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“Inside the walls of the VC, everyone tends to avoid talking about how much fun they’re having when they denounce and shame allegedly deserving victims. After all, once you’ve admitted that, you pretty much have to concede that there’s a tremendous psychological incentive to nurture and exaggerate small grievances (so you have a justification for throwing stones), to search for and emphasize subtle respects in which you’re oppressed (so you have standing to throw stones), and to ignore anything that might complicate your understanding of the victim’s alleged transgression (so you aren’t talked out of throwing stones).”
― Ben Burgis, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique Of The Contemporary Left

“far too many American socialists get most of their understanding of radical politics not from any sort of analysis of what’s going on around them in the here and now but from reading the works of long-dead revolutionaries.”
― Ben Burgis, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique Of The Contemporary Left

“Some leftists like to talk about “fighting the good fight.” I hate that phrase. Life is short. There are mountains to climb and philosophical texts to grapple with and sexual relationships to pursue and friends to spend time with and music to listen to and whiskey to drink. These things are all a lot more fun than marching through the streets shouting about police violence and hoping the cops don’t decide to give you an in-person demonstration of the problem. Why bother with the “good fight” if you aren’t going to fight to win?”
― Ben Burgis, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns: A Critique Of The Contemporary Left

“It turns out cheating is a pretty good strategy to win, as there are very few consequences. The Electoral Commission later conceded that even if the vote was won with the benefit of illegal data or illegal financing, the result still stands.”
― Christopher Wylie, Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America