1. There are many things I’m glad to leave behind on X, but most of them come down to this: loyalism. Regardless of ideology, those who tend to be most abusive, unpleasant and vicious are staunch loyalists of particular figures, factions or policies. 🧵 2. I believe we should be loyal to certain values, such as kindness, empathy, understanding and honesty, and certain principles, such as universalism, democratic decision-making and a thriving living planet. But we should be open to argument about how they are best realised. 3. In fact, open-mindedness is arguably the keystone value that permits the others to persist. But it’s impossible to be loyal to the principle of open-mindedness AND loyal to particular figures and factions, and the policies they champion. No one is perfect; no one gets everything right. 4. Almost invariably, those who are most filled with fury and hatred on social media, and behave most vilely to those with whom they disagree, have placed their loyalty to particular people or groups above their loyalty to particular values. 5. It seems to make no difference whether such people are on the right or the left. While, because of its turn to the far right, most of my unpleasant recent experiences on X have been with Trump, Musk and Maga loyalists, I’m sorry to say I’ve had similar encounters with certain leftists. 6. This was particularly the case during the atrocities of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. Unfortunately, there was a certain left faction who fought his corner against all comers, denying his atrocities and promoting lurid conspiracy fictions about his opponents. 7. The reasoning seemed to go as follows: Assad was an opponent of the Israeli government, whose appalling treatment of the Palestinians many on the left rightly contest, ergo Assad must be our friend. Anything said against him must be Western imperialist propaganda. 8. It should be obvious that both things can be true: someone can oppose a government which does terrible things, and do terrible things themselves. Anyone loyal to values and principles, rather than factions, should have found it easy to oppose policies of both governments. 9. Similarly, because he was seen as an opponent of the US government, as well as being a supporter of Assad, some leftists evinced a bizarre loyalty towards Vladimir Putin and his regime, and took his side when he invaded Ukraine. 10. My encounters with such people were truly horrible. When I tried to put forward what I felt were rational and evidenced positions, I received not rational and evidenced opposition, but a stream of foul abuse and invective. 11. Bizarrely, because I opposed (and continue to oppose) Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I was repeatedly labelled an “imperialist warmonger”. So opposition to imperialist war is, apparently, imperialist warmongering. When there are no arguments, people use labels. 12. Similarly, though I supported Jeremy Corbyn, and worked with his team for a year on the Land for the Many report, I was also publicly critical of some of his positions and statements. This made me, for some of his loyalists, the devil incarnate. 13. In fact, almost everyone around him was at some point viciously attacked for being insufficiently loyal by the no-true-Scotsman brigade: even John McDonnell! Many good people were driven away by this closed-mindedness, intolerance and vicious stupidity. 14. As it happens, I believe that reason, empiricism and kindness are values the left should embody, and if you are incapable of being guided by them, you should ask yourself some serious questions about what you really stand for. 15. There should be no unconditionality in politics: that is a formula for tyranny, as we now see in the US. Every figure and faction should be challengeable and challenged. We should all strive to be open to argument, evidence and reasoned criticism. 16. Loyalty to values and principles requires constant dissent, as no one will fully and consistently embody them. It means the never-ending questioning of ourselves and our positions. Let’s try to uphold the principle of openness here, as much as humanly possible. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue
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