Mutant Socialists Assemble!

A Bad Leftist Conversation with David Moscrop and Jeff Wheeldon

In this episode I speak with two returning guests, political columnist and commentator David Moscrop and politician Jeff Wheeldon.

As you’ll discover, the origin story for what you’ll about to hear kicked off when David used the terms mutant socialist and bad leftist in our previous conversation. There was something about those terms, and the thoughts surrounding them, that helped me feel very seen and understood. And it also reminded me a lot of the conversation I had with Jeff on this show.

The three of us all lean to the left in our politics, but that doesn’t mean we feel totally at home within what constitutes ‘The Left’ today. And for me personally, this reality actually goes a fairly long way in accounting for why I started Personalist Manifesto(s): to explore what it could look like to venture into uncharted political territory in our fraught right, left, and centre, landscape today.

And so, I thought, “Well… Maybe I—maybe we—are mutant socialists?” And then, the idea for this assembly was born: a mutant socialist assembly, a bad leftist conversation, where we talk politics in ways that do and don’t fit with many of the options on offer today, and we see if that resonates with ourselves and anyone listening.

We cover a lot of ground here: 90s pop culture, technology, institutions, localized politics, and lots in between. And we hope, in covering this ground, you feel encouraged to practice touch the grass, love your neighbour, politics wherever you happen to be.

And so with that, here’s my conversation with David and Jeff—the mutant socialist crew.

Bios

David Moscrop is a politics columnist, commentator, and author of Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions And How We Can Make Better Ones. His work has appeared in outlets including Globe and Mail, the Washington Post, the Walrus, Time Magazine, the Guardian, and Jacobin. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of British Columbia.

Jeff Wheeldon blogs on municipal politics, and still occasionally publishes essays on politics, religion, and sociology.

Links

David’s Book: Too Dumb for Democracy? Why We Make Bad Political Decisions and How We Can Make Better Ones

David’s Substack

David’s Bluesky

David’s Twitter