Dirtbag Left
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About
Dirtbag Left is a slang expression used to describe a style of left-wing politics that was popularized on the internet after the 2016 United States Presidential Election. The term "dirtbag" refers to politically incorrect speech and vulgar language that is often deployed by such leftists, a move that is at odds with traditional liberal sensibilities of social civility. Dirtbag leftists are known to support anti-fascist policies and wealth redistribution, with several prominent figures in the movement rallying behind the 2016 and 2020 Presidential campaigns of Bernie Sanders. The podcast Chapo Trap House is most closely associated with the movement due to their use of comedy and irony in the style of a shock jokey, and due to their criticism of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Other media outlets and individuals associated with the dirtbag left are TrueAnon, Red Scare, Cum Town, Hasan Piker and Vaush.
Origin
Chapo Trap House co-host Amber A'Lee Frost is generally understood to have coined the term "dirtbag left" and presented the earliest known exploration of the movement in her 2016 article "The Necessity of Political Vulgarity," published in Current Affairs on August 25th, 2016.[1] Various publications published counter-arguments to the "dirtbag left" mythos in late 2016, including Rebecca Traister for The Cut[2] on November 23rd, 2016 (seen below, left). Chapo host Virgil Texas[3] posted a response to the article on November 29th, 2016 (seen below, right).
The term "dirtbag left" continued to gain prominence through the end of 2016. As seen in the aforementioned articles, early discussions and criticisms of the dirtbag left revolved around their dismissiveness of identity politics and their criticism of the DNC, an exclusionary characterization that members of the movement resisted[4][5] On November 27th, 2016, the subreddit /r/DirtbagLeft was created.[10]
Spread
In early 2017, various Twitter users posted tweets parodying liberal critics of their movement. Twitter[6] user @jonny_is_good posted a tweet on January 16th, 2017, gathering over 1,000 likes (seen below, left). Twitter[7] user @Trillburne posted a tweet using the phrase on January 17th, gathering over 1,400 likes (seen below, right).
On June 19th, 2017, Redditor /u/anotherthr0waway2222 posted to /r/relationships[11] detailing her troubles with her boyfriend, an avid Chapo listener. The post has since been deleted but can be accessed via reupload by Twitter[12] user @yungneocon.
TFW the sex is great and ur bf is kind, but he listens to too much @CHAPOTRAPHOUSE pic.twitter.com/0BHwmhLLNe
— The Cosmist Insurrection, Inc. ™ (@yungneocon) June 20, 2017
Critics of dirtbag leftists often compare the movement with right-wing extremists. Conservative commentator Ian Miles Cheong who tweets under the username[8] @stillgray posted a tweet comparing dirtbag leftists to Richard Spencer on July 20th, 2017, gathering over 500 likes in six years (seen below, left). On November 30th, Twitter[9] user @AlexandraErin posted a tweet saying the dirtbag leftists have a right-wing edge lord "vibe," gathering over 600 likes in five years (seen below, right).
Various Examples
Search Interest
External References
[1] Current Affairs – The Necessity of Political Vulgarity
[3] Twitter – virgiltexas
[4] Twitter – willmenaker
[5] Twitter – no_talent_shan
[6] Twitter – jonny_is_good
[7] Twitter – Trillburne
[9] Twitter – AlexandraErin
[10] Reddit – /r/DirtbagLeft
[11] Reddit – /r/relationships
[12] Twitter – yungneocon?
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![Me [28/F] with my [27/M] BF of 5 yrs - he is obsessed with podcasts and can't hold down a job, but thinks I am shallow and bourgeoise. I don't know what to do. Relationships (self.relationships) submitted 6 hours ago * (last edited 55 minutes ago) by anotherthrowaway2222 My boyfriend and I have been dating for about 5 years. We get along very well and he is very kind, caring, sweet, our sex life is great, we rarely ever have serious fights, etc. When we met just after graduating, we were both underemployed creative types with somewhat useless art-school degrees; since then some combination of luck and hard work on my behalf has meant that I started to have a decent career (marketing for a tech company) and now make a decent salary (~$65k.) I am a photographer on the side which is what I (stupidly) went to school for, but I don't mind my day work, and I think I am lucky to have a good work/life balance. I don't know if I will ever make good money on my creative pursuits but I am happy I still get to do that on the side and I generally like my day job well enough. My boyfriend, however, has just been temping since he graduated 5 years ago, but very rarely gets more than a few days here or there. He works on some creative projects (painting & sometimes writing), but never seems to finish anything and does not make any money off it. He also recently got taken off his parents' health insurance, so he has none, which worries me as much of his family is diabetic and he has had some health issues in the past. His parents are pretty wealthy and will help him out in a pinch with things like rent and health expenses. (I do not have this luxury, my parents do not have money. His family isn't, like, crazy loaded but they have a nice house and go on loads of vacations and his parents drive BMWs and give him any money he asks for, etc.) For a while this didn't really bother me-again, we were both recent art school grads when we started dating, being broke is kind of par for the course-but since we've moved in together 2yrs ago, it has started to bother me. We were happy when we were both young and broke, but I am getting to a point where I would like to do things like go on a vacation or buy kitchen chairs instead of sitting on apple crates. It would make me feel great if he was able to contribute to things like this as well. But I feel very bad because he doesn't seem to care about these things and always says I am being very bourgeoise.](https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/list/002/590/270/a31.png "Dirtbag Left")
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