Just as an addendum to my last post — I’m frustrated by the rise of false choice thinking, in general, within the left. There’s so many bogus binaries people try to push you into now. We can be the side that insists on the horrors of sexual violence, offers comfort and respect to victims, pushes for punishment of those proven to be guilty, and the side that insists on due process in the court system and fairness outside of it. Just like we can be the side that insists on social censure for those who say offensive things, and at the same time defends the right to free speech from both government intrusion and unreasonable private pressure. (We always have been!) We can be the side that points out the unique challenges and injustice of poverty for people of color while leading the fight against the hardship and degradation of white poverty. We can confront inequality from both a stance of identity and of structural class politics. None of those are impossible. And it’s so counterproductive and frustrating to  act like we’re incapable of doing both.

The only advantage of binary thinking is that it helps you sort the world into goodies and baddies. And that’s no advantage at all.