On my fyp recently I’ve been getting a lot of “don’t look left or right, look up” content. When I mean is content about not aligning yourself with the left wing or right wing but rather focusing on the issues at hand instead of political terminology. And while in theory this sounds great and progressive, in reality it’s actually more problematic than it may seem.
For one, a catchline like this essentially equates the left with the right wing. This on its own is already dangerous and doing the work of the right by bad-mouthing the left in this way. Before we fully attack this aspect of the catchline though, it’s also important to understand where it’s coming from.
See, what we should be doing instead of saying we won’t align ourselves with either side of the political spectrum, is calling out people when they mislabel. For instance, calling Democrats the left opposition to Republicans is just wrong, and now more and more people are noticing this. Democrats are text book definition centrists, they support and uphold the capitalist system just as much as Republicans. So just because you don’t like Democrats and Republicans doesn’t mean you don’t support left wing ideology of right wing ideology, it just means both Democrats and Republicans are right wing leaning. It in fact means that you should support the real left all the more to get Democrats and Republicans both out of power. You could look at Mamdani for the example, the beloved mayor of New York City. Yes, he is a Democrat and there’s a lot he could be doing or some things he shouldn’t have done, but at the end of the day he is a Democratic-SOCIALIST who has won the hearts of his people for the immense contributions he has made for the working person in the city. While he was running and even now as he is in office, Republicans and Democrats alike have been attacking him, using ‘communist’ as a slur against him. It really goes to show how both Democrats and Republicans are just two sides of the same coin. But again, that does not mean the left and right are two sides of the same coin (or two wings of the same bird as I’ve seen plastered in TikTok’s comment sections). However this distinction is what’s lacking in the whole “don’t look left or right, look up” reasoning if you look at it from the perspective of US politics.
Now if you look at it from a different perspective not specific to US politics, it’s actually the same thing. The truth is that we are seeing an exponential rise in right wing, conservative narrative across the world. Whether it’s the people in power or just regular people spewing right-wing talking points, it’s clear that the left are having a difficult battle. Simoultaniously however it’s also important to acknowledge the victories of the left, like in New York City for instance how DSA candidates won by a landslide in several congressional districts in the last election. And of course with Mamdani winning mayors office over Cuomo. But back to the conversation of rise in right-wing sympathizers, the only way to defeat this rise in conservatism and right-wing agenda is through the rise in power of the left (and yes I noticed how many times I used ‘rise’ in this sentence stay with me here people). That doesn’t just mean literally having left-wing candidates in office but also having progressive conversations amongst ourselves. If as regular people we cannot come to the simple conclusion that our current system is fucked and that we need a real change with a leftist revolution, then we cannot see the change we so desperately desire. It’s the same reason why being apolitical today is just so embarrassing. Being apolitical is a political stance and it’s one upholding our current system. Believing that not being a leftist or right-winger makes you super cool and radical is you just being ignorant.
Again, in theory, sounds great. In reality, get a grip and just support the left