@kissane@mas.to I recall a story of Siddhartha, after he had achieved Enlightenment, he was suddenly so aware of his every step, because he didn't wish to kill even a single insect, even by accident. But eventually, he came to realize it was inevitable that one would be caught underfoot; that it is impossible to go through this life and never cause a single ounce of suffering. And so, eventually, he let go. He just walked. Intent matters and accidents happen. Even the man who started an entire religion about minimizing the impact you have on this earth realized that you would still have one, both positive and negative. And all that really matters in the end is that your every act is done with the intent of grace and compassion. Intent matters, and I think the Left will never truly make progress until we internalize this fact. Intent fucking matters. As others have pointed out as well, we people, critters and things are limited. We only have so many hours in a day and so much energy to work with and so many resources to give. We can't all fight every battle all at once. Hong Kong is still protesting and getting fucked by the CCP, Russia is still fighting Ukraine, Israel is still genociding Gaza while Evangelical Extremists try to turn America into a fascist dictator ship and big corporations burn the earth for profit and COVID ravages the lives of everyone. So tell me: how does one person fight on a hundred fronts? Or how many battles must I fight to be "left enough?" Or will we finally accept that not everyone has to fight every battle, and that no matter how hard we try we'll always be flawed and all that matters is the same thing Siddhartha did: that our every act is done with the intent of compassion, even if they don't always hit the mark? Edit: this is to say, I agree, and am adding my thoughts to yours.