Tim Barrus New York Times

Take notes. The left gets trashed. It’s obfuscation. Who are these people. Name them. You always condemn but condemn who. Why do writers attack a ghost. What are you so afraid of. I’m a radical (are you shivering in your shoes). I cannot be a leftist because it’s lame. And why would I join a group that seems to have tons of enemies but I cannot figure out who the leftists are, and where do they live, where do they work, it sounds like a grocery store: Welcome to Leftists. Sale. Socks. Aisle 3. Leftists do not exist. You do not have a single radical voice. How convenient. You are blaming the fog. Leftist punching bags. We run the show on mythology. Leftists are invented. Then, we have the working people.

This columnist group is always talking about the working lower middle class as if you know what that means. Writing is hard work. No doubt about it. But you guys forget. Because you are, let’s be real, Privileged. That is not a pejorative. Just a fact. You have degrees, and jobs, and families, and so do we. We are not stupid. Us radicals tend to be teachers. Or we were teachers. More like the latter. We have degrees. Anger. We make nothing. You cannot raise a family on peanuts. But we go to the window, we open it, and we scream: I’m not going to take it anymore. The libs scare us because they are always pointing to the “leftists,” and the libs would rat on us if it suits them. They are not your friends. They turn you into public policy. Leftists. You depend on an empty word.