23 Comments

Sorry folks, the link to the video got screwed up. Here's the correct one: https://www.givesendgo.com/NTOSpeakerSeries

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Thanks Neshma, great video! I've shared this with some other community organizers I know in Oakland. I like the West Oakland farm!!

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Thanks Marilyn! Neighbours need to come together to fight what’s going on and NTO have had lots of successes…

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Great group of people. They often host good speakers too...

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Yep, many of them are featured in the video above. Did you go to any events Sean? I missed both of them last year but quite a few Saners went.

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I found them right as moved out of Oakland so it was too late. I am in Davis now, temporarily, so I am not down in the Bay quite as often. Nice to hear from you 😀

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Ah... well, hopefully we’ll see you again down here one of these days.

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I find it very confusing that are people using the word "progressive" to describe the elite class -- how does that make any sense? There is NOTHING PROGRESSIVE about elite neoliberals!

Most progressives today (I consider myself Progressive) believe in the same platform of the Progressive Party of 1948 -- according to Wikipedia:

"The Progressive party sought racial desegregation, the establishment of a national health insurance system, an expansion of the welfare system, and the nationalization of the energy industry."

In other words, Progressives are against racism, denounce a society where children do not have enough nutritious food to eat or adequate health care coverage, and think our energy bills are too high since we are a captive market for PG&E.

So ... what part of that platform does he disagree with?

Please -- The Elites are NEOLIBERALS, they are *NOT* PROGRESSIVES.

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I think the meanings of labels such as “progressive” or “liberal” keep shifting, along with the views of people who consider themselves “progressive”. Most people who call themselves liberal here, seem to be not at all liberal, behaving as they do now in the most authoritarian of ways... especially in the last 4 years). I don’t even know what a “leftie” here in the Bay Area stands for these days. (It seems to be for, as many of us joke, simply the current thing). All that to say, I am very confused by such labels too.

In any case, having been immersed in the social justice scene for a long time here, I’m pretty much appalled by what I see as “results” from progressive solutions eg in the domains of homelessness, crime or the fentanyl crisis as mentioned in the post. None of their “solutions” have worked, and have in fact made things far, far worse.

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Well ... but I don't see m/any of the solutions proposed by progressives actually ever carried out. Housing reform for example is an absolute mess -- nothing substantive is taking place even by progressive standards. Only "solutions" that won't interrupt business-as-usual proftmaking -- so in other words, nothing. It's all a sham. It's not the ideas or platforms or policies of progressives, in most cases -- it's the fact that none of the solutions are ever done effectively. Then add to that the extremely divisive identity politics (which I feel in most cases is orchestrated / promoted behind the scenes by propaganda and spin doctors) and all we have is sides name-calling at each other and hating on each other instead of blaming those who are really to blame -- the puppet masters.

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I have a lot of views on housing/homelessness here since I was in that scene for a long time. All I see in terms of results is a downward trajectory.

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By the way, I wonder what you made of uTobian’s post yesterday linking progressivism to autistic traits: https://open.substack.com/pub/tobyrogers/p/many-of-the-central-tenets-of-progressivism

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Yes that really caught my attention as well! Still thinking it all over ...

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You are correct. The progressivism of the 1960s and before got hijacked and,.over time, replaced by postmodern ideologies and identity politics. Progressivism is basically class and economics based. Identity politics has nothing in common with traditional progressivism, but because the changes happened gradually people on the "left" did not perceive how they were being brainwashed by toxic ideologies: so called "multiculturalism," Critical Theory, intersectionality, etc

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Really good point about the use of incrementalism, the cleverest way to socially engineer unsuspecting folks.

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Well done on the video, Neshma! Grass roots initiatives are so inspiring! I hope it catches on!!

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Thanks Tonika! Yes I hope so. The tide is surely turning!

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Indeed -- very steeply downward!

Heartbreaking.

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That is so cool!

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where do we go to find the speaker schedule?

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I found the sign up for it, thanks for letting us know about this

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Glad you found it!

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Thanks ESG!

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