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Extreme left is probably not quite right, "totalitarian left" would probably be closer to the mark. A left that considers all its views and actions beyond quest

by makomk 9y ago

Extreme left is probably not quite right, "totalitarian left" would probably be closer to the mark. A left that considers all its views and actions beyond question and wields social justice ideas as weapons against dissent. For example, remember how every criticism of Hillary Clinton the neoliberal warmonger was and still is blamed on misogyny? How Sanders and his supporters were smeared as sexists and racists and all sorts? Every single idea in the modern social justice arsenal has become a cynical tool to protect the powerful and the status quo. And don't even get me started on the gloating about poor, lower-class white folks dying of drug addictions, or the articles in rags like the Guardian hoping for the day when demographic shifts mean the Democrats don't have to care about what happens to them anymore because their votes are irrelevant; Richard Spencer couldn't come up with a better fucking argument for white supremacy if he tried. It doesn't matter that none of this is actually left-wing, because it's beyond criticism or challenge.

s_kilk 9y ago
The thing you're talking about is not Leftism, it's Identitarianism. Remember, the left-right dichotomy is about how the means of production should be owned and controlled. While the Left does also stand for such progressive causes such as anti-racism and anti-sexism, the contemporary Liberal/Clintonite strain of Identitarianism doesn't have much overlap with actual Leftism.
- digi_owl 9y ago
  Not quite. Back in the day the left-right thing happened over who backed the king of France or not, by where they physically stood in the room. And it was very much a social rather than economical thing back then. Keep in mind that right-wing has often been used synonymously with conservative. As in preserving the social status quo of classes and whatsnot. Later on, with socialism/communism coming into play, workers parties and traditional leftist parties found much common ground. In Norway we have this "hilarious" situation where we have two parties names Venstre (Left) and Høyre (Right), whole both are to the right politically speaking of Arbeiderpartiet (Workers Party). BTW Venstre is a bit player in Norwegian politics these days, while the biggest parties are Arbeiderpartiet and Høyre (the two taking turns leading the government in cooperation with various smaller parties). During the last 4 years Venstre has even acted as a underwriter of the Høyre lead government, even though they keep voicing disproval of their actual policies.
dang 9y ago
> Extreme left is probably not quite right, "totalitarian left" would probably be closer to the mark The combination of name-calling ('totalitarian') and ideological ranting makes this comment cross the line of what's seriously off-topic here. Please don't post like this. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14630220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14630220.

by makomk 9y ago

s_kilk 9y ago

The thing you're talking about is not Leftism, it's Identitarianism. Remember, the left-right dichotomy is about how the means of production should be owned and controlled. While the Left does also stand for such progressive causes such as anti-racism and anti-sexism, the contemporary Liberal/Clintonite strain of Identitarianism doesn't have much overlap with actual Leftism.

digi_owl 9y ago
Not quite. Back in the day the left-right thing happened over who backed the king of France or not, by where they physically stood in the room. And it was very much a social rather than economical thing back then. Keep in mind that right-wing has often been used synonymously with conservative. As in preserving the social status quo of classes and whatsnot. Later on, with socialism/communism coming into play, workers parties and traditional leftist parties found much common ground. In Norway we have this "hilarious" situation where we have two parties names Venstre (Left) and Høyre (Right), whole both are to the right politically speaking of Arbeiderpartiet (Workers Party). BTW Venstre is a bit player in Norwegian politics these days, while the biggest parties are Arbeiderpartiet and Høyre (the two taking turns leading the government in cooperation with various smaller parties). During the last 4 years Venstre has even acted as a underwriter of the Høyre lead government, even though they keep voicing disproval of their actual policies.

dang 9y ago

> Extreme left is probably not quite right, "totalitarian left" would probably be closer to the mark The combination of name-calling ('totalitarian') and ideological ranting makes this comment cross the line of what's seriously off-topic here. Please don't post like this. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14630220 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14630220.