Reckoning with Bigotry in Leftist Spaces (Originally posted to The People's Herald)

Online harassment has always been a huge problem. Ever since the glory days of AIM chatrooms and geocities, slurs have been shouted, death and rape threats have been cast and the unsolicited pictures of genitalia from a certain demographic have run rampant. This sort of bigotry, however, is not just from the right wingers and edge lords of online space, they exist within leftist spaces too.

As a woman on the internet, I have gotten my fair share of harassment. Death and rape threats are common, right next to fat “piggy” jokes and “make me a sandwich” jabs. I have learned that it is better to ignore the trolls who are only there because they want to disrupt the conversation and center the focus on themselves. They have no desire to hear me reading, or hear my co-host and I discussing theory, praxis or our opinions. It is pretty much expected if you are not white, and not a cis man, you are likely going to deal with bigotry.

What I do wish, however, was if the leftist spaces I found myself in, understood that there is bigotry there as well.

Since I began my journey into becoming a socialist, openly online, one of the things I have found to be most disappointing in leftist spaces is that it is not immune to the same bigotry as right wingers spew. The class reductionist crowd refuse to see the necessity of talking about how race, gender and sexuality play a role in suffering outside of just class and how eradicating capitalism, will not, in fact end the racism and patriarchy that our society seems to be deeply entrenched within.

During the late 1800s when the socialist movement and largest labor movements in US history were stirring, women were forced to create their own unions and their own space because the cis men there would refuse to see them as more than woman stuck at home by the hearth. Some prominent Socialist women and feminists of this era also agreed with these men in part. White people for the most part, excluded black people from being involved in labor movements and created a very white male centric space with which to work within, limiting their abilities to only class and not the societal harm that sexism and racism perpetrate. The introduction of feminism into leftist spaces, actually caused some white men to turn to more fascist ideology because the idea of sharing space with a woman and her ideas was not as important as white male solidarity.

That same mindset is still very prevalent in today’s twitch and twitter-sphere when it comes to online leftist politics. White streamers, particularly of the cis male variety, often reduce arguments of their class reductionism down to being harassed by wokescolds and tankies. Cis men regularly refer to women or trans women they do not like as bitches and pussies, adopting sexist language to attack what they might consider a bad take. Some larger streamers who ascribe themselves to leftist ideology, enjoy dunking on smaller streamers who disagree with them, or platforming Nazis or Nazi-adjacent folks in order to hear their side, all while exposing their audience to more Nazi propaganda.

Anyone who criticizes certain larger streamers, end up getting harassment campaigns levied against them, even by the streamer themselves. Most often it is women, non-white creators and trans creators who are more often susceptible to the harassment, especially if they are feminine presenting. Even saying that you dislike a larger streamer can result in a brigading or in their fans inundating your replies with hate and malice. A lot of people in online space, even in leftist space, do not feel comfortable criticizing the racism, sexism or transphobia of some larger streamers just because doing so is a green light by some communities to harass the person levying the criticism, even in it’s mildest form.

Cis people make transphobic takes all the time, and when they are called out on that take, their immediate response is to insult the people who are telling them they are being bigoted. June was just a hellscape of “kink at pride” discourse where prominent leftists online debated whether people were able to express themselves in public and compared wearing leather at pride to having sex in a public space. It was ridiculous as a premise and an excuse for homophobic and transphobic bigotry to come to the forefront of the conversation. It leans into the idea that queer people were somehow pedophilic or sexually deviant because they liked to wear dog collars.

Sexual harassment seems to be an issue as well. Some larger streamers over the past year have been found to engage in behavior that ranges from sexual harassment to assault, and the victim blaming and shaming has been absolutely abysmal. Whenever any male streamer of the cis male variety was called out for engaging in sexist behavior, there were immediate detractors. “She’s lying” or “she’s a plant” or “she’s just doing it for the clout” spring up, sucking the oxygen out of the room, shifting focus from the victim to the feelings of the perpetrator and his fans. Ther is’s always some big apology stream or twitter statement and then all is forgotten, swept under the rug. It is never enough for the victims, but the narrative is always “Well they are on our side and we have be restorative in our justice don’t we?”

I think framing incidents of sexism and racism around the idea of reformative justice in an online space, does a disservice to the victims and ones harmed by the sexism, racism, and transphobia. Just because a leftist believes in restorative justice does not mean that the things that they did deserve to be brushed to the side just because they apologize. Restorative justice does not mean justice if the focus is on the feelings of the perpetrator rather than the feelings of the victim. That just makes it an excuse to never truly be held accountable for one’s actions.

Racism is also a major factor in online space. Whenever non-white creators speak out about a topic on Imperialism, some white creators go out of their way to talk over those with lived experience in more socialist countries and ascribe to the imperialism the US government takes part in. Black women are constantly harassed, not only by right wingers, but by leftists, their words twisted. Any criticism of whiteness is seen as an attack on white people who do not want to reckon with their privilege. Black people are often completely erased from any talks on race on debate panels. Indigenous people have to fight for any sort of real visibility and are never as widely supported as white creators, not even by the white creators themselves.

It is not just racism and sexism that exist in leftist spaces. A lot of discourse completely and totally leaves out the struggles of disabled people. Be they physically disabled or neurodivergent, their struggles are probably more brushed to the side than anyone else. If a disabled person goes into a chat and asks that ableist language not be used, they are often met with dismissal, snorts of disproval and eye rolling mockery. They are told they are just going to far with their political correctness. When creators are duking it out with each other in a debate, ableism is used often as an ad hominem. Words associated with someone’s intelligence, with their mental state are thrown around constantly. Frankly in the minds of those people it is just as fine to say the r-word as if it were not a slur at all.

Slurs are not just for right wingers either. Plenty of white people on the left make jokes about using the n-word and say “a word is a word, it has no power.” Prominent leftist podcasters who do history podcasts use it within a historical context because “that’s what it says so I’m going to read it that way.” This completely ignores the fact that they, as white people, should not be using it at all. Why do white people regardless of political spectrum want to say a slur about black people so badly? Why do you want to use slurs at all?

If we, as leftists, are meant to be better and to do better, then we must stop looking at things through a white cis heteronormative point of view with a focus on class struggle. Racism and class struggle are intertwined. Sexism and class struggle are intertwined. Queerphobic and Transphobic bigotry mix with class struggle as well. Using slurs does not make you edgy, it makes you someone unworthy of trust. It makes you racist. It makes you sexist. You do not have to use derogatory language and slurs to get your point across. You do not have to attack someone’s looks to get your point across.

The idea of being a leftist, to me, has always been in making the world a better place. It is about harm reduction and eradication, it is about ending capitalism and creating a world of equity and understanding. A compassion for those who need more and the willingness to give those who need it what they need. Compassion and empathy are integral parts of being a leftist, and to use bigotry and to justify that bigotry because of “class struggle” will undermine every single leftist movement you take part in. A leftist movement without solidarity with marginalized people is not a movement I want any part of.

Listen to marginalized people and their struggle. Stand with Women, with Black people, with Indigenous people and other non-white people. You need to stand with our Trans brothers and sisters, our Queer comrades and our Disabled and Neurodivergent Comrades. Relying on bigotry and sweeping aside the criticism just because you don’t like it or it dares you to challenge your world view isn’t going to get us anywhere. We as leftists, need to do better, and use our platforms responsibly to educate, inform and grow together if we have any hope of successfully moving forward.