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I was lucky to speak with Matt Christman of Chapo Trap House about this—for the last year, Christman has been on Twitch publicly thinking out the post-Bernie moment, settling on no prescriptive conclusions, but discussing the spiritual crisis. “There needs to be an understanding of politics, and political engagement, that goes beyond personal satisfaction,” Christman said. Something will come next, and it needs to include, as Christman says, “a motivation that transcends the particular.”   We are all liberal subjects no matter what you call yourself on “The Left,” Christman points out. “All these definitions of self are already caught up in this sterile landscape. We don’t have a “Left” of any kind. It’s an affect and a subculture.” There are groups within that subculture, like the DSA, a late-capitalist AA meeting where like-minded people share their stories and build solidarity, but ultimately what the Cushvlog streams gesture at is something yet to be born.
Christman notes that whatever unnamed, future leftist movement arises, it will have to be born of the working class. The problem remains that the exterior compulsion in capitalism is something that you cannot negotiate with, or challenge. “This is the paradox,” Christman said. “If you really do take seriously the idea that it’s your responsibility to meaningfully challenge capitalism, you will be taken down a road of neurosis. Because, as one person, you really don’t have that ability. So, you have to simultaneously accept your powerlessness over these impersonal forces, and then, from that position, move forward in trying to challenge them anyway. And that requires an internal catalyst that overwrites your self interest and replaces it with something else. And I don’t know if that can be programmed or systematized.

Најзад постоје и системски узроци текућег сукоба у СНС-у. У једнопартијским системима политички конфликти одвијају се унутар владајуће странке, иза затворених врата. Такви сукоби бруталнији су него у плуралним системима, између легитимне власти и легитимне опозиције. У једном тренутку, због унутрашњих сукоба, власт постаје паралисана. Ауторитарни системи пропадају, често без видљивих разлога, када постану потпуно неспособни да решавају друштвене проблеме.

Вучић ће с времена на време организовати унутарпартијске чистке, како би јавност уверио да су други, а не он, криви, за неуспехе. Сукоби у СНС настају и због тога што у јавном сектору не постоји довољно синекура да би се задовољиле амбиције свих напредњачких ловаца на положаје. Спорови о томе "ко добија" наставиће се и после уклањања Стефановића.

Кампања која се води против Стефановића није уперена само према њему лично. СНС је постао неуобичајено масовна партија и стога тешка за контролу. Случај Стефановића треба да дисциплинује све чланове и да спречи настанак фракција које би угрозиле Вучића. То се види и по томе што је врх странке наредио подручним одборима да се осуда Стефановића доноси једногласно. У време Стаљинове владавине афирмисан је принцип јединоначалија. Додуше, чак и у време владавине Енвера Хоџе дешавало се да је на "изборима" неко гласао против.

But as Žižek points out, we all already know this today. One of the reasons businesses proclaim their (superficial) commitment to racial justice is because consumers will parrot a seemingly critical rhetoric about the fashion industry depending on unrealistic beauty standards, that clothes don’t make the man, and so on. And when pushed to defend their attachment to consumer products, they’ll note that Gucci supports the LGBTQ community, that Starbucks recently committed itself to hiring more female executives, or even claim that we’re just consuming “ironically.”

The combination of expressing awareness of our consumerism, with the symbolic escape provided by appeals to cosmetic inclusion or ironic dissociation, performs the same function that confession has for the Catholic church. It gives us a safe space to take a minimal distance from ideology, while ensuring we are as beholden to it as ever. In other words, the proper ideological subject isn’t one who doesn’t know what’s going on, but someone who says “I know, but…”

The same is true of political ideologies. One of the strange features about postmodern conservatism was the number of young right-wingers, particularly online, who claimed to be supporting Trump ironically or satirically. They often claimed this wasn’t about sticking up for anything like conservative principles, but instead “owning the libs” or sending a message to “elites.”

But of course these dissociations from reactionary views provided an ideal defense against conventional forms of criticism: whenever someone pointed out that Trumpists were often thin-skinned plutocrats defending an exploitative and bigoted system of power, postmodern conservatives could claim their support was all a big joke and mock critics for taking it seriously. Far from being countercultural, this allowed them to support reactionary ideas without having to take possession of them or offer justifications.