In my mind, the Right is the home of "rugged individualism" aka more-for-me, none-for-thee mentality. The Left is the home of those fighting for folks having a sense of shared responsibility for those in their community.
To preempt a response stating Obama-like politicians as representing the Left, Obama himself is effectively a Center-Right Neoliberal (fights for more corporate power, pro-war, etc.). Even Bernie Sanders is fairly centrist by European standards.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Calling liberals and center right politicians the left is a mind virus that has infected a lot of commenters on here. There seems to be no cure. Much like there being no cure for liberalsтАЩ TDS and fear of all things Russia. They both belong to cults.
Exactly. I've tried advancing that perception for YEARS all over the web, to no avail that I've noticed. Nearly everyone at Taibbi and Greenwald's sites continue believing liberals and Democrats constitute "the left." This mind virus is far more widespread than any Covid could ever be.
Fair question. Let's eschew European standards or we will be calling conservatives liberals (as they are in Europe). And in reality, our spectrum is much narrower.
There is a left that dissociates from Democrats - but that isn't numerous enough to give much consideration. To the right of them, but still well to the left of oh say 80% of the country are the progressives, which are the left-wing of the Democratic Party. They tend to think they represent the whole country but they are in fact only a faction within the party; they make a lot of noise but don't actually get much done. Then there is the rest of the Democratic Party which no longer has any kind of conservative wing though it did up through the '60s.
Obama might be center-right in Europe but not in the U.S. where he is center maybe just left of center (at least in rhetoric if not reality). If you don't think he is slightly to the left of the country as a whole, you don't understand the spectrum here.
I agree on where Obama stands. It sure as hell ain't left. I was promoted to VP at a large healthcare company, and became eligible for company-paid financial planning, estate planning, taxes, etc. Cause, you know, rich executives need those extra benefits. The guy from the wealth management firm met with me, and in how's the weather conversation, I said something critical of Obama. He jumped in with the "yeah, he's left-wing..." I looked at him and said, "I don't think you understand. Obama's not left-wing. I criticize Obama FROM the left."
Let's all agree with what to call the left/liberals/progressives--the REAL ones, who have always been against war, torture, economic inequality, and state censorship. A lot of people used to be with me there. But now so many of them support a war that is becoming as ludicrous as Iraq was. So many of them are OK with censorship, as long as Trump can't win.
It's a sincere question I ask of liberal friends (well, formerly-liberal friends, because, as too many Americans have forgotten, you can actually be friends with someone with which all of whose ideas you don't agree)--what the fuck happened? All they can answer is Trump Bad!
Obama is a damn neo-communist. You can decide if you want to call him left or right or whatever that means. What he says attempts to sound centrist. What he does is act like the ruling class of this WEF style neo-communist fascism.
Thank you for the reminder that Matt is a person of the Left. I had forgotten. What is the Left? All of those who are not on the Right side of America existing under its Constitution, which by the way, Obama hated because it was framed in the negative. But he got around that rather easily by ignoring it and using his phone and pen. The big unravel started with his admin.....
The left would live by Lord of the Flies if they were allowed to.
I'm curious, who do you consider the "Left"?
In my mind, the Right is the home of "rugged individualism" aka more-for-me, none-for-thee mentality. The Left is the home of those fighting for folks having a sense of shared responsibility for those in their community.
To preempt a response stating Obama-like politicians as representing the Left, Obama himself is effectively a Center-Right Neoliberal (fights for more corporate power, pro-war, etc.). Even Bernie Sanders is fairly centrist by European standards.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Calling liberals and center right politicians the left is a mind virus that has infected a lot of commenters on here. There seems to be no cure. Much like there being no cure for liberalsтАЩ TDS and fear of all things Russia. They both belong to cults.
Exactly. I've tried advancing that perception for YEARS all over the web, to no avail that I've noticed. Nearly everyone at Taibbi and Greenwald's sites continue believing liberals and Democrats constitute "the left." This mind virus is far more widespread than any Covid could ever be.
Fair question. Let's eschew European standards or we will be calling conservatives liberals (as they are in Europe). And in reality, our spectrum is much narrower.
There is a left that dissociates from Democrats - but that isn't numerous enough to give much consideration. To the right of them, but still well to the left of oh say 80% of the country are the progressives, which are the left-wing of the Democratic Party. They tend to think they represent the whole country but they are in fact only a faction within the party; they make a lot of noise but don't actually get much done. Then there is the rest of the Democratic Party which no longer has any kind of conservative wing though it did up through the '60s.
Obama might be center-right in Europe but not in the U.S. where he is center maybe just left of center (at least in rhetoric if not reality). If you don't think he is slightly to the left of the country as a whole, you don't understand the spectrum here.
I agree on where Obama stands. It sure as hell ain't left. I was promoted to VP at a large healthcare company, and became eligible for company-paid financial planning, estate planning, taxes, etc. Cause, you know, rich executives need those extra benefits. The guy from the wealth management firm met with me, and in how's the weather conversation, I said something critical of Obama. He jumped in with the "yeah, he's left-wing..." I looked at him and said, "I don't think you understand. Obama's not left-wing. I criticize Obama FROM the left."
Let's all agree with what to call the left/liberals/progressives--the REAL ones, who have always been against war, torture, economic inequality, and state censorship. A lot of people used to be with me there. But now so many of them support a war that is becoming as ludicrous as Iraq was. So many of them are OK with censorship, as long as Trump can't win.
It's a sincere question I ask of liberal friends (well, formerly-liberal friends, because, as too many Americans have forgotten, you can actually be friends with someone with which all of whose ideas you don't agree)--what the fuck happened? All they can answer is Trump Bad!
Obama is a damn neo-communist. You can decide if you want to call him left or right or whatever that means. What he says attempts to sound centrist. What he does is act like the ruling class of this WEF style neo-communist fascism.
Most Europeans on the left consider Sanders as center-right. Our liberals are their reactionaries. There isn't a leftist anywhere near Washington DC.
Thank you for the reminder that Matt is a person of the Left. I had forgotten. What is the Left? All of those who are not on the Right side of America existing under its Constitution, which by the way, Obama hated because it was framed in the negative. But he got around that rather easily by ignoring it and using his phone and pen. The big unravel started with his admin.....
This is how humans have been ruled by ruthless minorities for most of civilization. Most of the humans on earth today suffer this sort of rule.