Progressives must build long-term discursive infrastructure instead of reacting

Evidence

Instead of the “hot” response of outrage (with its immediate nugget of satisfaction, achieved at the cost of a long-term political impotence), we need a cooler stance of appraising the enemy’s weapons and strategies, and thinking about how to counter, overcome and ultimately outwit them. Is a left-wing version of the Mail possible? If not, how could we construct a discursive hub that is as successful for the left as the Mail is for the right? This needs to be part of a broader strategy of devoting our energy and resources to goals and projects that will deliver change in the long-term, breaking us out of the short-termism that has become endemic in the age of Twitter. What we need to overturn is something that has been the case since before Thatcher’s rise to power — the tendency for reactionary political forces to be pro-active, and for progressives to be reactive. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk, 1697

Categorization

• SEED: The question ‘Is a left-wing version of the Mail possible?’ is a genuine essay/strategy prompt about left media infrastructure, echoing ch18 on independent publishing reviving public intellectual discourse.
• XREF: Links to ch52 notes on how tone suppresses political seriousness in British public culture, and to ch98 on media isolating people to invalidate shared discontent. — connects to: Left movements must reject glorified failure and build coordinating memory institutions.; Unresisted paleonymy turns radical critique into liberal infrastructure management — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader: Selected Works of…, 1182; Sacralized political discourse becomes constitutive regardless of professed sincerity — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 98 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Unresisted paleonymy turns radical critique into liberal infrastructure management #expands (0.78) — Donna Landry and Gerald MacLean, The Spivak Reader, 1182
• Sacralized political discourse becomes constitutive regardless of professed sincerity #expands (0.72) — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized, 98