• sailingbythelee@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I think Americans need to absorb a bit more global context about the left-right spectrum. I see people saying that policies like universal health care, access to abortion, basic worker rights and affordable education are “far left”. Most of the proposed policies of the left in the US are centrist in the rest of the Western world. Unless you are advocating for a Communist regime along the lines of the Soviet Union or Maoist China, you aren’t really “far left”. Similarly, unless someone is advocating for a fascist dictator state, we should probably not call them “far right”. Of course, that is what Trumpists advocate for, so they really are far right!

    • johannesvanderwhales@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      There are quite a few actual leftists on Lemmy. I don’t think they’re confused and as the meme suggests, they’re rather vocal.

      Meanwhile Trump and other far right people have tried to brand liberals as “radical left” which is just silly, but a lot of news sources seem content to parrot alt-right rhetoric. One thing the Republican Party has always been good at is poisoning the well.

    • lemmyrolinga@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      Those terms are so vague and have so different meanings to a lot of people that I often avoid using them… I recently read the idea that egalitarian=left // strong hierarchy=right and it kinda makes sense, but it’s still quite debatable

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Generally it’s better to separate views by who supports them, and who they benefit. Leftists tend to support the Proletariat, whereas rightists tend to support the bourgeoisie.

        • lemmyrolinga@lemmy.ml
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          8 months ago

          I’m not sure its that easy nowadays, when lots of freelancers and self-exploiters struggle while being considered bourgeoisie. Or at least, not “proletariat”. The lines are not as clear as they used to be.

          • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            If you’re working five days a week for a living, you’re not really a part of the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie are the business owners, not the business managers and assistants. At best, a freelancer with no employees under them would be petite-bourgeoisie. You wouldn’t graduate to the bourgeoisie until you have a few employees under yourself, who take care of the day-to-day operations.

            A lone freelancer is just a step away from an employee, with none of the legal protections. Hire a manager to run the day-to-day op, and employees to do the grunt work, thus freeing yourself up to sit back and collect profits. Then you would start to be the bourgeoisie, because you only need to check in to ensure everything is running smoothly and occasionally sign some new contracts. The majority of your time isn’t being spent at work for someone else.

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            8 months ago

            Freelancers and self-exploiters are petite-bourgoisie, not bourgeoisie. Class mechanics definitely hold up.

    • m13@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      To be “on the left” at minimum you need to be totally opposed to the capitalist system.

      From there, there are many ideologies to choose from whether authoritarian (like Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, Stalinism, etc.) or anti-authoritarian: mutualism, communalism, one of the many strains of anarchism, etc.

      Also if you’re authoritarian I’d say it’s questionable whether you’re still on the left.

      • brain_in_a_box@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        If you believe that “authoritarian” is a well defined or meaningful term and not just a snarl word created during the cold war to equivocate communists and Nazis, I’d say it’s questionable whether you’re still on the left.

  • hperrin@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I’m not far-left, I’m extreme far-left. Radical far-left if you will. I want everyone to have healthcare and adequate housing. (spooky noises)

  • antidote101@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I don’t really get the far left image, is it saying people on the far left are sponsored by tyre and racing companies?

  • Hikermick@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I don’t know. People will proudy tell you they are staunch conservative anti socialist, all while collecting a check from the government

      • BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Far left is no landlords really. Like maybe small scale for like older people who prefer not to own condos and do any maintenance in elderly years, or students or people temporarily in another country or something, but no massive bloated greedy parasites like now.

  • saltesc@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    *In the US

    Go to most other Western societies and your version of “far-left” is new, naive, and conservative. In my country, most right-wingers back all the “socialism”—by American definition—that we have.

    Y’all got decades of catching up to do. I admire the surge, but you’ve got a lot of examples around the world of how to actually do it. All the while also understanding what you apparently claim to stand for.

    Keep enjoying that Us versus Them game though, since that’s more what Americanism is into. Love that division. Good job 👍 /s

    • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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      8 months ago

      This meme references the “far-left,” ie Communists, Socialists, Anarchists, etc, not the Social Democrats. If it was referring to the American “left,” it would say “liberals.”

    • radicalautonomy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      “Yeah, but if you go to those countries in Europe, you’ll find that almost no one likes the socialized health care they have in their country.” - Every American conservative and libertarian ever trying to defend the freedumb of paying thousands of dollars out of pocket each year for basic medical treatment.

      • VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I love the NHS in my country. I’m currently in hospital right now and the staff are fucking amazing but it’s underfunded so I got stuck in an isolation room all of Saturday after being transferred to another hospital. Anyway the staff isn’t the problem, it’s the lack of support and funding that’s killing the quality of the service which everyone i.e patients, staff, even politicians all agree on.

    • Mr_Blott@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      “In polite conversation, one should never mention religion or politics, as it never ends well”

      Americans - “Hold my beer”

  • NutWrench@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Middle-of-the-road person: “You are not in a culture war or an ideology war. You are both in a CLASS war, run by billionaires who are the REAL source of your pain. They use the six corporations that control all the news to distract you and keep you fighting with each other so that they . . . the rich . . . can run off with all the f*cking money.”

    • Wilzax@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The economic left/right scale is and has always been a measure of which side of the class war you support.

    • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Welcome to being a leftist who’s so fucking stupid they think they’re a centrist.

      • Semperverus@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I think that the key difference here that would make two people who agree with this statement a centerist or a leftist is whether or not they feel visceral hatred for the right or if they treat them like human beings.

      • thesporkeffect@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        No, we think woke is hysterical because no right wingers know what it means. I’ll happily call myself woke, but I also use it as a sarcastic pejorative