General Discussion

An issue that I have with people who are activist minded is that they tend to underestimate just how important electoral politics is. Most people — including progressives — do not like "cultural appropriation" lectures. "Cultural appropriation" makes zero sense as a concept and only serves to make other white people feel like they're being good allies to people of color, when oftentimes, people of color also roll their eyes at it.

This rhetoric, while generally fringe and only existing on social media, also bleeds into real word politics — not in a good way, either. It makes normal disengaged, apolitical people go, "well, why even bother, then? Why should I vote for people who are yelling at me to shut up and sit down?" even though these are isolated incidents that are independent of campaigns — it turns people off of supporting liberal/progressive candidates out of fear they'll be chastised for doing it wrong. It is probably the most alienating concept that exists in politics and Democrats are better off dismissing it rather than trying to turn it into a legitimate discussion.

You cannot support objectively divisive rhetoric and be like, "well, progressives should support this…" when, sure, but we aren't only appealing to progressives. We're trying to appeal to everyone who is tired of Trump's clownery — including middle-of-the-road types (such as suburban women) who are less impressed by academic progressivism. You have to win them over so that you eventually can enact progressive policies — you can't just hope for the best that people outside of the bubble will go along with it.