The venerable Freddie deBoer, self-aware leftist, has some remarks on the following lefty generations (partial paywall, gives you a taste):
The idea that “the personal is political” has proven to be one of the worst intellectual developments in the history of the left. I would argue that, more than any other ideological influence, this idea has underpinned the social justice turn in American liberalism, which has transformed the language and norms of contemporary left-of-center people and briefly the politics of the Democratic party. That famous little nostrum has ruled over a period of time in which any sense of politics as an exercise beyond and outside of the self has collapsed, leaving us with generations of progressive people who think that doing politics is all about feeling and not doing, who mistake posting black squares on Instagram and liking Frank Ocean for doing politics. “The personal is political” is why people think that crying until the other person stops talking is an appropriate way to debate, why the representation of Black woman in the next season of Love is Blind is treated as a bigger deal than lead in the drinking water in Black communities, why autism and ADHD have become lifestyle trends with vague activist connotations, why an entire generation of culture writers churn out pieces about how Inspector Gadget is propaganda for white supremacy, why left-of-center American politics is so horribly immaterial, why feelings have utterly eaten actual material oppression as the concern of the left. I’m not a fan.
I had not thought about, nor observed, this. In a sense, the personal is political is anti-compromise; it admits no error as there is no appeal to shared thoughts, and so becomes anti-intellectual; as a failure to explore options, the left, like the right, becomes obdurate and arrogant in its pitiful world.
This may require some meditation.
Well said and articulated.