Define what being a "Leftist" is

Is a Leftist different from a Liberal?

  • Total voters
    53
  • Poll closed .
Lucifer Alpha said:
This is the difference.

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Does she have a bathtub tattoo?
Dafuq?
 
Kafir-kun said:
You're not? I think you can see why some of us might assume so since you are a leftist and, well, there's your username. I thought you were and I'm not using commie as a pejorative, just thought you were a sincere communist.

If not a communist, how would you describe yourself?
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Well, the thing is that "communist" is an incredibly complex term, historically speaking, and it just so happens that most of the people who use the word have no concept of what they are implying. I usually try to explain the term as having two different meanings: a meaning that shoots from ideology and a meaning that shoots from status as an historical artifact of the 20th century.

Originally, the term "communist" would have referred to a person following the dictates of Marx's Communist Manifesto, which was more of an abbreviated call to arms than the more detailed political and economic framework that he would build in subsequent works. To that extent, yes, I'm a Marxist.

However, following the October Revolution, the rise of Leninism and the eventual commandeering of the revolutionary government by Stalin towards Stalinism, "communism" and the Stalin-termed "Marxism-Leninism" were stark departures from Marx. Likewise, most all "communist" revolutions in the subsequent decades followed the Leninist-Stalinist path in seizing state control. The Soviets and the US were both absolutely willing to affirmatively conflate socialism and communism with the brutal Soviet machine, and, since then, "communist" as a social artifact generally implies the promulgation of an authoritarian autocracy where some basic public programs are provided to create a relatively high floor on living standards, but wherein the state not only positions itself to wither at the behest of the collective economy, but expands into the private lives of citizens and recklessly expropriates wealth into the bureaucracy.

So, I try to avoid the term "communist" altogether, as my beliefs are not at all similar to those of persons like Stalin or Mao, neither of whom furthered good faith interpretations of Marx. I prefer "leftist" or "socialist" (the latter of which has faced similar conflation and smearing in the US, but not as badly).
 
Trotsky said:
Well, the thing is that "communist" is an incredibly complex term, historically speaking, and it just so happens that most of the people who use the word have no concept of what they are implying. I usually try to explain the term as having two different meanings: a meaning that shoots from ideology and a meaning that shoots from status as an historical artifact of the 20th century.

Originally, the term "communist" would have referred to a person following the dictates of Marx's Communist Manifesto, which was more of an abbreviated call to arms than the more detailed political and economic framework that he would build in subsequent works. To that extent, yes, I'm a Marxist.

However, following the October Revolution, the rise of Leninism and the eventual commandeering of the revolutionary government by Stalin towards Stalinism, "communism" and the Stalin-termed "Marxism-Leninism" were stark departures from Marx. Likewise, most all "communist" revolutions in the subsequent decades followed the Leninist-Stalinist path in seizing state control. The Soviets and the US were both absolutely willing to affirmatively conflate socialism and communism with the brutal Soviet machine, and, since then, "communist" as a social artifact generally implies the promulgation of an authoritarian autocracy where some basic public programs are provided to create a relatively high floor on living standards, but wherein the state not only positions itself to wither at the behest of the collective economy, but expands into the private lives of citizens and recklessly expropriates wealth into the bureaucracy.

So, I try to avoid the term "communist" altogether, as my beliefs are not at all similar to those of persons like Stalin or Mao, neither of whom furthered good faith interpretations of Marx. I prefer "leftist" or "socialist" (the latter of which has faced similar conflation and smearing in the US, but not as badly).
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Ah I see, I figured it was something like that.
 
There are left or rights. There is just haves and have nots. And the haves will continue to fuck the have nots to keep what they have.
 
Leftists do not adhere to the motions of liberalism, in fact in most cases they seem to utterly detest it.

They're cultural Marxists who seem to have warped view of how the world should work, ignoring the fact that their ideals have proven to be inherently faulty.
 
HomerThompson said:
Well, it's certainly embarrassing from an intellectual, and moral perspective.
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You're someone that wants to throw people in cages and shoot them if they resist extortion, and you're trying to claim a moral high ground on the terms that people shouldn't be free to associate.

A paragon and arbiter of virtue indeed.
 
I'm surprised someone actually identified as a Leftist unironically itt.

My impression was always that it was a term used to describe the straw people who hold together all most wily mischaracterizations of non-conservative positions.

In other words, I typically ignore it. But maybe I'm wrong.
 
Both are so completely and widely redefined in common use as to creating more confusion than clarity.
 
lilelvis said:
A liberal is classic American. Freedom socially, a free and unbiased market and a voice in an unbiased political system. Purely merit based outside REAL and uncontrollable inability to compete with peers.
Leftism is steal from achievers, give to the inept. Simple.
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I'm a lefty but don't fit under either of those.
 
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