Liberals will bend over backwards to avoid understanding concepts contrary to liberalism

Spoilers below

I won’t exaggerate the leftist content of Andor. It’s not an explicitly Marxist show. But there are many themes which line up excellently with Marxist themes and historical events; for example, the writer Tony Gilroy confirming that young Stalin inspired certain events and characters.

I’m excited to recommend this show to my non-leftist family to expose them to some less liberal thought with a focus on anti-imperialism. But some comments in the thread remind me how easily liberalism accommodates, and subordinates, other ways of thought into the liberal world view without being undermined.

The fact that revolution is messy doesn’t knock revolutionaries down to the same level as fascists. There can be no comparison between imperial violence and anti imperial violence, nor between privilege and oppression.

The loss of Kreegyr was a tragedy because it was predictable yet unavoidable, like a slow moving train wreck. It’s not because revolutionaries are inherently bloodthirsty and callous by nature. Luthen himself may be, but he is also correct in identifying the necessity of the action within the context of war.

Moreover Saw Guerrera was correct to refuse alliance with liberals and centrists. Mere ideological purity was not his concern. He said it himself: those organizations lacked “clarity of purpose.” They refused or were unable to formulate a theory of the struggle and were therefore unreliable, if not dangerous, as allies. History shows this to be the correct stance to take with respect to social democracy and left liberalism.