I feel like I’ve been perfectly civil and am just trying to have a conversation about how to fix things so we don’t lose again. I’m definitely not relevant though, that’s fair.

The way to do all that is to win elections. If we refuse to make changes, we will lose again. That will harm the most vulnerable. We have to acknowledge that we made mistakes.

We is anyone who didn’t want Trump to win. Sitting around is referring to you saying there’s nothing the non-existent word police can do. Not playing fair is referring to you saying the whole thing is bad faith. The easy target is the left. What am I not thinking carefully enough about?

A parties job is to win elections, and they beat us. We can’t just sit around and blame the other side for not playing fair. Whether it was true or not, it’s our fault for being an easy target that people believed were more focused on unhoused vs homeless than building houses for people to live.

I don't agree that it's simply untrue, but that's largely irrelevant. Much like how people felt like we were entering a recession in late 2024, despite every indicator saying that wasn't the case. People felt it was happening and politics is about convincing, not telling people they're wrong.

I agree it's a lame excuse, but whether it's a lame excuse or not is kinda irrelevant. What matters is if it happened and if it affected how people voted. Telling people how you're better than them and that they should be more like you is incredibly off putting.

Telling them why they're wrong to not want to vote for us doesn't work.

I think it's important not to blame voters, but that doesn't mean I think people who voted for Trump are blameless. If voters don't want to vote for us, that's our fault, not theirs, and we have to do something to make them want to vote for us.

Fascism isn't popular, so fascists have to sneak through the back door. Most Trump voters didn't know they were voting for getting rid of due process. In hindsight, issues like word policing seem insignificant but that perspective wasn't available when people were voting.

I think lots of people felt like they were being told words like master are racist, and that made them uncomfortable. If I've has been using a word all my life, and you're telling me that word is racist, that feels like you're calling me racist.

Blaming voters will doom us to lose again. I don't think word policing was anyone's top issue, but it was a really tangible way that people were made to feel alienated by the left. It's hard to see how it doesn't have an effect on the margin and is one of a number of factors.

I haven't claimed to be very upset about word/tone policing, and I'm trying to express an opposing view in good faith. We need to acknowledge that it's our fault we lost and be able to discuss what needs to change to win next time.

Again, I think what's important to focus on is that people felt it and politics is about listening, not telling. Telling people they're wrong to feel some way is not a successful strategy to win an election. It's worth considering why some people felt harshly judged for using the wrong words.

You're certainly right that language changes to reflect society, but perhaps this is an example of language changing faster than society. That made people uncomfortable and played a factor in November.

I don’t think a few examples of people using the “wrong” term disproves there’s been an effort to get people to use the “right” term. It just means some people aren’t aware or disagree. People feel it, whether it’s real or not, and I don’t think telling people they’re wrong is helpful.

I think the point being made was that “language policing” was unpopular and pushed some people away from liberal values and that it was one of many factors that created a situation where you have to carry your green card and live in fear of being disappeared.