Perhaps I misunderstood him, and I absolutely was using a lot of hyperbole, but the western left is obsessed with purity and finding “revisionism”. As if being more “pure” will somehow make us more successful, instead of just leading to empty idealism. I’m not saying we shouldn’t be serious about our goals, but to act like we should be serious all the time and aren’t allowed to joke around or vent or be people is not something that wins the people over to our cause. Purity tests don’t help our cause.

Winning over the people helps our cause. We are a people’s movement and need to act like people, not stodgy “academics” obsessed with taking theory 100% seriously all the time. I’ve never managed to get someone to read theory by insisting that they must because it is a Very Serious and Important Topic and they are a Bad Person for not reading it. I have gotten plenty of people to read theory (quite a few completely of their own volition) after joking with them about it, and showing them that is isn’t some unaccessable academic jargon, but just ideas, ideas similar to those they’ve probably already had about our system. Treating it like a sacred holy rite doesn’t make it compelling and ultimately hurts us, it doesn’t help us.