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FYI - what you call "far left" is considered pretty centrist in almost every other highly developed country. And the Bay Area as a whole is in no way "far left"
by imilk 5y ago
FYI - what you call "far left" is considered pretty centrist in almost every other highly developed country. And the Bay Area as a whole is in no way "far left".
- inglor_cz 5y agoSpeaking from Central Europe: economically sort-of, socially helluva no. Especially the awful obsession with race is nowhere near centrist in Europe.
- imilk 5y agoI'm speaking of climate change, healthcare, education, taxes, womens & minority rights, etc.. (central issues that matter to the country). It's entirely on you if you choose to get involved in the hot button social issue discussion of the week. If you don't care to engage in that, it doesn't affect you at all.
- inglor_cz 5y agoDepends. I am not sure what combination of policies created the San Francisco street filth and petty crime problems and whether those policies qualify as far left in the U.S. It is certainly an outlier in the developed world, too, especially when the total wealth of the region is taken into account.
- imilk 5y agoTake a trip to any of the major US cities (especially older US cities) and you'll find them by and large to be much much worse than SF in terms of crime. Which is a much more a result of the gross economic disparity found in America than any "far left" policies. Some people are very poor while others are very rich. The poor people feel desperate/trapped and want what the people living near them have. The only places with as much economic disparity as America that have less crime most often have authoritarian governments. Blaming a local city government for country-wide issues is quite short-sighted in perspective and not helpful when talking about solutions.
- atweiden 5y agoChina doesn’t have the same problems as the US, but has almost as much wealth disparity [1]. Economic determinism is junk science. [1]: https://china.usc.edu/wealth-inequality-us-and-china https://china.usc.edu/wealth-inequality-us-and-china
- imilk 5y ago> The only places with as much economic disparity as America that have less crime most often have authoritarian governments.
- atweiden 5y agoSweden has higher wealth inequality than the US, but far lower crime. See also: https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/ https://www.visionofhumanity.org/maps/
- imilk 5y agoIf you look at income inequality, the United States is far more unequal than Sweden: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_eq... If you look at wealth inequality, they are pretty much exactly the same: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_inequality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_wealth_in... But that also leaves out large programs in Sweden that vastly narrow the gap between rich & poor, which America does not have. Namely universal healthcare, free child care, free prenatal care, free school lunches, free college, union participation in 70% of the workforce (which provides additional unemployment benefits & pensions), and most retired persons being able to receive multiple public & private pensions. You cannot measure the desperation of poor in America vs Sweden without taking all of this into account. Furthermore, I'm struggling to see what your point is. All of the policies I listed above are considered "far left" by many people in America, yet seem to reduce the desperation of lower classes (and crime). So are you saying the America and cities like SF should adopt these "far left" policies? Because that's the exact opposite view of the parent comments that I've been replying to.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- k8sToGo 5y agoThe whole "woke culture" is definitely not considered centrist.
- SaberTail 5y agoYou'll find most extreme leftists (by that I mean marxists, maoists, dedicated anarchists) don't care much about "woke culture", because they care much more about class divisions than racial or gender or sexuality or other divisions. "Woke culture" is primarily a center-left phenomenon.
- sanxiyn 5y agoYes, but most center left is not woke. It's particularly American and Bay Area thing, weird to global central left.
- rufus_foreman 5y agoSome of the founders of Black Lives Matter described themselves as Marxist, and it was that organization that popularized the term. And for them it would be a mistake to focus only on class. They would argue that there are multiple systems of oppression that interact with each other and need to be considered as a whole rather than individually, the critical race theory term for that is intersectionality. I don't consider critical race theory to be a center-left phenomenon. Right wing politicians would be overjoyed to find out that people on the center-left do.
- nopenopenopeno 5y ago[flagged]
- imilk 5y agoFor the last few years, the only people using the word "woke" are constantly outraged conservative commentators. It's impossible to take you seriously when you use terms like that. Since I don't exist in that bubble, can you define "woke" & "woke culture"?
- 5y ago
- test0account 5y agoFrom France to Asia, Oceania and Latin America, the American Left is considered an extreme ideology.
- imilk 5y agoI couldn't disagree more. But based on your framing, we're obviously looking at 2 different realities that will not be able to find common ground here.
- test0account 5y agoFor the American Left, individual responsibility doesn't exist. We don't control our life. It's all about systemic <racism/sexism/classism/elitism> We in the rest of the world laugh our ass off.
- imilk 5y ago> For the American Left, individual responsibility doesn't exist. We don't control our life. You need to turn off the conservative talk shows for awhile and go for a nice walk outside. Maybe meet some real people and have an actual conversation. Because your post sounds completely deranged.
- alfalfasprout 5y agoyeah, no... most europeans make fun of the radical leftists you tend to find in the Bay Area when they encounter them.
- imilk 5y agoAre you saying they don't make fun of the "radical rightists" who deny climate change is real, refuse to take basic safety measure in a worldwide pandemic, decry a war on Christians & Christmas, yet worship a man who raw dogged a porn star when his 3rd wife was home with their new born baby? Your framing and perspective is interesting to say the least.
- math_denial 5y agoThe comment was talking about what it is being made fun of, that has no bearing of what it is not.
- imilk 5y agoSo most Europeans make fun of anyone outside of centrist politics in America? That seems to be such an amazing benign statement that it's not really saying anything at all.
- renewiltord 5y agoThat is not true. The American Left is concerned with issues in a manner that is not consistent with leftism elsewhere. Can you come up with mainstream centrist parties in Western nations that match what you believe are being described as “far left” here?
- imilk 5y agoOn issues that matter to the country like climate change, healthcare, education, taxes, womens & minority rights - sure there's plenty. If you're talking about hot button social issues of the week that right wing commentators care/talk about 1000x more than anyone else, I don't know because I don't care about that at all.