Why would people on the far right express admiration for the USSR?
A good bit of this is bullshit. I don’t know tons of these mysterious, “Far Leftists,” but the ones I do know do not support colonialism of any sort.
Then ask them how they feel when Israel broke free of Arabic Islamic colonialization and created a free, secular Jewish state.
Ummm, have you not noticed what a fan boy trump is of putin? I’m aware that is not the ussr, but putin seeks to return the ussr to its former, ‘glory.’ putin is the old ussr. And the righties love him.
Oh my son does not like Israel at all. I’m not a huge fan of Israel. And I do not think that is an example of non-white colonialism. You ignore way too much history.
I’ve gotten into arguments for years online with these people, actually (I don’t recall the SDMB’s policy on naming other message boards so I won’t). No idea how common they are but they certainly exist. Making excuses for the behavior of the USSR (including justifying/denying genocide), insisting that everyone who disagrees with them is a “liberal ghoul” who should be killed or imprisoned (they consider "liberal a huge insult, basically synonymous with “fascist”), supporting the invasion of Ukraine because they think it will somehow hurt the US (and because Ukraine is Western-aligned, that automatically makes them fascist and deserving of genocide) generally talking about entire populations as expendable, and in general talking like they time traveled from USSR in the middle of the Cold War. Very fond of completely impractical utopian schemes that would be utter disasters and require a totalitarian state to force on everyone else while insisting that they don’t believe in government coercion.
Now, the “Marxist far left” is a distinct thing from what can be called the “social issue far left”. Technically allied, but it’s pretty obvious that the former would toss the latter under the bus the moment they gained power even if the latter is in denial about it. Those would be the ones who get all worked up over the exact terminology you use to refer to people. The social types can be irritating but they usually lack the “would shovel all their opponents into mass graves if they got into power” vibe the Marxists have.
Dennis, there’s some lovely filth over here …
WTELF are you talking about? There are far leftists who approve of the spread of Islam? Most of the leftists I know would be happy to see Islam (and most other religions) soundly kneecapped. You have your head so far up your ass.
A fair amount of the far left is basically unthinkingly anti-West, and support anything that they regard as opposed to “the West” regardless of if it makes any sense ideologically. Islam, fascists, it doesn’t matter; what matters is opposition to “the West”. Which is pretty much synonymous with “the Devil” to them.
There’s even a name for that, Campism. The West is the enemy “camp”, and they’ll support anyone or anything that opposes it.
I would ask them…but the voices in my head don’t speak gibberish.
I have never met such a person. I would assume that they are a minority of the leftist movement. There are assholes in any ideology I guess, and I consider myself relatively far left. I would never apologize for any colonialism, fascism, or authoritarianism; I don’t care about their religion, ethnicity, or good intentions etc.
Hell no.
I’m quite sure you are correct and they are a minority; as I said I’ve argued with them online but I’ve never actually met anyone like that. And unlike the far Right they have little in the way of actual political power, especially the Marxist-aligned* faction. They’re just loud and insistent, as is common with extremists of all sorts.
- I know no better phrase to describe them, as they can’t agree on a collective term for themselves. Or much else.
Uh, yeah. I can’t imagine it would get a couple posts in before it got locked.
These people can be described as tankies, or Noam Chomsky-ism, or (well, maybe not the best spokeswoman, but) what was said in the 1984 Republican convention speech by Jeane Kirkpatrick, “Blame America First.”
They aren’t the principled progressives who support human rights and democracy everywhere. They’re perfectly okay with anti-democracy and some human-rights-abuses as long as it’s anti-Western.
More commonly today, though, it’s seen among CCP/Chinese government supporters, but still plenty supporting Russia, especially since Feb-2022.
My mom had the best approach to ideologues, though. I was griping to her about some socioeconomic issue, and she told me, identifying the problem is just the first step; come back when you have a viable way to deal with it – not some unworkable pie-in-the-sky notion, but something real.
This is how you shut down extremist blowhards. Get them to explain their solution, then when they do, ask them how to get there (or sometimes you want to ask them how they expect it to work). Force them into giving you something real or shutting up.
I’m pretty sure he cribbed the entire spiel from a Dennis Miller standup circa 2006. It’s not even vague original or inventive. But then, neither was Dennis Miller.
Stranger
Yes, those are the people I’m talking about. They’d be scary if I thought they had any chance of getting into power, but they combine extreme disunity with learned helplessness to such an extent it’ll never happen in the foreseeable future. They just condemn people who vote as “electoralists”, talk about reform is impossible due to the omnipotence of capitalism/the West/the US/the CIA, and how all they can do is wait for “the Revolution”. Which will somehow happen worldwide despite them not actually doing anything to bring it about.
They really remind me of certain Christians waiting for the Rapture to suddenly suck them into Heaven.
I’ve met a few of them over the years, and you’re correct that they are a minority of those we’d consider leftist. Like @Der_Trihs said, they typically view anything the United States does as evil, will brook no negative talk about the USSR, Cuba, or China, and use the word liberal as if it’s an insult. I’ve seen more online than I have in the wild, but when you meet one of 'em in real life, oh, boy! Yeah, some of them are apologists for the Soviet Union’s actions gobbling up Eastern Europe after WW II. They were just defending themselves against the West.
At the end, it is Horseshoe Theory. A portion of the far-right and far-left will end up being oddly similar. You have the Marjorie Taylor Greene and Tucker Carlson folks who oppose Ukraine and support Russia, right there in bed with the far-lefty tankies who oppose ‘Western imperialism’ and claim that Ukraine is a sock puppet of the West and that poor Putin had “no choice” but to invade because scary NATO was expanding.
Just like how the KKK supports racial segregation because “it’ll be good for whites”, but you’ll find (a few) Black Panther type folks who also want segregation because “black people will be better off living without whites nearby.”
I don’t consider tankies to be left leaning. They are just nationalistic for Russia and/or China. They may also have some left-leaning views, but that aspect of them isn’t on the left.
Actual leftist are socialists, sure. But they are fully aware that China and Russia are dictatorships–authoritarian and thus not actually socialist.
And, of course, very few people are actually leftists, or the “far left.” That term is primarily misused for progressives or even liberals. (And yes, this is one case where I stand against descriptivism. Haters and opponents should not get to define what terms mean.)
I think if this OP has been “I cannot stand tankies”, everyone would have been on board. I seem to remember them coming up in another Pit thread.
But “far left” just makes people think you’re either attacking socialists, or using that term the way the right wing does.