Leftist Unity
This isn't going to be terribly organized since I'm just basically thinking out loud.
A thing that has always been weird to me online is how a lot of people discuss the topic of "leftist unity" because it feels like a lot of people interpret it in maybe the least helpful way imaginable.
One common way I see it interpreted as is just...we need to let anybody who is a self described leftist, regardless of actual ideology and opinions, into leftist spaces because "it isn't a social club" and I disagree with this for a few reasons.
One is that "the left" is being used pretty broadly these days and can include anybody from progressive democrats who are pro-neoliberalism and ostensibly anti-capitalist (more accurately, they're anti-corruption and just hate Amazon...which is fair, but not enough) to anarchists who want to dismantle all unjust hierarchies including class and the state. I agree, it's not a social club, that's why we should be more picky about who we choose to ally with. Liberals are good allies for things like LGBT rights and women's rights, but even then, it's only as long as those are still relatively mainstream and not risky positions to hold. They will turn their backs on these positions the second it feels like holding them will negatively impact them beyond conservatives thinking they're annoying woke snowflakes.
I do not care about "purity testing" and am almost about to endorse it simply because of my experiences with anarchists (as in "pure" anarchists, no other descriptor. Anarcho-communists, I am not including us here). I feel like anarchy and anarchism has been recuperated as kind of just "a thing I will call myself to sound edgy" instead of like. A philosophical position. I do not think being "just" an anarchist really cuts it, but I do think many anarchists are comrades who want the same things...but there's definitely a lot of anarchists who are basically liberals who like the aesthetic of being a radical. I'll probably engage in some leftist infighting at a later date.
Another group that I want to add to my "we cannot work with these people" list is "post left" types. They reject class analysis and if we can't even agree on something that fundamental, I do not think we will be able to work together. I'm not a class reductionist, but I am capable of understanding that wealth and power protects you from both consequences and bigotry.
I am not against the idea of "leftist unity", I am honestly pretty pro-leftist unity, it just depends on who we mean by "leftist". I consider most Marxist-Leninists to be comrades, for instance. We are not far enough along that our differences matter that much. Nothing that divides us ideologically actually matters until we are post-revolution and, considering we aren't even close to that, there is no point in arguing about how we should organize ourselves after the revolution comes. On the other hand, I do not consider most socialists to be comrades because they favor reform and I do not think capitalism can be reformed in a way that makes it suddenly good for humanity.
Personally, I'm also pretty pragmatic. If the Marxist-Leninists (or any other leftist faction) are the ones who end up leading, then I'll follow. Capitalism is literally killing the planet and if we don't do something, it will actually wipe us out. We do not have the luxury of time, unfortunately.