What bothers you about your "side"?

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Your side of the political spectrum, that is.

I'm not a big fan of the "pro-murder" left or true leftists. While I possess qualities that are typical of the latter, I'm not at the point where I want to put Obama on trial for war crimes, or have him executed or whatever.

Inspired by the "what do you like about the other side" thread

[TNF]

Petty bourgeois "revolutionaries" that would rather sit in an office than stand on a picket line, call out culture, 'safe space' policies, 'check your privilege', identity politics, spending more time arguing on the Internet than doing much of anything meaningful to improve the lot of the people, the fact that the left seems unwilling (or unable) to engage in meaningful organization outside of major metropolitan areas, lifestylism, sectarianism, unwillingness of radicals to go out and organize unions (which is literally what the left is going to have to do if it ever wants to be relevant again), and a general lack of community among left-wingers.

[ingemann]

The pure obnoxious selfrighteousness, the inability to think outside slogans and the complete lack of reflexion over what things mean in a greater context.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Any and all elitist sentiments - that includes use of ubiquitous hackneyed phrases like 'prolefeed' and 'panem et circum'. Dude, we get you think you're hot s*** because you don't watch reality tv and only listen to Mongolian flute ensembles.

In addition whenever the left tends to absurd and demeaning overtures towards the population (omg, we need the White van man! Better wrap ourselves in flags! Working class people love flags right???)

Greens in particular have a nasty habit of self-righteousness, a love of balkanisation and an annoying tendency towards autarky, Luddism and Malthusian thought.

[ingemann]

Greens in particular have a nasty habit of self-righteousness, a love of balkanisation and an annoying tendency towards autarky, Luddism and Malthusian thought.

Quoted for truth, through the Greens at least the positive aspect that they have had new thoughts since the 70ties (even if some of these thoughts are utterly moronic), sadly something which is sadly missing from much of the rest of the Left.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Are we talking about my "side" of the forum, or in RL politics? Because my answers would probably be diametrically opposite.

[VPH]

I think sometimes we get too whiny and pretentious. Like shoving excessive political correctness (some PC is definitely necessary. People shouldn't be racist/sexist and stuff) down peoples' throats. By excessive, I mean throwing people down because they say "you guys" or "dumb". Just ridiculous. Also, some of the pretentious types are on the left. I mean the holier-than-thou PETA militants or some of the Greenpeace militants.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

The smart ass one liners that conservatives throw out.

[H. Ross Peron]

Insulting people with different ideas and in particular assuming those holding radically different views are idiotic. Also the blatant bigotry often displayed against white working-class especially those from the South using terms like "inbred", "yokel", and the like which would rightfully be considered racist if used against nonwhites. Being ignorant of nuances and subcategories in certain large groups like Evangelical Protestants. Anti-modern/anti-Western Civilization tendencies in certain segments of the cultural left are awful since liberalism is fundamentally a product of the West.

[Mechaman]

In general, I find the petty bourgeois concerns of a few internet activists to take too much away from gaining support for the issues that actually matter for the people they claim to be about.  I find it hilarious that some "socialists" seem to spend more time talking about "safe words" and "safe places" and whether some white person's appropriation of black culture is a hate crime than they do about the increase in the cost of living, the amazing destruction the war on drugs has done to minority communities, or how many Democrats have seemed to almost abandon any pretension of opposing Citizens United.

As well, I find their almost outright hatred of working class whites to be quite revealing of the depth of their "liberalism".  Needless to say, my many hours of studying the history of ethnic groups has me convinced that there is really very little innocence in this and that there is a much more nefarious revisionist mentality at play.

[traininthedistance]

Most of the problems I have with "my side" can be summed up, or at least tangentially connected to, one word– NIMBYism.

I also strongly agree with all of CrabCake's points– and would speculate that the balkanization/autarky he decries comes from the same misguided, selfish place as the NIMBYism I decry.  "Think globally, act locally" only works if you're actually thinking globally, and a lot of folks who claim to do so utterly fail on that point.

[NerdyBohemian]

Petty bourgeois "revolutionaries" that would rather sit in an office than stand on a picket line, call out culture, 'safe space' policies, 'check your privilege', identity politics, spending more time arguing on the Internet than doing much of anything meaningful to improve the lot of the people, the fact that the left seems unwilling (or unable) to engage in meaningful organization outside of major metropolitan areas, lifestylism, sectarianism, unwillingness of radicals to go out and organize unions (which is literally what the left is going to have to do if it ever wants to be relevant again), and a general lack of community among left-wingers.

This. Nothing worse than armchair revolutionaries. I'm working every day in a high-poverty school and active in my union.

[Mr. Smith]

On the Left: There's a pretty obvious one, but I'm tired of how circular it gets, and I vowed I'd never bother to talk in-depth about it here again, so I'll put it this way:

They downplay male victims no matter how badly victimized they were by the perpetrator.

And then you have TNF's criticisms on hackery and slacktivism, National Progressive's criticisms regarding bigotry and anti-Southernism, the Kansan guy's criticism's regarding PC worship.

So I'll also add to that:

Fanaticism on Atheism
Considering dissenting opinions "ignorant" or to "lack perspective".
Hipsterism
Hatred of tradition just for hating tradition

On the Right:

Treating everything like it's an auction table and everything has some price.
Bizarre bootstraps mentality
Social Darwinism
Bigotry
Belief that all dissenting opinions are "moral hazards"
Anti-intellectualism
Anti-environmentalism
Hatred of progress, glorification of regression
Xenophobia
Loud-mouth discourse.
Low taxes obsession
Rewarding the rich regardless of the methods they used to get there

And as Clarko so nicely put out: Acting entitled to winning elections (the old '04 regular-06 midterms posts make any liberal 2014 posters bush in comparison)

[Maxwell]

I'll go ahead and make this about libertarians. Because I think of my self as someone who is willing to change my mind on a thing or two if facts show me the other way, I think libertarians are far too attached to their orthodoxy. I'm not a fan of abolishing the Fed, the IRS, or any of the enforcement mechanisms of our monetary system. I also think that we could do a better job messaging how libertarian ideas would actually help people, rather than just saying libertarian ideas. Because people don't care about broad terms like "free market" unless that has something to do with them and how it makes it easier for them to start their own business and put food on the table.

[Cory]

Petty bourgeois "revolutionaries" that would rather sit in an office than stand on a picket line, call out culture, 'safe space' policies, 'check your privilege', identity politics, spending more time arguing on the Internet than doing much of anything meaningful to improve the lot of the people, the fact that the left seems unwilling (or unable) to engage in meaningful organization outside of major metropolitan areas, lifestylism, sectarianism, unwillingness of radicals to go out and organize unions (which is literally what the left is going to have to do if it ever wants to be relevant again), and a general lack of community among left-wingers.

Wow, TNF just utterly summed it up. This.

[IceSpear]

Are we talking about my "side" of the forum, or in RL politics? Because my answers would probably be diametrically opposite.

This.

If we're going by the Forum, it would obviously be the True Leftists. But in the real world they're fairly irrelevant, so I guess I'd pick the nanny state/NIMBY left that wants to ban everything in sight. "Let's ban casinos/the lottery/large sodas/marijuana, those silly poors can't be trusted to make the right choices!"

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Petty bourgeois "revolutionaries" that would rather sit in an office than stand on a picket line, call out culture, 'safe space' policies, 'check your privilege', identity politics, spending more time arguing on the Internet than doing much of anything meaningful to improve the lot of the people, the fact that the left seems unwilling (or unable) to engage in meaningful organization outside of major metropolitan areas, lifestylism, sectarianism, unwillingness of radicals to go out and organize unions (which is literally what the left is going to have to do if it ever wants to be relevant again), and a general lack of community among left-wingers.

Wow, TNF just utterly summed it up. This.

Bad news tnf, Cory just agreed with you

[Marnetmar]

True Leftists

[Rockefeller GOP]

I define myself a New England Republican first, but I'll do this for the GOP as a whole to make it more interesting.  A lot of these tend to come from Republicans who are situated in certain areas of the country (particularly the South):

- Xenophobia/homophobia/being a culture warrior - If people were just that way personally, I'd disagree with them but it'd be another story ... these people see the Republican Party as their last-ditch mechanism to preserve a regressive society that's largely vanished.  Immigrants are bad, gay marriages are bad, schools without prayer are bad; it's just embarrassing, and it forces Republican politicians who very likely DON'T share those views to pander to these folks.

- Not caring enough about the environment - to the chagrin of Atlas, I'm a very pro-business person, as my background is in finance, and I believe that the economy is better off under moderately conservative fiscal policies.  The one exception is environmental protection.  I care deeply about keeping our natural beauty in tact, and it really disgusts me how the far right (and far left, in response) has turned this into a "liberal" position.  CONSERVation should not be taboo to a CONSERVative, yet many have labeled it as some hippy/granola viewpoint.

- General "us against them" mentality - the idea that Democrats/liberals love America less or don't have people's best interests at heart ... God forbid they just disagree with you on how to get there.  The left is very guilty of this mindset, too.

- This is my own personal grievance that I'll likely be crucified for, but I see zero place in the GOP for people who aren't at least to some degree "pro-business" or for people who don't feel government should strongly protect civil rights ... Those are literally the only two things with which we can connect ourselves to our noble founding.  Alright, blast away...

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Ah but rocky, what bothers you about the side you actually identify with?

[Marokai Backbeat]

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[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Construction of some sort of opposition between concern about language and concern about action (I blame the people who are primarily concerned about language for starting this, but the people who are primarily concerned about action traffic in it too—we see it in some posters' apparent belief that it’s somehow counterrevolutionary to not be okay with slurs). Insistence on social-liberal and cultural-liberal litmus tests that seem to become increasingly stringent and specific as time goes on. An apparently unselfconscious reduplication of the far right’s tendency to presume dissent automatically immoral. Attempts to reduplicate the right’s historically superior use of simplifying buzzwords that end up forcing it and sounding hyperaggressive and embarrassing (‘anti-choice’). Seemingly almost complete lack of concern with trying to meet working people where they are rather than just assuming that they’ll magically come around eventually even if none of the rhetoric or strategy change. Conflation of spiritual problems with practical problems, or, alternatively, acting like only one of the two matters. Preoccupation with diversity of lifestyle, in and of itself arguably a good thing, but betrayed by disinterest in diversity of worldview. Synchronic historiography and internalized Whiggishness.

[politicus]

Synchronic historiography and internalized Whiggishness.

Not quite sure what you are getting at here.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

People who would rather nominate an ideologically "pure" candidate and loose an election than nominate a moderate and win an election. Also, the people who prioritize statistics and theorizing above actually reaching out to people and improving their lives.

[DC Al Fine]

For social conservatives:

1) Adopting the platform of the free market right with nary a second thought, which shuts out voters who might otherwise be amenable to our message. Our economics should ape the Christian Democrats and One Nation Tories.

2) We have this counterproductive tendency (especially among our older folks) to act like the silent majority enforcing the will of the people rather than a minority that needs carve out space for itself.