Being on the left of the political spectrum seems to mean a lot of things these days. But what does it mean to you? Being a leftist can be associated with being for workers rights, a socialist, or even communist. For others, the most important thing is diversity and inclusion (also for the disabled). The other thing 'we' seem to be associated with is being green, unanimously vegetarians or vegan and all have a lot of armpit hair. A thing you often hear from more religious conservatives is that the left wants to expand abortion rights, and supports euthanasia. I am curious to see what it means to you!
To be honest, I would put myself on the conservative left. I tend to prioritize subjects like healthcare, housing, workers rights and inclusion over other things. Those are the things that are closest to my heart. As I person, I accept and have friends who currently are in transition. Others heavily support Greenpeace and don't even want to fly on an airplane because of the environment. To me that's fine, I accept all of that, but being left for me stands for:
1] affordable healthcare by publicly funded insurance for all 2] affordable housing - a human right, not a market. 3]* inclusion*: no matter your disability, gender or sexual preference: you should be allowed to participate and feel valued. 4] We make sure *we take care of our elderly & children *With available state pension, elderly homes, and childcare (However I would prefer grandparents or parents to take care of children) 5] no corporate mass surveillance by data brokers, capitalist tracking, age verification or censorship. Freedom of speech and information and proliferation of open source software.
It means retaining your humanity, or rediscovering it.
Capitalism teaches you to rationalize walking past a homeless beggar with the belief that either they had it coming, or that the problem is too complex and not solved by direct aid. More and more you are taught to see human beings as abstractions, because in capitalism we are abstractions, representatives of our narrow class interests. The role of capitalist, the role of worker — these roles have more reality than do the individuals performing them.
Capitalism teaches you to rationalize not merely animal suffering, not merely speciesism, but their industrialization and indefinite expansion. Capitalism did not invent these things but secures their basis. In the abstract it might be possible for any society to end its exploitation of animals, if there is a popular will to do so. In capitalism it becomes impossible because animal exploitation is profitable.
Capitalism teaches you to view nature as an external resource separate from yourself. There is no intrinsic value in a forest except its economic value. In the era of mass production, each material product contains less and less economic value; therefore we perceive less and less value in nature itself, as the material substance of these products. We view nature as disposable by the same degree that we see products as disposable.
Being left does start at anticapitalism, because capitalism alienates people from their own morality and human development.
"Sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That's what sin is."