Someone go get that guy complaining about 'bothsiders' on lw last week.
this post was submitted on 12 May 2025
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Leftists can pat themselves on the back for knowing this all they want... but the truth of the matter is that even leftists themselves have largely fallen for the propagandistic myth that liberalism is (somehow) "less" right-wing than it's fascist co-conspirators.
Just the introductory Wikipedia page on liberalism makes it perfectly clear that liberalism fetishises the very "ideals" that all but ensure the power and privilege of the already-wealthy at the expense of everyone and everything else (you know... the power and privilege that fascism exists to protect through the use of unbridled state violence) - yet I do not see leftists coming up with any bright ideas to fight liberalism in the same way that leftists oppose fascism.
Leftists come up with bright ideas to fight capitalist liberals since thousands of years.
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Liberals are fascist apologists.
The do a LOT more than just apologise for fascists, I'm afraid.
the truth of the matter is that even leftists themselves have largely fallen for the propagandistic myth that liberalism is (somehow) “less” right-wing than it’s fascist co-conspirators.
I believe the line is "fascism is imperialism returning to the core". But if you're living in the core, there's obviously a huge difference.
liberalism fetishises the very “ideals” that all but ensure the power and privilege of the already-wealthy at the expense of everyone and everything else
When aristocrats run your schools, you're going to get an academic view that's very friendly to their place in the world.
But that isn't strictly an issue of liberalism, it's the corrosive consequences of philanthropy. Powerful and privileged people fetishize themselves. The rest of us are left to rationalize what we see and hear from a privatized media.
I believe the line is “fascism is imperialism returning to the core”.
I prefer mine - fascism is just colonialism coming home to roost.
But if you’re living in the core, there’s obviously a huge difference.
I don't really understand what you mean by this.
But that isn’t strictly an issue of liberalism, it’s the corrosive consequences of philanthropy.
I'd say that it is... so-called "philanthropy" is a perfectly liberal way of "humanising" the intended beneficiaries of liberal ideology - ie, capitalists. It's no different than the aristocracy "humanising" themselves by tossing alms to the peasantry.
I don’t really understand what you mean by this.
I mean there's a very big difference between living in the comfort of the core under a liberal regime and living during a reactionary pogrom.
I’d say that it is… so-called “philanthropy” is a perfectly liberal way of “humanising” the intended beneficiaries of liberal ideology - ie, capitalists. It’s no different than the aristocracy “humanising” themselves by tossing alms to the peasantry.
Sure. The only real difference is technology and scale. But the scale matters a lot, because its easy to see a straight line between a lord's lackey distributing alms. It is significantly more difficult for someone to understand why AEI shills and Ford Foundation hacks keep showing up on NPR to parrot right-wing economic talking points couched in progressive verbage. It is more difficult to understand the scale of Walton Family wealth or the degree to which cryptocurrency speculation has been used to hijack Congressional campaigns.
Larger and more complex systems are more difficult to resist, in no small part because they become difficult to recognize as a material problem rather than just a foundation of daily life.
Uhh, which leftists have you been talking to? Are you sure they weren't psyops?
Since the majority of the population is liberal in the US. To effectively fight fascism is to work with liberals against fascism. We don't have to agree with liberals. Once we have some room to breathe we can then start picking fights with liberals again.
To effectively fight fascism is to work with liberals against fascism.
You CAN'T fight fascism in alliance with the very people who literally invented fascist institutions (such as the police, for instance) to protect the status quo from the people at the bottom of our society.
The fascists ARE their allies.
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The study doesn't match the headline.
Seriously. The rhetorical shift:
Study of American men's self-reported political affiliation shows that "moderate" aligns pretty closely with "conservative."
Headline assigns "moderate" political affiliation to Joe Biden, to suggest that Joe Biden's policies align closely with "conservative."
Biden campaigned on being the most progressive president in U.S. history. Did he deliver? Not on all metrics, but whatever it is he did, he wasn't a secret conservative pretending to be moderate. The most you can accuse him of is being a moderate pretending to be progressive.
Biden was a fundamentalist catholic who thought homosexuality was a sin and abortion was murder.
Everything he did that could be considered progressive he did as a compromise to his own values - that's what makes him a moderate.
That's exactly the type of person this article is talking about.
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"Men on dating apps who say they're moderate are conservative"
First, we knew that. Second, Biden is not on a dating app.
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Segregationist Biden is a moderate?
“I’m a liberal on health care because I believe it is a birth right of every human being—not just some damn privilege to be meted out to a few people. But when it comes to issues like abortion, amnesty, and acid, I’m about as liberal as your grandmother. I don’t like the Supreme Court decision on abortion. I think it went too far. I don’t think that a woman has the sole right to say what should happen to her body. I support a limited amnesty, and I don’t think marijuana should be legalized.”
Actions speak louder than words:
Definitely wasn’t disagreeing with you haha
The entire issue with “the middle ground” is that it’s based in relativistic politics which is a complete non-stater since their goal is specifically to not to commit enough to any action such that it actually succeeds. There’re no thoughts behind those eyes, just a weird and bad compromise because they don’t understand anything and are just barely good enough people to not go 100% into hating minorities.
Yes! These people don't have strong enough opinions to change things, therefore they support the Status quo, which is conservative.
I think this also has to do with how "we" refuse to speak of left and right as actual sets of ideals as opposed to relative positions. As far as voters go they see themselves as centrist because they aren't far right fascists so they're to the "left" of them, but they don't agree with "the left" so they're to the "right" of them. Their actual beliefs though would make them conservatives and so right wingers...
As far as politicians, they just want to get elected and the Bidens of the world know they can't win as Republicans especially today.
People who call themselves centrist, are uneducated in regards to political terms. They don't know what they are talking about, but assume they do and they never go out of their way to educate themselves on these matters.
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but they don’t ~~agree with~~ know anything about “the left” so they’re to the “right” of them.
FTFY.
Right, most of these idiots don't have a clue what the Left actually is.
That goes for all sides frankly
Most of these idiots believe in what the left would have the chance to propose if they hadn't been brainwashed into believing that the left is communism is evil.
Social security? Accessible healthcare? Being able to live a comfortable life? Working hard leading to an appropriate reward?
What comes to my mind is, that it's great when people who work hard get rewarded, but that should only be an extra, not a necessity for a good life. And working too hard shouldn't be glorified, there need to be limits.
Some people just want to work harder than required though (I've got a workaholic uncle but he just loves his job, my FiL spent his career working 60h/week in research out of choice...) and they should be rewarded accordingly, but as you say, working a full time schedule is already hard enough, it's not normal that people can't live comfortably doing that!
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The wrong side of the road, that's what it is.