Theses on the new new left

(1.) There is no hierarchy of oppression. The complexities of difference, the negotiations, misunderstanding, and mistakes that navigating these inevitably involve can only be worked out concretely in a political movement, not abstractly in a conference hall.

(2.) Perfectiblism is a form of idealism. We will never be entirely rid of awkwardnesses, imperfections, unhappiness, anxieties.. The condition of our freedom is our materiality, but our materiality constrains and frustrates our freedom. The point is to develop a politics that allows us to flourish in the face of this reality.

(3.) Safety is a characteristic trope of the conservative tradition. The moralist and the police officer make us 'safe'. Radical politics challenges safety in the cause of humanity.

(4.) The victim does not have an absolute epistemological privilege. No system of oppression survives without inserting itself into the minds of the oppressed.

(5.) Oppression is a social reality. It is neither necessary nor sufficient for someone's being oppressed that they believe themselves to be oppressed.

(6.) The new new left is the morality of victimhood. Socialism is the politics of human frailty.