by Sick of the modern cultural left? Sick of the regressive left? Sick of leftist political correctness, identity politics, and SJW insanity, but you still think of yourself as left-wing? Well, there’s no need to become a conservative, because there’s now an Alternative Left / Alt Left, with a small but growing internet presence. I identify with what I would call the “Realist Left,” but I am happy for this to be seen as within a broad “Alt Left” movement.Here is an updated list of sites:Alt Left LinksRealist Left:Realist Left on FacebookRealist Left on Twitter @realistleftSocial Democracy for the 21st Century: A Realist Alternative to the Modern LeftLord Keynes on TwitterRealist Left on YouTubeRealist Left on RedditRealist Left BlogAlternative Left:Alternative Left on FacebookAlt-Left on Google+Samizdat Broadcasts YouTube ChannelSamizdat: For the Freedom Loving LeftistAlt-Left Closed Facebook GroupPrince of Queens YouTube Channel Prince of Queens on TwitterIf there are sites I’m not aware of, please let me know.So what does the Alt Left stand for?I reproduce the following program I suggested last year:Economics(1) the objectives of economic policy are full employment by government fiscal policy and public investment, high wages, a tendency for real wages to rise with productivity growth, strong aggregate demand, and, ideally, a dynamic economy based on manufacturing.
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Well, there’s no need to become a conservative, because there’s now an Alternative Left / Alt Left, with a small but growing internet presence.
I identify with what I would call the “Realist Left,” but I am happy for this to be seen as within a broad “Alt Left” movement.
Here is an updated list of sites:
Alt Left LinksIf there are sites I’m not aware of, please let me know.
Realist Left:
Lord Keynes on TwitterAlternative Left:
Alt-Left Closed Facebook Group
Prince of Queens YouTube Channel
Prince of Queens on Twitter
So what does the Alt Left stand for?
I reproduce the following program I suggested last year:
Economics(1) the objectives of economic policy are full employment by government fiscal policy and public investment, high wages, a tendency for real wages to rise with productivity growth, strong aggregate demand, and, ideally, a dynamic economy based on manufacturing. Though a basic universal income might be a good idea, nevertheless basic universal income without full employment is a recipe for social disaster.Social and Cultural Issues(2) as in Modern Monetary Theory (MMT), the Alt Left should reject the myth that taxes are required to finance government spending (see the discussions here and here). Governments with their own central banks and fiat currencies are always solvent in their own currency, and there is even a case for limited Overt Monetary Financing (OMF) (or what is commonly called central bank “money printing” to finance some government spending).
(3) a fundamentally important policy to attain full employment is an MMT Job Guarantee. This is a program in which the government will offer employment to anyone ready and willing to work (but unable to find a private sector job) at a socially-acceptable minimum wage to ensure real full employment at all times.
(4) governments should generally pursue sensible protectionism and industrial policy, not only to protect their manufacturing sectors from the disaster of free trade under absolute advantage, but as the best strategy to ensure future economic growth and economic independence.
(5) governments should reject privatisation of social services and infrastructure. Instead, these sectors should be nationalised or run as public utilities and maintained by high government investment, e.g., in healthcare, education, scientific and technological R&D, infrastructure, etc. There is now even a case for limited nationalisation of certain key industries as an industrial policy.
(6) foreign ownership of public assets, infrastructure, key industries and large-scale foreign ownership of real estate should also be strongly rejected, and instead these sectors should be owned by private domestic citizens and things like infrastructure owned by governments.
(7) the banking and financial sector should be subject to severe regulation and prevented from destabilizing the economy, given its tendency to create asset bubbles and inflating the level of private debt to catastrophic levels. There is now a case for nationalisation of the commercial banking sector. For many nations, there is a case for discretionary capital controls (see here).
(8) the taxation system should be progressive, but particularly concerned with taxing parasitic rent seeking and destabilising speculative activity.
(1) The Alt Left should support reasonable and sensible civil and equity women’s rights and gay rights, but strongly reject French Poststructuralism, Postmodernism, truth relativism, cultural relativism, moral relativism, SJW cults, divisive and extreme identity politics, Third Wave Feminism, and endless cults of victimology from identity politics. The combination of all these ideas has created a toxic wing of the modern left called the “regressive left,” which needs to be totally rejected.The Alt Left should also reject extreme social constructivism and the “blank slate” view of human beings, because this is not supported by science.
(2) the Alt Left should strongly defend free speech and freedom of expression from its enemies on the right, the regressive left, and from religious conservatives.
(3) the Alt Left should support a secular state and separation of church and state, but not alienate liberal religious people.
(4) the Alt Left should continue the anti-imperialist tradition of the left, and be largely non-interventionist on foreign policy, but not isolationist.
(5) the Alt Left should oppose regressive and illiberal Islamism and religious fundamentalism, and promote the assimilation of immigrants in the West.
(6) the Alt Left needs a sane and pragmatic policy on immigration. It needs to reject mass immigration and open borders on economic, social and cultural grounds, and support sensible limits on immigration. It also needs to recognise that promoting “diversity” is not necessarily a good thing in and of itself, and that multiculturalism has serious problems (see here).
(7) the Alt Left should consider the importance of the nuclear family, promote pro-nuclear family policies and – at the very least – be open to serious and rational discussion of the breakdown of the nuclear family in the Western world, and what harm this may have done to our societies, but with humane policies free from right-wing viciousness or free market economics.