this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2024
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Memes

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[–] [email protected] 89 points 3 months ago (3 children)

For those in here that take offense to this distinction:

2 party political systems function to collapse diverse political perspectives into one of two camps and normalize an 'average' view for both parties. Leftists take issue with this collapse because it erases dissenting views within each party in service of defeating an 'other' at the expense of pursuing our real political goals.

The label matters to those of us who want to make the point that the US democratic party does not really represent our interests; at-best they represent a less-objectionable flavor of the same ideological framework, but one that needs to be dismantled all the same.

"Stop trying to divide us!" is a refrain spoken by those who are better served by the party than we are.

Put another way: "We are not the same"

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (32 children)

I think the current best demonstration on this is how hard people are pushing Mark Kelly as VP.

They push a center-right president onto the stage and then dangle another "centrist" to try and, what? Appeal to Never Trumper Republicans? Racists?

How about you offer actual progressives some goddamn enticement for once and offer it to Jamaal Bowman, who the Dems primaried in favor of a genocidal AIPAC stooge?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Very well put

[–] [email protected] 58 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Every single democrat politician is “radical leftist [name]”

It’s the new communist. They just throw the word out all the time making it functionally meaningless.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago

They didn't like John McCain, so they lumped him in with the rest of us.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

The upside of that is it works against their overton window dragging, if you are going to be called a commie leftist no matter what might as well lean into it

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago

How does it work against overton window dragging if saying "maybe people should stop dying of preventable disease in the wealthiest country on earth" gets you labelled a communist? It's precisely the sign that the overton window is shifted to the far right

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 3 months ago (31 children)

Meh, though the meme is true, most Americans would say liberals are EVERYONE left of center, and conservatives are EVERYONE right of center.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago (1 children)

What most Americans think of as 'center' is way fucking right compared to most of the world.

Here Bernie Sanders is a radically dangerous communist.

In other parts of the world he is just considered a bit progressive.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

Bernie is barely left of center on the world stage

[–] [email protected] 11 points 3 months ago (2 children)

The center is now also conservative, unfortunately.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 3 months ago (20 children)

Using neo-liberals to define liberals is like using national socialism to define socialism.

It's authoritarian propaganda.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago (1 children)

When you have only two parties you can only have one dimension.

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (17 children)

Do these labels really have any benefit or value in society, or are they just yet another lame excuse for us all to hate on a group of 'others'

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago

They referred to specific ideologies and economic and social policies before the modern corporate propaganda machine really started in the 80s. Pretty sure they’re meaningless to most Americans these days.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

.ml has entered the chat

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago (2 children)

TBF there are about seven mutually exclusive definitions of “liberal” in each country.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The thing I love about lemmy is instead of neoliberals and weird racists silencing Leftists like reddit, it's Leftists and Social democrats constantly at each other's throats.

The latter is much more amusing

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The latter is much more amusing

same here; but likely for different reasons.

i like learning about viewpoints that differ from mine; i think they help me question my own beliefs and, usually, it re-enforces them.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Yeah, on reddit, if you're not the mainstream reddit opinion you have to hide in an echo chamber, if you are the mainstream, then most of the platform is one giant echo chamber.

It doesn't help that they're all exceptionally rude and confrontational

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Americans are actually taught in school that the entire American political spectrum is inside liberalism.

They then immediately forget that anyway and fall into the conservative/liberal false paradigm.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Even apps like Bumble don't make a distinction, as an European I find it quite annoying

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