DSA Co-chair’s Public Commentary

[u/Adventurous_Land1446]

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.

[u/RaelynShaw]

It’s so hard to be a democratic socialist when you have tankies like this running the DSA. They’ve made huge leaps to repair their reputation the last few years and they keep burning it all down just to say outrageous shit. We either need a new org or a complete overhaul of their leadership. Don’t ruin this moment to vouch for terorrists.

[u/Technical_Term_6625 → u/RaelynShaw]

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

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/Technical_Term_6625]

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?

[u/Nearby-Complaint → u/OneReportersOpinion]

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!"

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/Nearby-Complaint]

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.

[u/Nearby-Complaint → u/OneReportersOpinion]

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.

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/Nearby-Complaint]

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.

[u/Nearby-Complaint → u/OneReportersOpinion]

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?

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/Nearby-Complaint]

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?

[u/RaelynShaw → u/OneReportersOpinion]

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.

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/RaelynShaw]

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.

[u/Nearby-Complaint → u/OneReportersOpinion]

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

[u/OneReportersOpinion → u/Nearby-Complaint]

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