All the old ideologies failed. We thought class and identity were united, but they became opposed.

We are lost in a torrential vortex of confusion and bickering. Our former allies and comrades turn on us suddenly. Roving gangs of thought police stalk the Internet for any dissenter, calling us fascists, threatening to leak home addresses and incite violence against us. Entire personal, political, and professional networks get ripped to shreds over casual speech and Internet rumor chaos fractals, leaving people isolated, jobless and homeless in an already brutally fragmented neoliberal social fabric.

What we previously brushed away as a minor irritant, we now realize is the central strategic question on the Left: identity politics has become the primary obstacle to carrying out even basic political operations such as meeting and organizing actions, or organize a Left that can remotely relate to normal people.

Fortunately, clarity is on the horizon.

Look Within

Everything that annoys us about identity politics is how we, ourselves, once acted.

Most of the Left is dominated by identity politics. We probably emerged from it, too. It’s everywhere. We were all social justice warriors once, if subconsciously.

We deride how social justice warriors and Trump supporters comparably act like shit.

And then we ourselves act like shit, perhaps subconsciously believing that we have to escalate to meet their shit.

Do we class reductionists, who strive to create a third camp against both, benefit from acting like shit?

We do not. Our movement does not.

If you’re hunting evil, the place to start is always the mirror.

A hunting mentality is pretty evil itself. Lighten up.

Practice right speech. If class-versus-identity isn’t being discussed, just focus on class instead.

Practice right thinking. Don’t get so lost in class-versus-identity that you forget actual class struggle.

Freeing Your Headspace

How did all these awful thoughts get in our head? All these profile images, notifications, all this text, all these volatile threads that always teeter on spiraling off into digital screaming matches and violent threats?

What horrific mental clutter. This is no way to live.

In one way, the eruption of the political into the personal, in the form of social media, was amazing in raising many kinds of consciousness.

But what happens when the world is full of a giant noisy conversation, where all the ideas are bad?

Pointless stress, and a pointless escalating polarization that leads to violence against the working class.

We need to disconnect from our emotional investment in those attached to identity politics.

They are not our friends. They will turn on us in a heartbeat. They are the zombies. They will eat us.

But then what do you use this new headspace for? This mental freedom from useless bickering?

Zen is found by emphasizing practice over ideology. Ideology matters, but we should seek action.

We need a laserlike focus on socialist strategy and organizing. Or perhaps actually building class reductionist organization, which itself should practice zen class reductionism, making the class-versus-identity debate secondary, whereas the primary priority is laserlike conversational and mental focus on nothing but overthrowing the bourgeoisie.

Stay on topic. If others derail, politely but firmly return to class.

Expect to do this frequently. Balance diplomacy and firmness. Stay on task.

Peaceful Preachers of Reason and Coexistence

We must remember the words of Christ: Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

We live in a really stupid time.

We must pick our battles, and carry our movement forward.

We must endure insults. We must endure being misunderstood.

We must remain civil despite incivility surrounding us.

We need to use social media less.

We need to be less emotionally invested in online debates.

We need to be less emotional, more emotionally balanced.

We need to breathe, meditate, smoke weed, and depolarize.

However, if we are going to use social media, we need to use it correctly.

Let us build cyberbranch chats and groups of 8-12. Delegates can centrally federate them.

Of what? Of us. It doesn’t need a name, as long as we gather into clusters of human social scale.