top 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[+] 88 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (35 children)
  • [–] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    I would just like to state that most Americans have no idea what the difference between a liberal and leftist is. When you say you're a liberal, they think you're a leftist. When you say you're a leftist, they think you're a leftist. The conflation will always be there, given the history of the US and decades of the usage of the conflation in everyday American language.

    Edit Addendum: it doesn't help that liberals/democratic establishment are somewhat more """"""""""left"""""""""" of the conservatives/Republicans, which is why liberals are grouped with the "left" in the US. It also doesn't help that the "left", who would be more accurately known as that grouping of socialists, communists, anarchists, and every other small or large anti-capitalist and or progressive political identity group, just call themselves "the left" or "leftist", playing into the idea that one's politics can be quickly understood by pointing to the linear spectrum of "right" and "left", as if these broad and false dichotomies fit reality to a tee or some shit.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (34 replies)
    [–] 54 points 1 year ago (44 children)

    Hey guys,

    Remember when we found out Russia and China were manipulating us into fighting between left and right, and now they’re dividing the left into 2 camps that are supposed to hate each other?

    Yeah.

    Yeah.

  • source
  • hideshow 44 child comments
  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago

    Lol. Yeah im sure that it's China and Russians who are causing leftist to not trust liberals. The last 300 years of human history in which liberals gleefully murdered leftists has nothing to do with it.

  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 8 points 1 year ago*

    The left has always been infighting. The two great memes of the left are walls of text and hating other leftists.

    But liberals are not leftists. And we’ve disliked you for decades and globally.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (24 replies)
    [–] 44 points 1 year ago (34 children)

    This is all bullshit.

    Who fucking cares about these definitions? All y'all have the same damn enemy. Worry about the enemy first. Iron out disagreements over terminology once the fascists are gone.

    It's so weird that people spend so much time debating this pointless garbage.

  • source
  • hideshow 34 child comments
  • [–] [S] 18 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

    Oh, the problem is much deeper than definitions. One group is socially progressive but economically right. Then, the other group is both progressive on social and economic issues. The economic policies is where the rift is.

    Edit: wording

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    And the economic right have had all the power for the last god knows how many election cycles... They've been chasing the unicorn moderate that would somehow vote Democrat, which doesn't exist, but in doing so they lose the "left" vote.

    Those "centrists" and "moderates" are conservatives that are disgusted by the GOP, but would never vote for Democrats because they don't agree with their policies. They have no party but the economic right liberals keep trying to attract them... Hopefully now with the change in DNC leadership they'll stop this losing game and actually be what their voters want them to be.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] [S] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

    The "unicorn moderate" used to exist, and they grew from post-war up to the early 2000s. They were called the middle class. Back then when the middle class was much more prominent and bigger, they could still afford both private healthcare and keep up with the cost of living. One of the key litmus test of being "moderate" is the survey on affordable healthcare. In early 00s, socialised healthcare was deeply unpopular. However, it was from during and after the Great Recession of 2008 that the middle class shrunk and recognised that people need more public assistance. Affordable healthcare became increasingly more popular as time went on.

    Rent have also become almost unaffordable since the recession. Ever since then, many proposals and plans to create affordable housing were made but have been blocked not just by corporations, but also by individual homeowners who don't want their house prices to go down. And one of the hard to swallow pills is that many of them are liberals. One could easily search online of affordable housing being voted down in California and New York, states that are liberal strongholds.

    There is a reason why Zohran Mamdani's New York mayoral campaign is more widely successful than other Democratic candidates. He is addressing the growing cost of living by wanting to cap rent prices and providing government run grocery stores, which made him popular among the poor. Because the middle class shrunk and people had been shoved into fringes of poverty. The "moderate" voters that the Democrats are chasing is no longer there. At this day and age, "moderate" for centrists and neoliberals means the wealthy, while pretending that the word means the middle class voters from 2000s.

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (31 replies)
    [–] 35 points 1 year ago (29 children)

    No,

    I think we've decided this. The left (rightfully) hates the Democrats.

  • source
  • hideshow 29 child comments
  • load more comments (18 replies)
    [+] 28 points 1 year ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (4 children)
  • [–] 28 points 1 year ago (7 children)

    american believing they have a left, Center left is the extreme end of the left in america, theres no lefter than that. most of them are on center right.

  • source
  • hideshow 7 child comments
  • [–] 14 points 1 year ago

    We have two viable political parties.

    Fascist extremists and their enablers. Vote blue no matter who, so maybe the fascists won't come for you.

    We have leftists with no one to vote for, shut out of politics by liberal NIMBYs who want good things to happen, they just don't want to see them. More concerned about the value of their house than the value of human life. We have extreme leftists, they're just not allowed to participate. And as of yet, none of them exist in enough numbers in the same place to start throwing Molotovs

  • source
  • parent
  • load more comments (4 replies)
    [–] 23 points 1 year ago (15 children)

    Liberals don't know they're conservatives.

  • source
  • hideshow 15 child comments
  • load more comments (15 replies)
    [–] 23 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Man, how fucking right wing do you need to be to consider liberalism to be left wing?

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • [–] 19 points 1 year ago (1 child)

    Fuck outta here, liberals shit on the left as much as conservatives do.

  • source
  • hideshow 1 child comment
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    Americans sometimes use the two words to mean the same thing. So in that context it's not as confusing but when they're speaking with non-Americans it can cause issues and clearer terminology would be nice

  • source
  • hideshow 3 child comments
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    [–] 15 points 1 year ago (5 children)

    Do not split.

    But what is happening in Hong Kong is they come up with a slogan, which is translated as Do Not Split, which is, we know that some people are willing to be confrontational with riot police.

    And when they are, that’s going to cost the state in terms of not only resources, but it’s going to cost the state in terms of political capital and support. And we know that there are some people who are not willing to do that. And we are going to abide by the protocol of Do Not Split, which means that we’re not going to criticize them openly, and they’re not going to criticize us openly.

    If we’re the pacifists, we’re not going to have them criticize us for being sort of like, I don’t know, limpid or flaccid or not courageous or whatever. And we’re not going to criticize them for being more confrontational. And the thing is that the support is also tacit.

    https://sh.itjust.works/post/42969194

  • source
  • hideshow 5 child comments
  • load more comments (5 replies)
    [–] 14 points 1 year ago (11 children)

    Any "left" that doesn't promote human rights can fuck right off back to the dictatorship it came from.

  • source
  • hideshow 11 child comments
  • load more comments (2 replies)
    [–] 12 points 1 year ago (10 children)

    Remove the American part. The right has found a nice way to divide the left and they're using it everywhere. If you find yourself hating everyone, using vitriole toward people on your side, stop and reflect that you're the problem.

  • source
  • hideshow 10 child comments
  • load more comments (10 replies)
    [+] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (3 children)
  • load more comments (1 reply)
    load more comments
    view more: next ›