A lot of these quotes seem to, or at least could, fit the spirit of your anecdote. This one, however, seems to be from a right winger who is equating “liberals” with “leftists” rather than from a leftist equating “liberals” with actual National Socialists. It doesn’t even make sense for someone to say “Liberals [and by that I mean capitalist semi-Nazis] think it’s okay to punch Nazis.” It makes more sense if the quote was from a right winger who was trying to say “Liberals [and by that I mean socialist leftists] think it’s okay to punch Nazis [but their intolerance means that they’re just as bad].”
I’ve run into similar statements on Bluesky - it’s a lot more than “six people” but it’s still a tiny, noisy, mostly Tankie fringe.
Dude, I don’t journal every single little thing that crosses my timeline to back up future internet arguments. You asked for 3 examples, and I thought you were sincerely curious and doubled that number, now you’re scoffing that it’s nowhere near 24 million. Don’t know why I expected anything better.
And I already conceded I was making more of a rhetorical point than a specific literal one, so if dancing on that grave is what entertains you, knock yourself out.
None of your examples sound like the average American describing liberals…but they most certainly sound like hand-picked right-wing wack jobs giving descriptions of liberals, something that would be easy to come across once you hand select what type of people send you messages. You yourself said you actively looked for that message, didn’t you?
I certainly don’t think it’s only six people. The important point is that it’s a tiny fringe, not “millions of screaming TikTok socialists” or “voluminous and widespread”.
Yes–that you had encountered in the past week, not that you’d specifically gone out and searched among 24 million users for.
If I claim that all conservatives want to execute their political rivals on pay-per-view TV, it’s not enough for me to search for “Michelle Morrow Obama Tweet” and cite six people liking her commentary on the subject. If I say that conservatives regularly are telling me that the Black Panther movie was a Jewish conspiracy, I can’t back up this claim with six people reTweeting Mark Robinson. I need to show that I’m encountering it in the wild, so to speak.
This is another super helpful thing to read. You’re using “rhetorical” to mean “untrue” and “literal” to mean “true.” It’s been decades since the first time I met someone who made “guarantees” and quoted numbers but didn’t actually mean them. (Ironically, the first people I encountered this behavior from were extreme leftists). I learned that first time that such people weren’t worth paying any attention to whatsoever, so I’ll put that lesson into place now.
Oh good grief. If you’re going to apologize for overgeneralizing, then apologize for overgeneralizing – but don’t then proceed to start saying that you didn’t have anything to apologize for because you weren’t overgeneralizing in the first place, it’s all our fault for reading what you said instead of what you now want us to think you meant.
I missed where any of those posts included self-identification as a leftist…
You also delete your internet history every day?
Yes, you caught me, I have not been journaling every single message that I scroll across in order to win a future internet argument, and I found it unwieldy to scroll back through my ENTIRE FUCKING LAST WEEK OF MESSAGES AND VIDEOS ACROSS THREE DIFFERENT WEBSITES so I used a search instead. Should’ve followed my first instinct not to even bother.
Jesus fucking Christ. I continue to stand by my apology for insulting you as leftists, but now you’re being ridiculous jerkoffs.
Except, I didn’t say I have nothing to apologize for? Christ on a fucking pogo stick, I apologized twice for insulting, in the Pit no less, I’m trying to back up and clarify the intended sentiment which was not intended to be insulting, and now you’re literally fabricating statements I never made.
Mama always said being classy requires not expecting it in return, but Jesus. Thanks for the reminder that there’s no fucking point.
You can search your own internet history, you know. I mean, these straw leftists left enough of an impression on you that you believe they are the new left, so their video titles should be memorable enough
Or is this the part of the argument where you disappear in a huff still without providing the damn evidence for your bullshit
Thank you for the tech support, I apologize if I gave any impression I give a fraction of a shit about this.
This is the part of the argument where I leave you to enjoy whatever emotional need this is meeting for you. Enjoy the validation, whatever that is, and stay classy.
I already got all the validation I needed that you were full of shit with those ridiculous ‘cites’ you posted (and you still haven’t said what makes all those randos ‘leftists’. Only middle east punching guy seems to claim that). Your huffy all-caps freakout when called on it’s just the gravy. Greàt sign that you don’t give a fraction of a shit, that was /s
Now there’s an oxymoron.
Nah, anarchists can organize on a small scale just fine, bottom up organizing is good enough on a small scale and with situations of limited complexity. It just doesn’t scale up well. That’s why you can see anarchist communes and such lasting for long periods but attempts at anything larger rapidly fall apart one way or another.
Now there’s someone indicating they have no idea what real anarchism is, at all.
Given those credentials, I figure that you’ve at least brushed with the Revolutionary Communist Party, or in older days The Communist Party USA, the Socialist Workers Party, or maybe the garden variety tankie on twitter who blames everything on end-stage capitalism. Yeah, they are small in number. But those are what I was thinking of when people were referring to leftists. I can’t recall encountering them on this message board.
Of course a much broader group of people self-identify as leftist and most are far more sensible. Heck, I self-identified as leftist years back. I haven’t changed my views dramatically since then, though I’ve opted for different branding.
Some though not all of those espousing this attitude on twitter are bots, professional representatives of hostile foreign powers. I agree with HMS and Der that they exist.
Twitter gives tiny groups a loud microphone: it’s a great organizing tool for those with unpopular beliefs. Like Nazis for example. And the far more prevalent but still minuscule group of tankies (most of whom don’t equate fascism and capitalism).
ETA: Peak twitter: “Under socialism, Americans would have free cocaine but bananas would be banned.” This view was presented without irony. Only true leftists believe this just kidding.
ETA2: I’m being a little unfair to the Revolutionary Communist Party. They actually endorsed Joe Biden in 2020.
I think they sought to bring him down by openly endorsing him.
I am aware that as a system of government, it means voluntary associations.
Common definition, and first in dictionary, is a state of disorder.
Organizing a state of disorder.
A group meeting (conference) on not organizing.
Like a conference of individualists. Wouldn’t work - everyone would be doing their own thing and telling all the others, “You can’t tell me what to do.”
But you decided to be a dictionary-prescriptivist dick to the anarchists on the board, anyway. Gotcha.
Not so sure. By the way, it turns out there’s a difference between the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Revolutionary Communist Party USA. Different organizations. The RCPUSA said:
In my statement of August 1 of last year, I put forward the analysis that, in the particular circumstances of this presidential election and the truly profound stakes it posed, if the Trump/Pence regime remained in power at the time of this election, it would be necessary and important to vote for Biden to deliver a decisive electoral defeat to the fascism represented by this regime. At the same time, I emphasized that simply relying on voting would likely lead to disaster, and that it was vitally important for masses of people to take to the streets, in nonviolent but sustained, and growing, mass mobilization with the demand that this fascist regime must be OUT NOW!, as called for by RefuseFascism.org.
…
There is no question that many of the policies of the Biden/Harris administration will be different than the blatant atrocities of the Trump/Pence regime, and things will definitely “feel different” with Biden and Harris, but the way they will try to “unite the country”—in line with the interests and requirements of this system of capitalism-imperialism—is something that no decent person should want, or be part of. In seeking to re-establish and reinforce “stability” at home, and to maintain the U.S. as the world’s number one oppressive power, Biden, Harris, and the Democrats (as well as other “mainstream” institutions, such as the New York Times and CNN), will make determined attempts to keep the masses of people who have righteously hated the fascism of the Trump/Pence regime, and who aspire to a more just world, firmly tied to this system—restricting their political vision, and activity, within the confines of this system, preventing them from acting in their own fundamental interests and those of humanity as a whole. And to the degree that things are maintained within the limits of this system, this will actually have the effect of furthering the horrors for humanity that are built into this system, while also reinforcing and giving further impetus to the underlying economic—and the social and political—forces that will strengthen the fascism that has already shown great strength in this country (and a number of others).
Now those are Real LeftistsTM!