October 21, 2021:
Ken, the "ideas guy", feet on the table, toxic narcissist, overwhelmed with smugness and self-satisfaction, rehearses his "ideas".
"We should start a theoretical journal — like New Left Review, but back when it was good..." Or, "We should start a new Solidarity, only do it right..."
Stripped of his vanity he's an ordinary, even typical, left-ghetto wanker. Whose "ideas" are recycled, inevitably: the same-old-same-old, devoid of analysis or creativity or strategy or for the most part even simple self-reflection.
I don't know why my friend tolerates him. Apart from laudable and enviable patience with human frailty. So that our study group functions as a miniature coalition, where at least two of the participants detest each other but put aside their mutual visceral distaste for the well-being of the whole.