Why I’m So Disappointed With The Left

My Journey From Left-Wing To Politically Homeless

Back in the early 2010’s, as a man in his early 20’s I placed myself firmly on the political left.

The internet had truly taken the world by storm, and all over Youtube truths were being spread far and wide. I learned about the increasing gap between rich and poor, the truth about the mainstream media and how the military industrial complex makes money from war.

I learned about big pharma, how the food industry makes people sick and obese, and how fast fashion companies like H&M and Zara created their clothes using the slave labour of 3rd world countries.

I was a fan of The Young Turks and was inspired by Cenk Uyger’s rant about the role of the mainstream media in allowing the Iraq War to take place.

I believed in the words of Martin Luther King: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

I was supportive of accepting homosexuals into mainstream culture. To me, being shunned just because of who you found attractive was ridiculous and absurd.

Just like the rest of the political left, I believed in free speech. The mainstream media was controlled by powerful forces, but I believed the left would always speak truth to power and unravel their lies. I believed that all speech should be allowed and nothing should be censored or cancelled.

Giant corporations had a strangle-hold on the world, but I was hopeful. A giant left-wing force was spreading online and people were waking up. The younger generation, like me, were being educated by Youtube, not by controlled mainstream media.

I felt that, as the older generations, stuck in their rigid world-views, faded away, millennials would inherit the world and create something spectacular.

Then, in around 2015, something changed. The left became “Woke”

I began to hear that “it’s impossible to be racist to white people because they hold all the power”. This confused me, but I nodded along, assuming I was missing something.

People started to tell me that I had “male privilege”. I shrugged my shoulders. I mean, I didn’t feel particularly privileged compared to my female peers, but again, I assumed I was missing something.

People started to say “You’re a man, so you can’t have an opinion about women’s issues”. This seemed strange to me. After all, women always seemed to have opinions about men’s issues.

At this stage, I still considered myself left-wing. My beliefs from my early 20’s hadn’t really changed. But the left began to become more and more strange.

I began to hear that “Being colourblind is racist. You can’t pretend not to see race”. I started to argue back, after all, I believed in the ideals of Martin Luther King.

Then it was “You need to call me by my preferred pronouns or you’re a transphobe”. I started to feel angry. Why did these people think it was ok to tell me what I had to say. After all, I believed in free speech, something that I still thought to be a left-wing idea.

The left started to get even more strange: “Don’t use the word obese! It’s fatphobic. And fatphobia is rooted in whiteness!”. Now I was angry. After years of learning about the evils of the food industry and how it was making people obese all across the world, now I wasn’t even supposed to use the word “obese”? Wouldn’t that just be hiding from the problem? Wouldn’t that allow junk food manufactures to make even more profit?

It was around this point, roughly 2018, that I began to consider this new “woke” mindset that had emerged as a kind of mental illness — a kind of ideological contagion that had infected millions of minds. These people screamed absolute nonsense at the top of their lungs, and, without any self-awareness whatsoever, seemed to passionately believe what they were saying was true.

Then I was told “If you don’t date trans-women you’re transphobic!”. Are you kidding me? I thought. Now you’re trying to tell me who I’m supposed to be attracted to?

Soon it became common to hear “You’re just a cis, white, heterosexual man, so just shut your mouth”. Once again, as a believer in free speech (which used to be a left-wing idea), this pissed me off to no end.

It was around 2020 when I finally realised that I could no longer call myself left-wing. My positions had barely changed since I first became interested in politics in 2012, and yet I found myself totally unable to identify with the left. I had stayed the same, while they had lost their minds.

I began to find myself agreeing with right-wing speakers far more than the left. I still disagreed with them on certain things, but at least they seemed to be sane.

And so here I am, in 2023, politically homeless. No longer able to call myself left-wing.

The most disappointing thing about all this is that the left doesn’t talk about anything important anymore.

What about the military industrial complex? What about big pharma? The food industry? The fast fashion industry? What about the gambling industry?

The left doesn’t care about these things anymore. They’re too busy with social issues: feminism, trans-rights, race issues. And none of these things have any affect on powerful corporations or powerful people.

Giant corporations and the richest people in the world have no problem letting the left ramble on about social issues because it doesn’t threaten them whatsoever.

That’s why companies like Nike, who exploit slave labour in 3rd-world countries in order to make their clothes, have absolutely no problem painting an LGBT rainbow on their marketing

That’s why the US military is happy to put out pro-LGBT messages while the military industrial complex continues to make billions of dollars from encouraging more war.

So here we are, it’s been 11 years since I first became interested in politics in 2012.

And the military industrial complex still profits from war. The obesity problem is worse than ever, but the profits of food manufactures remain sky-high. Big Phrama has become even more powerful. The US government is still deeply corrupt because of lobbying. But the left doesn’t care about these things anymore.

They’re too busy complaining about how airplanes are sexist, or cultural appropriation, or about how maths is racist. In other words, they spend their time talking about things that pose absolutely no threat to the powerful people who run our world.

That’s why I’m so disappointed with the left.

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