Yeah. Itās definitely legitimate to have criticisms of him and I wouldnāt entirely disagree with your assessment, itās just worth keeping in mind that the kind of criticisms we might have arenāt even in the same intellectual ballpark as those of the right wing attacks on him.
As far as him being the face of the movement, I think itās just a sad reality of left organizing, or the lack thereof, in America as well as the issue of organizing primarily around electoral politics. Socialist movements are mass politics. Itās not about specific people, itās about everyone working together towards a common cause. Elections, and the media that discusses them, end up being more cults of personality. Itās great that weāre getting more leftists/progressives elected, but the way that gets portrayed focuses almost exclusively on the politician themselves as a charismatic figure with the right moral character rather than all of the work done by people to get them there. A similar thing happens with media. I think itās just easier to follow and make a narrative around some individual than around a large ill defined group.
How do we fix that? Idk. Itās not like we donāt have any media which puts the focus on the broader movement activities, itās just that they donāt tend to break containment to the broader public who arenāt super nerdy lefties or people directly involved with whatever is being discussed.
Yeah. Itās definitely legitimate to have criticisms of him and I wouldnāt entirely disagree with your assessment, itās just worth keeping in mind that the kind of criticisms we might have arenāt even in the same intellectual ballpark as those of the right wing attacks on him.
As far as him being the face of the movement, I think itās just a sad reality of left organizing, or the lack thereof, in America as well as the issue of organizing primarily around electoral politics. Socialist movements are mass politics. Itās not about specific people, itās about everyone working together towards a common cause. Elections, and the media that discusses them, end up being more cults of personality. Itās great that weāre getting more leftists/progressives elected, but the way that gets portrayed focuses almost exclusively on the politician themselves as a charismatic figure with the right moral character rather than all of the work done by people to get them there. A similar thing happens with media. I think itās just easier to follow and make a narrative around some individual than around a large ill defined group.
How do we fix that? Idk. Itās not like we donāt have any media which puts the focus on the broader movement activities, itās just that they donāt tend to break containment to the broader public who arenāt super nerdy lefties or people directly involved with whatever is being discussed.