Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs magazine. He’s a self-proclaimed socialist who dresses like a leprechaun and is full of smart opinions about everything under the sun. Robinson loves to write on and on about his big ideas using big words.
He can tell you why Trump is bad by writing a 10,000 word essay about ideology, or why his sociology degree from Harvard makes him an expert on economics. In short: Nathan J. Robinson is a complete idiot.
He’s also a massive liar…because when the rubber met the road and his staff wanted to form a worker co-op, this “socialist” went ape crap and fired them all.
Robinson’s Rollercoaster Ride
Robinson has run his site since 2015. He’s a big old pacifist and libertarian socialist. He just wants everyone to get along and be, like, more equal, like, you know? He loves Noam Chomsky and other communists and is famous for writing the book Why You Should Be a Socialist.
However, on August 8, when his staff tried to band together and unionize and get more rights, Robinson got angry. He started kicking people out of the magazine and moving others to lower positions to strip them of power.
All it took for this leery leprechaun’s inner Stalin to emerge was a tiny challenge to his power. Then he lost all the fake gloss of niceness on his socialism and revealed its true face: bullying bull crap authoritarian leftism.
the only good thing about what happened at Current Affairs is that everyone is even more free to make fun of nathan robinson, his hat, the way he looks in his hat, his little doll clothes, his hat again,
— Patrick Cosmos (@veryimportant) August 18, 2021
No Democracy Here
Robinson’s employees said they feel “sad” and “betrayed” after he fired and demoted them. Robinson got angry and became a tyrant as soon as they tried to get any more worker rights.
Meanwhile, for his part, Robinson wrote a big whiny post on Facebook where he is (of course) the victim and this was just a temporary slip up of not “living up to” his core beliefs. Robinson said he will work hard to “rebuild trust” and he’s “really sad” that he managed to screw it up with his firings.
Nothing better than seeing rich over educated leftists like Nathan — constantly online, obsessed w/style & symbols & language policing, who sneers at at actual working class concerns like gun violence — throw a tantrum when asked to live up to any supposedly radical principles.
— Lee Fang (@lhfang) August 18, 2021
The Bottom Line
Robinson’s employees weren’t just after money; they wanted more say in what gets published. As the founder of the magazine, Robison got upset and shut it down. That’s actually understandable, and the founder and boss of a company has the right to put his or her foot down.
The issue here is not that Robinson is a mean guy. It’s that he’s a hypocritical idiot. He’s built a career off whining about high-minded ideas and bolstering his idealistic version of socialism, but when things got tough he folded immediately and his inner strongman emerged.
It turned out Robinson believed in socialism enough to write about it and make excuses for its centuries of crimes, but not enough to actually let it have sway in his organization. Typical.
