There's an ongoing discussion about whether or not the Left is eating itself.

It's a discussion that should come to a conclusion. Yes, the Left is obviously eating itself. Also, the Left is eating itself because it doesn't understand how or why it's doing it.

I'm not going to make any friends by pointing this out; but, fuck it. The Left is eating itself because it's not enough that a person agrees on principles in order to form an alliance. Most people on the Left will hit the block button if somebody on their side points out a flaw in their arguments. They refuse to handle constructive criticism.

Let's not pull any punches and go as controversial as possible. Take the abortion issue. Francesca Minerva, one of the people who wrote the academic paper in favor of after birth abortions, a person who is more pro-abortion than 99.9% of people, would probably be cancelled and shunned by the Left if she were to simply point out some flaws in popular argumentation.

"Men shouldn't be making laws about what women do with their bodies." If a fellow pro-choice person points out that Roe v Wade was decided entirely by men and that the reversal was voted for by a woman, they get blocked. If a fellow pro-choice person points out that men are more commonly pro-choice than women (which is true), most leftists block the person pointing that out.

"My body, my choice." Again, it doesn't matter how pro-choice the person is. The Left makes it dangerous for the person to point out the flaws in that statement.

If you're trying to cajole people who are anti-abortion, "My body, my choice." carries no weight. They don't care about your body. They care about the baby's body. They regard the baby as a separate entity. It's also easy to deconstruct your own opinion. If you see a woman taking a bunch of shots at a bar, you think that she's just having fun and it's her choice and her body. If you see a pregnant woman taking a bunch of shots, you're probably thinking about the damage being done to the fetus. It's not that cut and dry.

These aren't points that need to be made in a context of abridging abortion access. These are strategic points. There's a reason why playing devil's advocate is useful. Still, most people on the illiberal Left refuse to even listen to allies who point out flaws in their arguments.