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>In 2021, people are forced from employment over authoritarian (and bad) vaccine mandate, created in secret in 2021 by so-called leftists Is Joe Biden really a

by _etyf 5y ago

>In 2021, people are forced from employment over authoritarian (and bad) vaccine mandate, created in secret in 2021 by so-called leftists Is Joe Biden really a 'leftist'? He supports the private ownership of capital. I think most in the US would describe him as a liberal, and most self-identified leftists would describe him with unkindness.

krapp 5y ago
>Is Joe Biden really a 'leftist'? I think most in the US would describe him as a liberal, and most self-identified leftists would describe him with profanity. In American political discourse, any member of the Democratic Party is considered a "leftist' regardless of their beliefs or policies. You're correct that actual self-identified leftists (at least the ones I'm aware of) hate him. But remember that 'leftist' is used more often than not as a pejorative and dog-whistle for "radical Marxist" in the US than a descriptive political label outside of leftist circles.
- rbanffy 5y ago
  > But remember that 'leftist' is used more often than not as a pejorative and dog-whistle for "radical Marxist" in the US than a descriptive political label outside of leftist circles. As seen from anywhere else, the US right now has a center-right party, with a handful of timid socdem members (the Democrats) and a far-right (Republicans), along with some other marginal movements. Right now some people in the US would call Keynes a communist, or "radical Marxist", to use the dog-whistle you mentioned.
- _etyf 5y ago
  >In American political discourse, any member of the Democratic Party is considered a "leftist' regardless of their beliefs or policies. As an American living in America, this doesn't match my experience. My impression aligns with Urban Dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Leftist https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Leftist 'Leftist: A person belonging to the political left and usually identifying with the radical, anti capitalist, or revolutionary sectors of left politics. Includes anarchists, marxists, communists, socialists, and all other explicitly radical left ideologies.' There are absolutely conservative commentators who describe all Democratic Party voters as 'leftists', just as there are left-leaning commentators who describe all Republicans as 'fascists', but these descriptions are commonly understood to be hyperbole. I think when using words like 'leftist' among non-American company, we can agree that the current Presidential adminstration doesn't fit that label. Compare the current White House policy agenda to that of Germany's political party Die Linke, translated as "The Left": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany)
  - foxhop 5y ago
    [flagged]
  - krapp 5y ago
    >I think when using words like 'leftist' among non-American company, we can agree that the current Presidential adminstration doesn't fit that label. Absolutely. But the US doesn't really have a true Left in its political spectrum, it has a far right and center right, represented by the Republicans and Democrats respectively, so the scale is skewed. Also, hyperbole seems to be dominating the discourse at the moment, and not just from the commentariat. Everyone I know who would describe themselves as Conservative or Republican considers Biden a leftist.

by _etyf 5y ago

krapp 5y ago

>Is Joe Biden really a 'leftist'? I think most in the US would describe him as a liberal, and most self-identified leftists would describe him with profanity. In American political discourse, any member of the Democratic Party is considered a "leftist' regardless of their beliefs or policies. You're correct that actual self-identified leftists (at least the ones I'm aware of) hate him. But remember that 'leftist' is used more often than not as a pejorative and dog-whistle for "radical Marxist" in the US than a descriptive political label outside of leftist circles.

rbanffy 5y ago
> But remember that 'leftist' is used more often than not as a pejorative and dog-whistle for "radical Marxist" in the US than a descriptive political label outside of leftist circles. As seen from anywhere else, the US right now has a center-right party, with a handful of timid socdem members (the Democrats) and a far-right (Republicans), along with some other marginal movements. Right now some people in the US would call Keynes a communist, or "radical Marxist", to use the dog-whistle you mentioned.
_etyf 5y ago
>In American political discourse, any member of the Democratic Party is considered a "leftist' regardless of their beliefs or policies. As an American living in America, this doesn't match my experience. My impression aligns with Urban Dictionary: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Leftist https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Leftist 'Leftist: A person belonging to the political left and usually identifying with the radical, anti capitalist, or revolutionary sectors of left politics. Includes anarchists, marxists, communists, socialists, and all other explicitly radical left ideologies.' There are absolutely conservative commentators who describe all Democratic Party voters as 'leftists', just as there are left-leaning commentators who describe all Republicans as 'fascists', but these descriptions are commonly understood to be hyperbole. I think when using words like 'leftist' among non-American company, we can agree that the current Presidential adminstration doesn't fit that label. Compare the current White House policy agenda to that of Germany's political party Die Linke, translated as "The Left": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany)
- foxhop 5y ago
  [flagged]
- krapp 5y ago
  >I think when using words like 'leftist' among non-American company, we can agree that the current Presidential adminstration doesn't fit that label. Absolutely. But the US doesn't really have a true Left in its political spectrum, it has a far right and center right, represented by the Republicans and Democrats respectively, so the scale is skewed. Also, hyperbole seems to be dominating the discourse at the moment, and not just from the commentariat. Everyone I know who would describe themselves as Conservative or Republican considers Biden a leftist.