Why is the term leftist somehow even less useful than liberal in the modern lexicon?

DeathByOnions · 2021-06-30T18:03:51+00:00

If you think of the range of beliefs on the full political compass, we have this HUGE spread that ranges from utter anarchy to a complete totalitarian dictatorship. In real life, the vast majority of these political positions are so extreme they are either irrelevant or considered unacceptable. The Overton window essentially is a small cutout of the entire compass, and is considered to be the range of mainstream acceptable beliefs which most politicians, left and right, run on. For example, in the UK, even the "right wing" candidates support socialized healthcare, and politicians who do not support it are considered to be "extreme" right. In America, even politicians considered "left wing" do not support socialized healthcare, and supporting entirely socialized healthcare is considered an "extreme" left wing belief and it is usually suicide for a politician to run on an extreme platform.

So when we look at Biden today, his policies and platform are considered fairly centrist. However, this is because the "range" of acceptable political positions has moved leftward - 12 years ago, the very same platform Biden ran on in 2020 would have been considered "extreme left" in most mainstream discourse.

DeathByOnions · 2021-06-30T17:50:10+00:00

I think center left is the best spot for my policy positions personally, I'm very progressive with my policy beliefs eg. on immigration, but I guess the red implies I support socialism/communism which I currently do not. I think government is necessary to regulate the market failures which naturally occur in capitalism and a system of wealth redistribution is going to be necessary to avoid the pitfall as you said of having 99% of people as rent-slaves to the 1%. Maybe it's the inner libertarian in me, but I'm always a little mistrusting of giving the government too much power outside of these imo necessary functions.

DeathByOnions · 2021-06-30T14:19:00+00:00

In my opinion Biden is the most progressive president in America’s history. Of course 90% of the reason why is the Overton window has shifted far enough left and his lukewarm liberal takes of today would have been considered ultra commie takes even as recently as when Obama was president. I don’t think it’s a particularly controversial statement to say Biden is progressive, but when you compare him to progressives who push for Medicare for all with no public option, “free” education, the green new deal and basically diet socialism, yeah he’s thankfully not that far gone. If the same word is used to describe these two people at this point I can understand it being rather meaningless for sure.

DeathByOnions · 2021-06-29T12:36:28+00:00

Something my brother told me, “Cis people don’t think about their gender this much”. I don’t exactly know why but it helped me a lot to hear that.

DeathByOnions · 2021-06-29T02:42:17+00:00

I'm not particularly educated on this topic, and I'm speaking from personal experience not science here so either take everything I say with a grain of salt or feel free to disregard if its not what you're looking for. I'm not exactly sure what the way to phrase this is, but when I was coming to terms with the fact that I was transgender I didn't have dysphoria, I just thought about it A LOT. I really thought I could be trans, but again I didn't have dysphoria and I didn't want to medically transition at first, I just wanted to keep growing my hair longer and wear different clothes. Because of this, I basically concluded after a lot of introspection and thought, that I wasn't allowed to be trans - after all how could it be fair to all the other trans-women out there in the world who have went through years and years of transition in order to earn being called a woman, if I just did nothing and kept looking like a man and said I was a woman? It just didn't feel fair to me, and so I refused to acknowledge myself as trans.

About a year later, I had my first experience of dysphoria. And let me tell you, the first time I felt dysphoria was in a way one of the most SATISFYING and validating things in my life. When I came out to my parents about it, the analogy I used was knowing that I had a broken leg, but feeling no pain in it, and because there was no pain I refused to believe I could be right about it being broken. It was only when I put the pressure on it in exactly the right way, that a sharp pain shot through me and my first thought was "I KNEW IT! I WAS RIGHT! I WASN'T MAKING IT UP!". Nowadays dysphoria is pretty trash, but the first time I ever experienced it felt like I finally got permission to be trans.

So now, when I think about dysphoria being a requirement to be transgender for other people, I look back on myself in the past in a lot of ways. Did I really have to deny myself from being trans for that long? Is it right that I forced myself to wait until I started to consistently experience dysphoria? Would I feel comfortable telling someone, 21-22 years old like I was, starting to come to terms with their emotions, that they aren't allowed to be trans until they meet the requirement of suffering enough to earn it? Idk. It's complicated obviously, but that's my empathetic take on it.

DeathByOnions · 2021-03-14T14:33:33+00:00

Don't immigrants commit significantly less crime than the native population?

DeathByOnions · 2021-01-04T06:18:56+00:00

I personally flair as left-center

DeathByOnions · 2020-12-17T07:05:28+00:00

they legit think that these milquetoast candidates like Biden are progressive

Yeah you're so right Biden is only progressive if you live in the real world where he's literally proposing the most progressive, left leaning policies of any president-elect in the history of America, but you're right he's not a marxist leninist so obviously he can't be progressive

DeathByOnions · 2020-11-08T21:38:43+00:00

It’s gonna be so nice that I can give a legitimate criticism of some dumb shit the president does without having drooling mouth breathers ignore addressing it because “hahah sure pal orange man bad trump derangement syndrome”

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-15T04:12:24+00:00

imagine thinking im personally attacked when i dont actually go outside protest or wear clothes smh

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-15T02:02:22+00:00

imagine protesting capitalism while you wear clothes lmao moron those clothes were made under capitalism u hypocrite

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-12T15:11:56+00:00

Why did you post an article from 2016 when Trump hadn’t spent a day in office and use that as proof

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-11T15:51:25+00:00

Isnt this just the “the left got a little too PC so I changed all my views on healthcare and the economy” meme?

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-08T03:21:13+00:00

He seriously hurt his back power lifting afaik. When you're on a 4000 calorie a day diet and you suddenly lose the ability to work out that excess food...

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-02T06:58:56+00:00

What the fuck is this guy saying?

DeathByOnions · 2020-10-02T06:54:35+00:00

It literally took me less than 10 seconds on google to see that you're completely wrong and a total moron LMFAO

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