This is one difference between the right and left in America today: to show how extreme the right has become we can show footage of what Republican politicians have said. The way they’ve used the power of Congress, the bills they’ve cynically voted down. What they want to enshrine in law and have documented e.g. in Project 2025.
Criticisms of the “far left” are always some cite-less anecdote about a random person, or evidence-less insinuations about what Democrats really want.
In a sense though I can agree with the OP: if the strawman leftist exists, I also think he has wacky views. I can honestly say I’ve never met one though.
I was watching a documentary about the Satanic Temple. They noted that one of their events in Boston was cancelled in part because of complaints by the Catholic Church. The ST guy says in an interview that the Boston Diocese called us evil, while they spent decades actively protecting their child molesting priests.
is a valid statement, it’s a defensible equivalency. Completely aspirational, I concede, but I have contempt for those who display contempt for the aspiration. Why the hell do you think I characterize the America-hating fuckstick as hating America?
This I completely agree with. I don’t like far left extremists (tankies, dogmatic communists, etc) and I don’t like far right Islamists either.
But far right, white christian nativists are the biggest threat we face as Americans.
I was pissed as hell and very frustrated when I made this post but I really wish in the real world that the far left, the center left, centrists and the center right could all come together to stop the far right from destroying the country.
I genuiney appreciate your replies in this thread, because you understand what its like to talk to these people.
Also thank you for the term campism. I wasn’t aware of this. I’d always called them rejectionists.
IMO, they reject westernism and what they feel it stands for (white skin, western nations, judeochristianity, etc). Which is fine to a degree. The far left will stand up against things like white supremacy, or western nativism, or Christian dominionism, etc.
But the issue is that they don’t really care about morality or justice, just rejectionism. They are perfectly fine with the oppression of women and gays just so long as a non-christian does it. They are fine with imperialism just so long as it isn’t the west who does it. They are fine with racism just so long as it isn’t a white person doing it.
It grates on your nerves quickly.
But I do genuinely appreciate your replies in this thread, they’ve been validating and informative, so thank you.
IMO what truly seperates the center left from the far left is that the center left is ‘pro’ things while the far left is ‘anti’ things.
The center left is pro womens rights, pro gay rights, pro human rights, etc.
The far left is just anti western, anti white, anti judeochristian.
On some issues, we agree. Like both the center left and the far left can agree that christian men oppressing women is wrong. Or that police brutality against black people is wrong. Or that christians oppression gays is wrong.
The issue is that as a center leftist, i also feel the USSR is evil. Or that Hamas is evil. But a lot on the far left who I’ve met don’t really care about the oppression and evil of these groups. If anything they support them because they are anti-western.
speaking of the USSR, when the Tsar stepped down and they held elections in 1917, the center left parties dominated. I wish that Russia had kept its democracy and center left parties in charge, the nation would’ve been much better off that way rather than being under the thumb of Stalin and the bolsheviks.
Best example I’ve heard recently is Nate Silver describing a discussion with a college student who insisted that Hamas was fully supportive of gay and trans rights. As he pointed out, this isn’t a real thought process, it’s an expression of a desire to fit in with a crowd that embraces both Hamas and gay rights. (Coupled with the good fortune to live far enough from Hamas to not be in imminent danger from them).
Its entirely possible that I am only referring to a subsection of the far left, and not the far left in general. However there is a subsection of the far left who act the way I’ve described. I have no idea what % of the far left act this way though, but its not an insignificant proportion from what I’ve seen over the years running in left leaning circles.
The extreme left is a small group that has no influence on the Democratic Party. Most Democrats are centrists in the Harris-Walz model. The extreme left has never tried to overthrow the US government by force the way the extreme right did. The extreme right has taken over the Republican Party and has nominated their candidate for three consecutive elections. Demonizing the extreme left is a waste of time.
It’s the same phenomenon as the “Ugly American” tourist abroad. They’re the only ones who make themselves conspicuous. But they are so conspicuous that people think they’re more common than they are. Most American tourists are generally well behaved.
If the conspicuous ones are your guidepost, of course your measurements will be off.
It’s an aspect of what various people have said; that the most important difference between the far left and far right is that the former are marginalized, while the latter are in control of the Republicans. I do recall far left people demanding that the DSA support Putin and the invasion/genocide of Ukraine; the DSA just said “ha, no” and ignored them. And so the DSA went on their list of “fascist enemies of the left wing” (it’s a long list).
The information came out a 13 hours ago ( and it’s probably in other threads by now ) but a new Marquette Law School Poll came out indicating that Harris was leading Chump by more than the margin for error.
Evidently, the ketchup is on the wall but Mr. Clark doesn’t like it.
I’ve been saying basically this for years. The worst sterotypes of the extreme left (granola-crunching, hug-a-criminal, free drugs for everyone) are limited in power to tie-died co-op boards. The worst stereotypes of the extreme right (reverse every bit of progress on civil rights, women back into the kitchen, corporations above citizens, arm everybody) have representatives in Congress. Anytime someone complains about the radical left pulling the strings of the Democratic Party, the false equivalency drives me nuts.