speed dial.

…..

I KNOW!!!!!

So, naturally, the internet response resembled the digital equivalent of a big glass of You Can Fuck Right Off, Caitlin. This is not a discussion or a debate, this is a line in the sand you simply cannot cross, for so many fucking goddamned reasons, I can’t even. It’s a non-starter. We’re not going there because we don’t need big shitweasels in our coalition who hate people of color and think the very concept of rape is a lie.

No no. No no no. NO NO NO NO NO! We are not going to do this, Caitlin, go learn to crochet or some shit. Lefties do not need to ally with those who would seek to do harm to our POC, LGBTQ, and female populations. I shouldn’t have to say these goddamned words out loud, for the love of Mike!

Grr. Argh.

The problem here, of course, is that Caitlin Johnstone has a very vocal following, and there are quite a few leftie folks who agree with Caitlin about working with Cernovich and the Alt Right. Weirdly, many of Johnstone’s followers seem to support her regardless of her batshit and highly offensive statements and truly out-of-town conspiracy theories postures. I will not highlight them here, but you can Google them, they are legion and they are fucked up.

Gallifreyan Jedi wrote an awesome and much more measured response to Johnstone’s downright odd assertion that the so-called “Alt Left” should partner with the Alt Right for sleepovers and mani/pedis and texting cute boys and general teenage shenanigans. My initial response to being presented with this information about Cailtin wanting to team up with White Nationalist Darth Maul was, ya know, “ABSOLUTELY NOT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!?”

One blogger’s rebuttal essay to Ms. Johnstone posited that her writing about this exposed a long-simmering schism within the Bernie left, and that schism has been there since before the 2016 General Election. Most of Bernie’s followers went onto vote for Hillary Clinton or even Jill Stein after he lost the primary, but not all of them did — some of them hated Hillary Clinton so much that they eventually broke for Donald Trump, and it’s true. Such a schism does exist, but it is far outnumbered by folks like me who loved Bernie and also fear Donald Trump. People like Caitlin Johnstone are the exception, not the rule, and it’s important to know that.

The sad part about all of this is that friendships are being lost over this schism; I personally stand to potentially lose a few friendships with folks I adore over this bullshit. I don’t know what to tell these people, except that I can’t put this off anymore. I have muzzled myself in an attempt to not offend you, but I’m not saving anyone’s feelings, really — I’m just prolonging the inevitable.

What Caitlin Johnstone is suggesting is ludicrous and disgusting: I don’t want to have a picnic in the park with the fucking KKK, no thank you! I’m good! Let’s not do this, those people are awful! You cannot make a deal with The Devil and think everything will be hunky-dory afterwards, because that just isn’t how this works. This isn’t brain surgery, though; do the work and fucking figure it out for yourself.

There is no discussion here. There is no debate here. This is a non-starter. We will not partner with the Alt Right because we have standards, goddamnit! We will not betray our brothers and sisters who are vulnerable to society’s garbage truck, and we will not work with someone who drives that fucking garbage truck and loves all the neat sounds it makes.

NO!

You can save yourself the hassle of bothering with this leftist Bernie woman, Caitlin Johnstone — I don’t take your tedious bullshit seriously anymore, and neither do most of us who are committed to leftist activism. Your ripple effect can suck it.