Do liberals adopt leftist personas to avoid confronting the consequences of liberalism? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 weeks ago by yunqihao@hexbear.net to c/asklemmygrad@lemmygrad.ml

12 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7373861

This might be a silly question, so I want to preface it with an apology in advance and if you think there is a better place to ask please let me know.

I’ve come across a large number of self-described “anarchists” or “non-communist leftists,” or the like, mostly online,thanks to where I live (谢天谢地). But whenever you look a bit closer, the pattern is the same: underneath the aesthetics and language, it’s just liberalism. Pro-NATO positions, contempt toward the global periphery, and extremely reactionary responses when imperialism or capitalism are seriously questioned.

So my question is: Is adopting these leftist identities a kind of defensive mechanism (an attempt to distance themselves from the real-world damage caused by liberal ideology) or am I misunderstanding what’s actually going on?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] pyromaiden@lemmygrad.ml 33 points 2 weeks ago

Some are baby leftists grappling with decades of propaganda.

Some are opportunists trying to alter the definition of words and dictate discourse so they can hijack popular socialist rhetoric for anti-socialist goals.

Some are genuinely confused and haven't fully grasped the contradictions of liberalism; believing the liberalism they see all around them is in fact a distortion or corruption of liberalism rather than actual liberalism and so are ideologically liberal while espousing apparent anti-liberalism because they don't understand that the consequences of their ideals when put into practice results in the very system they claim to oppose.