"Even though I'm a leftist. I think the left eats its own"
About this Quote
The line lands like a confession and a warning shot at the same time. By leading with "Even though I'm a leftist", Rall preemptively disarms the reflex accusation that criticism equals betrayal. It’s a classic insider move: claim membership, then spend political capital to say what outsiders aren’t allowed to say without being dismissed as trolls. The small, clipped syntax mirrors the posture of a cartoonist: economical, pointed, built to fit in a caption box.
"I think the left eats its own" is blunt because it’s meant to be. The phrase borrows from animal imagery and revolutionary folklore, suggesting a movement that turns predatory inward when it can’t find a clean external enemy. Subtext: purity tests, status games, and the social-media incentive to escalate conflict can make ideological communities act less like coalitions and more like tribunals. It’s not just "infighting"; it’s self-cannibalization as a kind of moral performance, where demonstrating righteousness sometimes matters more than winning power or building durable alliances.
Context matters: contemporary left politics, especially online, rewards call-outs and public shaming, and it punishes ambiguity. A cartoonist lives in the crosshairs of that dynamic. Satire depends on misreading risks and on offending someone; movements that demand constant rhetorical compliance become hostile terrain for artists. Rall’s intent isn’t to hand ammunition to the right so much as to name a self-destructive pattern that makes the left brittle, joyless, and easier to defeat. The sting is that he’s describing the cost of being "correct" when correctness becomes a weapon pointed at your own side.
"I think the left eats its own" is blunt because it’s meant to be. The phrase borrows from animal imagery and revolutionary folklore, suggesting a movement that turns predatory inward when it can’t find a clean external enemy. Subtext: purity tests, status games, and the social-media incentive to escalate conflict can make ideological communities act less like coalitions and more like tribunals. It’s not just "infighting"; it’s self-cannibalization as a kind of moral performance, where demonstrating righteousness sometimes matters more than winning power or building durable alliances.
Context matters: contemporary left politics, especially online, rewards call-outs and public shaming, and it punishes ambiguity. A cartoonist lives in the crosshairs of that dynamic. Satire depends on misreading risks and on offending someone; movements that demand constant rhetorical compliance become hostile terrain for artists. Rall’s intent isn’t to hand ammunition to the right so much as to name a self-destructive pattern that makes the left brittle, joyless, and easier to defeat. The sting is that he’s describing the cost of being "correct" when correctness becomes a weapon pointed at your own side.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
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