You articulate the pragmatism vs ethics dilemma perfectly, and despite what you might have inferred from this article, I am in no way certain at this stage which side of that conversation I fall on.

All I know is that I have spent years railing about the ethics, and castigating those who breach them, and it has achieved sweet fuck all. If you read the rest of my series (https://medium.com/s/jeremiad) you will see which side my bread is buttered.

I am acutely aware of the blind-spot, and this article was never intended to prescribe what left-leaning people should or should not be fighting for. Indeed, it was kind of the opposite — an exhortation to consider whether the overly prescriptive atmosphere of modern liberalism (which is at least partly an invention of conservative media) is diminishing its appeal.

If you look through the replies, there are a couple of angry liberals haranguing me for betraying the “good guys” (Sherry Kappel ™). There are a handful of right-wing nut-jobs claiming a win — I don’t feel good about offering them validation (though I’d argue that they are too far gone at this point, so politically it makes little difference). But in the main there are dozens of people who seem to think that it touches upon an exasperation they share.

I’m not sure it has to be case of entirely jettisoning causes for the sake of broader expedience. I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus. But moral authority does not equal power. It feels like something, whether in tone or tactics, needs to change, and soon.