Fetterman on pager attack in Lebanon: 'If anything, I love it'

[betsuni]

119. "Progressive" has been weaponized, used to divide -- liberal Democrats as corrupt evil establishment Them and

progressives as pure good anti-establishment Us. A simplistic black-or-white, good-or-evil, moral-or-immoral ideology. How terrorists can be seen as freedom fighters, they've been put in the Us binder so must be good and moral and right.

"It was not the first time the term 'establishment' was weaponized, but never so effectively, to just the right people at just the right time. And as 'establishment' became the blood-sucking vampire, 'progressive' became the magic talisman of defense. Since then, despite all the talk of needing to 'unify' and 'heal divisions,' the branding of Democrats into 'progressive' and 'establishment' (and sometimes 'centrist') has come to dominate how candidates are identified -- and often self-identify. I think it's time to seriously ask ourselves: just what good is this relic of a disastrous election doing? Not only doesn't it accurately represent the diversity among Democrats, but it clearly fosters fragmentation and resentment -- and feeds a media that is always hungry to report strife among us. ... But surely, we can give up the old incantations, the old revolutionary/sell-out discourse." Susan Bordo