On people who 'leave the left'
People often say ''if they stopped supporting us because of x reason then they probably never truly supported us at all'' but is that really true? is everyone who has ever been turned off your political position ''not really a true believer in the first place''? That just doesn't sound likely, it's simply not possible nor true that once someone agrees with your views that they are unable to ever change their mind again. People really need to just accept that it is entirely possible for your own behaviour to damage your cause, we can talk about 'tone policing' and 'we dont have to be nice to our oppressors' all you want. But it doesn't change the fact that if someone's experience of a cause or a community is that the people advocating that cause tried to make them feel bad, or bully them, or laugh at them, they're unlikely to engage with that cause again. People are ultimately only human and these people aren't bad for not wanting to be bullied, you can't seriously expect people's belief in your cause to be so strong that they will withstand abuse from you. People also don't all come from the same background as you, when you speak to them about a cause it may be the first time they're learning about it or even heard about it - do you want that first encounter to be a bad one? We need to move on from just seeing activism as a way to let off steam and we need to move on from assuming the worst of our opponents, this shit hasn't helped us at all. Many of the causes the left cares about are actually in a worse position then they were 10 years ago and all I see is people doubling down on this behaviour. It's a luxury we can't afford and it's not something we should have done in the first place
