The socialist movement, simply put, was not a space most ordinary people would want to enter. Though the angst of adolescence probably bears some responsibility, the very idea of a leftist politics that included any form of joy was basically alien. Weak-tea social democracy and anarcho-liberalism were on offer in magazines like Adbusters, whose outlook was invariably grey and leaden. Even at its best, a general aura of misanthropy seemed to seep through everything and the many vibrant currents that make up the socialist heritage often felt more like desiccated remnants than living traditions. Officially at least, history had ended sometime around the year of my birth and the Left, insofar as it still existed, was often lonely and depressing. But in thinking about what they mean to me, I find my mind drifting back nearly twenty years to my earliest days as a teenage leftist. Michael’s life and legacy will mean different things to those who knew him - personally, professionally, or by way of the endless stream of videos and commentary he produced at an almost jaw dropping rate. An ever insightful and well-informed voice on all matters political, he was also a paragon of empathy and comradely behavior. But in an environment prone to competition and factionalism, Michael’s reputation seemed as ecumenical as his politics, a fact that has been all too clear in the tremendous outpouring of grief that has come in the wake of his death.

As I quickly discovered after first meeting him in 2016, Michael embraced this sensibility as an operating principle in both an individual and a political sense, his personal warmth and socialist compassion being intimately intertwined.Īnyone who has spent time in the left media sphere knows that it can sometimes be a dispiriting and humorless place. In the days before his death, we’d been making plans to discuss his recently published book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right, on my podcast.īoth in style and argument, Michael’s book is a testament to the kind, generous, and inclusive vision of socialism that he championed - one willing to stare down the often overwhelming injustice of the world with grace, irony, and good humor. It was with a lacerating sadness that I received the news of Michael Brooks’s sudden passing earlier this week.

Michael brooks against the web