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Comment by kcplate | Hacker News Reader

> Taibbi is clearly a partisan hack that only attacks one side, ever.

You should probably expand your reading to his articles in Rolling Stone, particularly those from 4-5 years ago. You would not say “ever” if you did that. But…for a writer that admittedly leans left in his politics, he is willing to call out that side when a story leads there.

He is much like Glenn Greenwald in that respect. Both he and Glenn get a lot of hate from folks on the left for daring to stray from the left messaging orthodoxy.

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He falls into the class of writers who claims to lean left but in the past years has actually been a pretty obvious supporter of the right. This is a transparent yet effective schtick - for some reason people never question the framing of "even so-and-so is willing to call out their own side".

Since COVID, I find the who left and right thing hugely confusing.

I used to identify as left, and would still do that, except that what passed for left-leaning news during COVID became nothing more than propaganda, and left-leaning journalist put their investigative and sceptical credentials to one side.

During COVID, and still perhaps even now, it turns out you can become a member of the far right, just by staying politically still.

> Since COVID, I find the who left and right thing hugely confusing.

There really seem to be some strange shifts recently in the US where the democrats have become quite a bit more hawkish and intolerant of alternative opinions than I have ever seen before in my lifetime.

Couldn't have anything to do with the lack of action against constant mass shootings, police brutality, regressions in law's around women's bodies, the attacks on LGBTQ rights, no couldn't be.

Honestly, fuck outta here with "alternative opinions" noise.

So, a sort of non-specific lashing out in frustration at not getting their own way?

Could be that. Well demonstrated!

I think you might be over generalizing “the right”. He certainly aligns on specific things with the right, but not everything—only where there is common overlap to his personal politics. Same as on the left…

It’s ok to be on a “side” and still be critical of that side. No one would rightly accuse Bill Maher or Jimmy Dore of being conservatives, but they are damn sure critical of certain perspectives as of late of the American left.

It's fascinating to see what different bubbles we live in. I and most everyone I respect and run into the opinions of would consider Maher and Dore small-c conservatives.

Bizarre. Both were very vocal supporters of Bernie Sanders in 2016/2020 DNC primaries and have multiple occasions pushed democratic socialism as their ideal political paths for America, but because they are also occasionally critical of leftist authoritarianism tactics or ineptitude of democratic politicians they get lumped to be conservative?

I guess if your bubble is pulling it’s identity from the leftist dogma du jour anyone who departs from that orthodoxy would be dismissed as conservative.

It's quite well known that many prominent Bernie supporters turned into right wing or right wing adjacent.

Did they shift their opinions…or did the left simply shift leftward so that democratic socialism proponents now seem conservative? I’d argue that most probably did not shift their politics and opinion, but the definition of who is left and who is right changed—at least from the “orthodox” left’s perspective.

Amazing that in 2023, Bernie Sanders and his supporters are now considered conservative.

Democratic socialism is not conservative. There's this specific weird case that a number of Sanders' prominent supporters turned out to be really weird people. A number of them, including Brienna Joy Gray, are supporting RFK Jr in the upcoming election. This is an example of how politics doesn't map perfectly onto a left-right line.

> This is an example of how politics doesn't map perfectly onto a left-right line

That really is my point, the center political position is always arbitrary…in general and on any given single political opinion. So most normal people don’t break exactly along the dogmatic lines set by whatever is the governing authority of right and left.

My political opinion is driven above all else by pragmatism that does not break cleanly in right or left or by party. As such where i sit on the political spectrum is always relative to the person evaluating my opinion.

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