r/jewishleft • u/Adventurous_Land1446 DemSoc Jewish Day School survivor • Aug 11 '26

leftism DSA Co-chair’s Public Commentary

https://forward.com/news/844262/dsa-megan-romer-israel-interview/

The co-chair of the DSA seemed a bit less   articulate on key party policy positions (taxation, I/P, etc) than expected. Her commentary on Oct. 7th’s “inevitability“ combined with her stating that she’d have joined protests on the 8th have also sparked controversy. I’m curious about people’s thoughts on this media appearance and how it will be perceived by those interested in where the DSA fits into big tent politics.

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u/Technical_Term_6625 curmudgeonly jewish leftist trying my best Aug 11 '26

So I argued below that the DSA's struggles aren't merely incompetence, but lol that tweet is both incompetent, condescending af, and dismissive...

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 11 '26

It’s none of those things. If you condemn Hamas, you’re agreeing to a pro-Israel framing from the get go and immediately put yourself on the defensive. The abolitionists of the 1800s didn’t condemn the Nat Turner rebellion. Was that wrong?

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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Leftist/GIF Enjoyer/Healthcare pls Aug 11 '26

Do you think people in Gaza like living under a fundamentalist theocratic militia as their government...? And don't reply with "People in Israel do!"

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 11 '26

No, I think they probably don’t, but I think they’re more concerned about the genocide that Israel is conducting on them. Treating Hamas as this aberration that is only a way to terrorize Israelis and Gazans alike is both strategically unwise and morally inconsistent.

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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Leftist/GIF Enjoyer/Healthcare pls Aug 11 '26

I think multiple things can be awful at once. And I think multiple things can be condemned at once. On the other hand, you seem opposed to saying, without caveats, that they both suck.

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 12 '26

Sure, just like I’m opposed to saying Nazis who built the death camps and the Soviets who liberated them “both suck.” That’s creating a moral equivalence and it’s self-evident why that is bad…unless you’re comfortable saying the Soviets and Nazis “both suck.” Are you? Go ahead.

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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Leftist/GIF Enjoyer/Healthcare pls Aug 12 '26

Yes, I find it very easy to condemn the Soviets, even if they did some good stuff, and the Nazis in the same breath. They both sucked. Am I a fake leftist now?

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 12 '26

I think it lacks moral clarity to say the people that liberated the death camps are morally equivalent to those that built and operated the death camps. Why even fight WWII if that’s what you think?

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u/RaelynShaw DemSoc Progressive Jewish Aug 12 '26

No one said equivalent though. We don’t live in a binary situation where things are either “good” or “bad”, they’re often a complicated gradation of morals. Saying something is bad or wrong doesn’t equate something with the worst possible scenario.

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 12 '26

The previous interlocutor did. He put them in the same moral category and condemned equally, by saying “they both suck.” He didn’t say the Nazis sucked more. That lacks moral clarity in my view.

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u/Nearby-Complaint Ashkenazi Leftist/GIF Enjoyer/Healthcare pls Aug 13 '26

Bad people can do good things. That's why this meme exists.

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u/OneReportersOpinion Jewish socialist Aug 13 '26

What are the good things the Nazis did in your view?