This ad was run in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. I’m pretty sure it’s a damning example of what UnMinnesotans call the regressive Left
.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably a Minnesotan
Pop, “Up North” and snow days
all mean something to you.
So do the values we’re raised with:
everyday, sleeve-worn courage, goodness and kindness.
Though we may be a soft-spoken bunch,
we know better than to be silent or still in the face of
bigotry shown to Muslims. Our fellow Minnesotans.
Every intolerant social post,
every prejudiced comment aimed at Muslims
needs a response. Your response.
We must lead people to a place of
tolerance and understanding.
We must come together as
a diverse and vibrant community.
Our values don’t take days off and neither should we.
If you’re Minnesotan, you know this to be true.
We know better. We can’t be tricked into betraying our values.
It’d be so very, very un-Minnesotan of us.
Pop?
Snow days?
“Up North”?
Is this how I find out that I’m Minnesotan? Are you sure you’re not all secretly from Yorkshire?
Doing what is right, regardless of what names one is called, is what is most important.
Ok, that’s a good ad, but being non-Minnesotan I have a question: What kind of value is “everyday”? (I realize it’s just an unfortunate phrasing)
I understand the sentiment, I condone the core message, but I strongly dislike this kind of argument that defines certain characteristics as “THE” (locally) patriotic ones. Firstly it just begs to be abused in No True Scottsman fallacy, secondly it helps to create/maintaing/reinforce ingrouop-outgroup thinking.
In my experience racists and bigots can (and do) write similar pamphlets too, presenting f.e. Christian values as European/German/Czech etc. and declaring anyone who does not hold to them as, you guessed it, No True *-person.
@1 I agree.
Gee, Up north here in Canada we have pop and snow days too, eh. Our everyday values also sound similar, but what are your special days values like?
While I like the ad and its sentiment, I don’t think it’s easy to categorize it as being on one “side” or the other. It’s glittering generalities. Most people agree that they’re against bigotry, intolerance, and prejudice. The devil is in the details: exactly what’s included in that? If it’s the arguments of folks like, say, Maryam Namazie, then I think there’s a problem.
I’m more than a little confused by the sneers towards the term over the last few weeks. Haven’t “regressive left” and “anti-Islamic left” been used by both ex-Muslims and Muslims about a very well-documented trend of leftists who promote Islamism?
See “Siding with the Oppressor: The Pro-Islamist Left” or
Ben Affleck, you are not helping [doesn’t use the term, but expresses the concept] or
“The British Left’s Hypocritical Embrace of Islamism”
It’s seems exactly analogous to the pro-Israel people who conflate criticism of occupation and war crimes with anti-semitism.
quints@8,
When you support a military coup against an elected President (unpleasant though that President may be), as Maryam Namazie emphatically did when Al Sisi grabbed power in Egypt, complaining about “siding with the oppressor” is gross hypocrisy.
It’s a sneer against a sneer. Basically, it’s a term coopted by the alt-right crowd which holds no meaning except for “those other people.” And by “other people,” they of course apply the term generally. These days it’s used by the same people who have the word ‘cuck’ permanently imprinted on their lips.
Thanks! Plugging that term into google clued me in.
Incidentally, quints@8, your third link is broken, and the only place “REGRESSIVE LEFT” (in upper case) appears in either of the first two is as the name of a commenter on Namazie’s article. Following that link takes you to a site called Quillette, where you will find articles with titles such as:
“After Cologne, feminism is dead”
“I’m not a feminist, even though I attend a women’s college”
“Now that I have checked my male privilege”
“Reluctance to bomb Daesh reflects a loss of confidence in the West”
“Feminism must be recalimed from radicals”
Admittedly the site has a range of writers and content, but if you can find (there or anywhere) the term “regressive left” used other than as a right-wing andor MRA sneer, I’ll be surprised.
I’m disappointed it wasn’t signed by Prince, Paul Westerberg, or Greg Norton’s handlebar mustache.
fixed link
@Nick Gotts, that would explain why the google search of FTB pulled up that article.
According to wikipedia (aka take it with a salt shaker), the term was coined by Maajid Nawaz, the author from the third link. While his work with Sam Harris could arguably put him on the right wing, it’s certainly been used outside the right-wing and MRA context. Examples from here at FTB:
Ally Fogg[“What the left has to do is stop supporting Islamists and Muslim apologists like Reza Aslan, who say that there is nothing wrong with Islam and that any Western criticism of Islam is just bigotry and “Islamophobia”, and start supporting liberal, democratic Muslims like Maajid Nawaz, who instead has been called a “native infomrannt” and a “porch monkey” by many in the regressive left]
Maryam Namazie [“Nonetheless, this conflation of Islam, Islamism and Muslims has been the position of successive British governments whereby multiculturalism and multi-faithism has been promoted as social policies to defend religion’s role in the public space, impose religious identity as the only marker to define citizens, and hand large sections of citizens to be managed and controlled by regressive Islamist organisations and parasitical imams. This has been part of the neo-con project for the extreme-Rightwing restructuring of society. There are no more citizens but segregated communities with their own faith schools, faith-based services and even faith-based courts: Separate and Unequal.”]
That said, googling it with alt right and SJW showed that throwaway was right about it being co-opted far beyond ‘people on the left who are effectively pro-Islamist’ to ‘anyone who opposes bigotry against muslims.’ It really doesn’t make much sense in the American context outside of a few far fringe groups in the ‘anyone fighting America is good’ style.
@13 UnknownEric the Apostate
That’s because Greg Norton’s handlebar mustache is a wonder of nature and needs to stay above these base political concerns to avoid tarnishing its reputation.
It’s an interesting ad, but I agree with @4 Charly that it just defines certain characteristics as the patriotic ones. Kinda the same vein as Sarah Palin’s “real americans” comments, or that post-9/11 “let’s see how many flag pins we can cram on our lapels” congressional craze. Using the far right’s tactic against them seems to just scream that it was a good tactic in the first place, instead of the silly, desperate shot in the dark it usually is.
I am much more intrigued by the story link on that page to another article. How exactly do I go about winning my own port-a-potty? That article just demands further investigation. Inquiring Brians want to know.
quints@14,
Your example from Namazie doesn’t include the phrase “regressive left”, and I stopped reading Fogg ages ago because he was so MRA-friendly, although not a fully paid-up misogynist.
@Nick, sorry quoted the wrong part – the phrase is “what Richard Dawkins refers to as the regressive Left.”
Basically, although it was coined and first used by a Muslim anti-Islamist, the standard Islamophobic atheists (Maher, Dawkins and Harris) and the ‘alt-right’ have recently greatly increased its use – probably due to Nawaz teaming up with Harris. See google trends, which spikes after Harris and Dawkins used it in October 2015. Good to know.
When you remove the center justification, the text looks a lot like Minnesota. ZOMG ILLUMINATI
What term then could be used to refer to people who both consider themselves as being on the liberal/ progressive left and are in favor of blasphemy laws?
Sastra @19 — Figments of your imagination.
I thought that was “oop narth”.
Giliell
The punctuation and capitalization contribute to the very clunky phrasing, but they are referring to the local social custom of being perfectly kind, pleasant, and polite known as ‘Minnesota nice’.
It’s probably helpful to know some context. This was made by Ellison for Congress. Keith Ellison is a congressman from Minneapolis, who also happens to be the first Muslim elected to congress, and the first black representative ever from Minnesota.
Tethys @22: Thanks for telling us the context of the ad. That explains a lot.