While I think the rape simile is way out of line, bordering on the Goodwinesque, I'll leave that particular can of worms for another time.

But what I do think we're seeing here is a bit of the friction that exists between the two wings of the modern left.

My own political sympathies hark back to the old pre-1968 industrialist social-democrat movement; you know, infrastructure, jobs and housing, and meat in every pot, and a big dollop of scepticism towards New-Agey emotionalism.

For this wing it's all about lifting the working classes into the affluent middle class, so they can turn right around and vote conservative ;) And if some virgin forest has to go to make that happen, tough cookies!

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