I mean it’s obvious when you involve yourself with local activist groups. Egos, factions, infighting… We’re not immune to toxicity, no human groups are.
It feels like you’re asking in bad faith. You’ve never ever had toxic interactions within leftist spaces ? That sounds amazing i’d love to know your local scene.
In my town there’s this anarchist collective who own a screen press and rent it out dirt cheap to projects they like. The operator of the machine is a judgemental asshole who talks down to everyone. What can you do ? Volunteers are hard to come by especially with his skill set. So while everyone tries to work around him the experience always ends up being somewhat toxic.
Or there’s this queer/feminist group that i sometimes help out with social media shit. Governance is supposed to be collegial but there’s an inherent power structure to the group which biases all decisions. Making a good point is often less important than making it to the right persons at the right moment, and eliciting the right feelings from them. It’s ultimately toxic especially for the younger ones who learn to power-play rather than focus on objectives. But still, the world is a better place with them in it.
Those are just examples from my limited and superficial experience in these matters. At the end of the day, whatever space you operate in, you have to tolerate some toxicity otherwise everything grinds to a stop.
I mean it’s obvious when you involve yourself with local activist groups. Egos, factions, infighting… We’re not immune to toxicity, no human groups are.
Do you have some concrete examples?
It feels like you’re asking in bad faith. You’ve never ever had toxic interactions within leftist spaces ? That sounds amazing i’d love to know your local scene.
In my town there’s this anarchist collective who own a screen press and rent it out dirt cheap to projects they like. The operator of the machine is a judgemental asshole who talks down to everyone. What can you do ? Volunteers are hard to come by especially with his skill set. So while everyone tries to work around him the experience always ends up being somewhat toxic.
Or there’s this queer/feminist group that i sometimes help out with social media shit. Governance is supposed to be collegial but there’s an inherent power structure to the group which biases all decisions. Making a good point is often less important than making it to the right persons at the right moment, and eliciting the right feelings from them. It’s ultimately toxic especially for the younger ones who learn to power-play rather than focus on objectives. But still, the world is a better place with them in it.
Those are just examples from my limited and superficial experience in these matters. At the end of the day, whatever space you operate in, you have to tolerate some toxicity otherwise everything grinds to a stop.