Thanks, Jenny. Looking forward to watching this. For me, the most painful part of the transformation of the Left is that, as Cary has already said, I haven't changed AT ALL but my children now see me as a Right Winger because they continued going with the flow of The Left while I stayed the way I always had been. I continue to pray for my friends and family members who are now a part of the New Left, and I keep hoping that, one day soon, they will awaken from this insanity.
So many people have seen the same - there we are, true liberals (meaning generous and open minded), completely left behind by the hard core woke crusaders that we look like right wingers when that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Thanks, I'll try to make time to watch the documentary. It sounds interesting.
I'm pretty much the same person I was thirty-some years ago when I was a registered Democrat and thought of myself as liberal (I'm now registered 'No party affiliation'). But the left has moved so far toward lunacy that woke people, represented in my life by my in-laws, regard me as some kind of Nazi. Liberalism today bears almost no resemblance to what it was when I was a child and my mom voted for Kennedy.
Yes, back then people could be for Nixon or Kennedy, and both choices were considered respectable (except that it was a tad bit socially questionable to be for Nixon in an Irish Catholic neighborhood since Kennedy was regarded as a "good Catholic" which is interesting to say the least given all of the stuff that has come out since on his adulterous activities.
A couple of months ago I watched a debate from 1960 between Nixon and Kennedy. Both behaved like gentlemen. They had a respectful, intelligent conversation about the issues. There was no insulting, lying, interrupting, or shouting. I had forgotten how much more civilized politics used to be.
Yes, JFK was a real playboy, including, unfortunately, when he was married.
“…Once the marriage thing went through, then we had equal rights, right across the board. And this has led to real confusion in the minds of people like Stonewall, which is one of the reasons why they’ve opted to go down the trans route — they didn’t have anything else to do.” Eye-popping (and damning) admission.
Thank you for your excellent review Jenny. It's not how we concieved the film in terms of old versus new left, but rather to remind people of what solidarity really meant and consequently as an antidote to divisive identitarianism. But your take is really interesting. No doubt once more people have seen it, people will have further thoughts too which we hadn't considered. Good for Christmas viewing and discussion methinks. Have a great one yourself and best wishes from all the WORLDwrite crew.
Look to America to see the lies and deception the Democrats have spewed out to the public the last 4 years. They despise working class people with a vindictiveness that’s hard to fathom yet is there to witness day and night. Dementia afflicted Biden , hid from the masses with the help of the complicit mass media and big tech., being replaced by Harris the worst VP in history who then repeats the hide and seek game they all play.
America has somewhat woken up to this gas lighting whilst we in Britain now have a government that actually sent party workers to America to try prevent a Trump presidency.
Talk about backing the wrong horse in what turned out to a one horse race
The left are down but not out. Harris is back in the media having learned nothing from the rejection of her mad as a hatter polices and the republicans are already falling out in the house and senate. Hold on to your seats.
While the European left was historically run by Marxist intellectuals, the British left emerged naturally from the trade union movement, working men's clubs and working class adult education i.e. from ordinary people doing the small-c conservative thing of trying to improve themselves and their family's lot in life. The shift, I think, came in the 1970s when trade unions and the Labour Party were infiltrated by hardcore Trotskyite entryists.
Here’s an old review I wrote on Amazon years ago that will partly explain what I was talking about
-
When Skateboards
Will Be
Said
- Free
Sayrafiezadeh- 4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
A Trotskyite Childhood
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2010
There have been a number of articles in recent years criticizing the apparent trend of publishing books which are memoirs of rather young people.I'm sympathetic to this line of criticism but see it as refuted in part by books like this.Sayrafiezdeh comes from a very unusual background.His father is an Iranian immigrant to the U.S.presumably from a Muslim background.His mother an American Jew whose brother was the fairly well known writer Mark Harris.Unfortunately for everyone concerned the two of them joined ,one could say converted, to the Socialist Workers Party.
The SWP is a rather fascinating organization.At one time it actually had some credibility on the Left as an organizing force.No one disputes that it did impressive work in organizing Anti Vietnam War protests.However by the time the author was born I think it may already have been in the process of shedding any intellectual and political credibility that it had.Strangely enough the worm of decay may have been Cuba.The party was an active booster of the Cuban Revolution and at first this made this rather fusty old Trotskyite party seem "relevant".However if there is a law of left wing politics it is this , one Trotskyite party breeds many.The partys Cuba fixation lead to all kinds of arcane disputes and splits.Shortly before Said S. was born a major split took place in which ,it's my impression ,the party faction that thought Cuba was really a deformed workers state rather than a true workers state split off.This seems to have fueled the partys evolution into the American Castro Cheerleading Society.This in turn alienated a lot of Trots who were willing to support Castro but only critically.The fatal blow seems to have been the turn to labor when the party began to insist that educated white collar workers abandon there jobs to go work in factories often in distant locales.Hundreds(and that's a lot for a little party) of the best educated party members left.
Said S doesn't go into all of the political history and you can't blame him.He wasn't writing a history of the party.However the book might have gained from this.I think it explains something.When I was reading SKATEBOARDS I couldn't help but notice how Moonie like the SWP people sound.I don't think they were as zombiesh even as late as the mid 70's.My theory is that the more independent minded and intellectually serious members of the party were gone by the time Said was say 8 or 9.What was left was a cult remenant that included his mother and father.Although even his mother couldn't take it past a certain point.
In all events this is a compelling story of an American counter culture most Americans have never even heard of.
Thanks, Jenny. Looking forward to watching this. For me, the most painful part of the transformation of the Left is that, as Cary has already said, I haven't changed AT ALL but my children now see me as a Right Winger because they continued going with the flow of The Left while I stayed the way I always had been. I continue to pray for my friends and family members who are now a part of the New Left, and I keep hoping that, one day soon, they will awaken from this insanity.
So many people have seen the same - there we are, true liberals (meaning generous and open minded), completely left behind by the hard core woke crusaders that we look like right wingers when that couldn't be farther from the truth.
Thanks, I'll try to make time to watch the documentary. It sounds interesting.
I'm pretty much the same person I was thirty-some years ago when I was a registered Democrat and thought of myself as liberal (I'm now registered 'No party affiliation'). But the left has moved so far toward lunacy that woke people, represented in my life by my in-laws, regard me as some kind of Nazi. Liberalism today bears almost no resemblance to what it was when I was a child and my mom voted for Kennedy.
Yes, back then people could be for Nixon or Kennedy, and both choices were considered respectable (except that it was a tad bit socially questionable to be for Nixon in an Irish Catholic neighborhood since Kennedy was regarded as a "good Catholic" which is interesting to say the least given all of the stuff that has come out since on his adulterous activities.
A couple of months ago I watched a debate from 1960 between Nixon and Kennedy. Both behaved like gentlemen. They had a respectful, intelligent conversation about the issues. There was no insulting, lying, interrupting, or shouting. I had forgotten how much more civilized politics used to be.
Yes, JFK was a real playboy, including, unfortunately, when he was married.
“…Once the marriage thing went through, then we had equal rights, right across the board. And this has led to real confusion in the minds of people like Stonewall, which is one of the reasons why they’ve opted to go down the trans route — they didn’t have anything else to do.” Eye-popping (and damning) admission.
Thank you for your excellent review Jenny. It's not how we concieved the film in terms of old versus new left, but rather to remind people of what solidarity really meant and consequently as an antidote to divisive identitarianism. But your take is really interesting. No doubt once more people have seen it, people will have further thoughts too which we hadn't considered. Good for Christmas viewing and discussion methinks. Have a great one yourself and best wishes from all the WORLDwrite crew.
Look to America to see the lies and deception the Democrats have spewed out to the public the last 4 years. They despise working class people with a vindictiveness that’s hard to fathom yet is there to witness day and night. Dementia afflicted Biden , hid from the masses with the help of the complicit mass media and big tech., being replaced by Harris the worst VP in history who then repeats the hide and seek game they all play.
America has somewhat woken up to this gas lighting whilst we in Britain now have a government that actually sent party workers to America to try prevent a Trump presidency.
Talk about backing the wrong horse in what turned out to a one horse race
The left are down but not out. Harris is back in the media having learned nothing from the rejection of her mad as a hatter polices and the republicans are already falling out in the house and senate. Hold on to your seats.
While the European left was historically run by Marxist intellectuals, the British left emerged naturally from the trade union movement, working men's clubs and working class adult education i.e. from ordinary people doing the small-c conservative thing of trying to improve themselves and their family's lot in life. The shift, I think, came in the 1970s when trade unions and the Labour Party were infiltrated by hardcore Trotskyite entryists.
Were you in the Socialist Workers Party when it became a Castroite cult?
Uh...not to my knowledge! I feel like that would have been something I would have noticed? Mine were just a dreary miserable bunch. 🤣
Here’s an old review I wrote on Amazon years ago that will partly explain what I was talking about
-
When Skateboards
Will Be
Said
- Free
Sayrafiezadeh- 4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase
A Trotskyite Childhood
Reviewed in the United States on April 15, 2010
There have been a number of articles in recent years criticizing the apparent trend of publishing books which are memoirs of rather young people.I'm sympathetic to this line of criticism but see it as refuted in part by books like this.Sayrafiezdeh comes from a very unusual background.His father is an Iranian immigrant to the U.S.presumably from a Muslim background.His mother an American Jew whose brother was the fairly well known writer Mark Harris.Unfortunately for everyone concerned the two of them joined ,one could say converted, to the Socialist Workers Party.
The SWP is a rather fascinating organization.At one time it actually had some credibility on the Left as an organizing force.No one disputes that it did impressive work in organizing Anti Vietnam War protests.However by the time the author was born I think it may already have been in the process of shedding any intellectual and political credibility that it had.Strangely enough the worm of decay may have been Cuba.The party was an active booster of the Cuban Revolution and at first this made this rather fusty old Trotskyite party seem "relevant".However if there is a law of left wing politics it is this , one Trotskyite party breeds many.The partys Cuba fixation lead to all kinds of arcane disputes and splits.Shortly before Said S. was born a major split took place in which ,it's my impression ,the party faction that thought Cuba was really a deformed workers state rather than a true workers state split off.This seems to have fueled the partys evolution into the American Castro Cheerleading Society.This in turn alienated a lot of Trots who were willing to support Castro but only critically.The fatal blow seems to have been the turn to labor when the party began to insist that educated white collar workers abandon there jobs to go work in factories often in distant locales.Hundreds(and that's a lot for a little party) of the best educated party members left.
Said S doesn't go into all of the political history and you can't blame him.He wasn't writing a history of the party.However the book might have gained from this.I think it explains something.When I was reading SKATEBOARDS I couldn't help but notice how Moonie like the SWP people sound.I don't think they were as zombiesh even as late as the mid 70's.My theory is that the more independent minded and intellectually serious members of the party were gone by the time Said was say 8 or 9.What was left was a cult remenant that included his mother and father.Although even his mother couldn't take it past a certain point.
In all events this is a compelling story of an American counter culture most Americans have never even heard of.
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