I was interested to see this guy’s conclusion that “the obsessively inward focus of the cultural left can also be understood as tragedy,” because I was scratching away at this thought the other day: /// Trump is the best chance the US left will have in my lifetime to reacquaint itself with parody as a mode of politics. Not centrist squawking dressed up as comedy, not the internal exile of cool irony, not the fauxrony of sarcasm — parody. If the left grabs the rubber ring, it’ll prosper; but if it clings to a tragic worldview it’ll lose and lose and lose. /// Here’s the thing: you don’t get to box in parody and say, “Well, OK, as long as it’s not abusive.” The whole f*cking point is the cultural freedom to be abusive. That’s what makes it politically potent.
(NYT)