Political discourse
Submitted 2 months ago by jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk to [deleted]
https://feddit.uk/pictrs/image/c755d594-6f02-4a42-830c-eaab8f05d408.webp
Comments
Tippy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
trxxruraxvr@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Can I be a leftist without being a tankie then?
Tippy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Yes? You do realize tankies are a minority group and that in many nations “leftist” is just a normal political position?
I’m honestly not sure what you’re trying to say here
TheMinister@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Trying anarchism. Goes down smooth
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 months ago
tankie is, as i understand it, a combination of authoritarianism, leftism, and some weird nostalgia for the soviet union i’m not entirely sure i’ve just been casually trying to pick stuff up.
Juice@midwest.social 2 months ago
Yes, you can even be a communist without being a tankie.
BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Not now that the term has expanded to mean everything to the left of Kamala Harris.
kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Absolutely. There are numerous strains of leftist philosophy that are anti-authoritarian.
YourMomsTrashman@lemmy.world 2 months ago
I’m too uneducated on politics to even know what left and right means. Where do I land
Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
Well they are slightly vague terms, so please don’t feel stupid. A shocking amount of people who think they know, don’t know.
Left wing politics are generally about a rejection of hierarchy of people. Consequently, they tend to be interested in an international community because we are all the same and deserve the same. As freedom is something that everyone wants for themselves, the left tend to be in favor of an equally free community, e.g. freedom to love.
Right wing politica are generally about hierarchy of people. But not because the hierarchy is necessarily the point, but it tend to be in favor of maintaining the current state, Which just happens to be hierarchical. And usually everything get viewed from a hierarchical pov. E.g. nationalism is a hierarchical view of country and people, your country and its people above other country and their people.
Obviously you could point at the historical stance of us republicans that they want a small government and argue that a small government creates less of 2 class citizens, the law markers and the citizens. But the left would point out that a small government just enables the powerful people to exploit the weak people and create more 2 class citizens.
On the left: The strong hierarchy in the previous attempts of “communism” is the reason why some people will say that true communism was never tried. Other will argue that you need a little bit of authority to run a communustic state.
So the whole thing is a little more complex than “freedom” and “restrictions” and who supports what “restrictions” when.
mathemachristian@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
Right: in favor of privately owned means of production.
Left: in favor of publicly owned means of production.Juice@midwest.social 2 months ago
Most people have confused politics. If you want to land somewhere you need to educate yourself and develop principles so that instead of not knowing where you’ll land, you’ll know exactly where you stand
jaupsinluggies@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Six strawmen in a single post! Well done, that must be some kind of record!
Tippy@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Reeeeeeeeeee I spouted centrist nonsense in a leftist space and I’m getting ratio’d reeeeeee
ZombiFrancis@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
It is clever, you see, that any disagreement must be done online, therefore reinforcing the premise of the meme.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
This is bullshit
Trying to pretend that there’s a concerted far-left effort to create civil war in 'Murica is patently absurd
Sure, there may be a handful of nutters, but they pale in comparison to the number of far-right who are actively lusting for the blood of the people they hate and fear
theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It also tries to downplay political division “in real life”. In real life, the American president is a fascist directing a masked police force to deport legal residents without due process, illegally deploying the national guard against citizens, and grifting shitcoins and accepting bribes in plain sight.
Blackout@fedia.io 2 months ago
Yeah fuck this post. The only ones driving it are the far-right. You'd have to be ignorant to be blaming liberals for the crap going on today.
Glide@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Trying to pretend that there’s a concerted far-left effort to create civil war in 'Murica is patently absurd
Idk man, I spent altogether too much time over in .ml, and now my view on what is “far left” has changed quite drastically. And that group certainly seems hell bent on starting a civil war.
There are absolutely far more MAGAs, but the tankies are, unfortunately, still far left.
FistingEnthusiast@lemmynsfw.com 2 months ago
If you think lemmy is immune to outside agitators, then you’re kidding yourself
I’m certain that there are interested groups trying to whip up a few lunatics so that “the left” can be pitted against the right, and blamed for violence, but there’s no doubt that there’s a far larger audience of people in the US who are eager to lean into fascism and spill blood when they are encouraged
astutemural@midwest.social 2 months ago
Bruh there’s like a triple-digit number of tankies in all of North America lmao. Meanwhile half of the USA is MAGA. If you need to visualize this, go look for literally any act of violence motivated by far-left beliefs. There’s what, like two in the last 30 years? Claiming any sort of equivalence between MAGA and the left is just false.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 2 months ago
Who over at .ml is trying to start a civil war?
tidderuuf@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Wasn’t there a movement to have the western states cecede after the last 2 Trump wins?
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
I think that the Tankies are not left, like at all, but there is absolutely a concerted and even state funded operation to create any and all destruction and violence that they're capable of causing.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 months ago
Uh... fucking cope hard. The Nazis won't care about your enlightened centrist when they arrest you for being brown and/or the wrong kind of white.
kadaverin0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
“I think we need a mixture of both!”, he shouts while be loaded into a cattle car.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Anyone who stands against genocide and opposes war has been lumped in with “tankie” for a long while now. That centrist is empowering the Nazis.
grumpusbumpus@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thank you.
Because being a passive centrist while the world slides towards authoritarianism, global conflict, and environmental holocaust is not morally acceptable.
You don’t have to be a Tankie to want to fight these fascist fucks and their suicidal agenda.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Well if you say anything like ‘we shouldn’t give weapons to Nazis,’ you’re going to be labeled a tankie, too.
didnt1able@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
I mean a lot of people don’t want to have their way of life userped by these radical idiots. One side is calling for a civil war and the other side is effectively campaigning for concentration camps. Normal people don’t want to engage with either brand of insanity. They just want to go to work and go home, spend time with their family.
Star@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
Someone misinterpreted the post.
surph_ninja@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Another centrist who thinks the left just doesn’t get it.
missfrizzle@discuss.tchncs.de 2 months ago
if you were a centrist before 2020, and you still are in 2025, then you’ve moved Right, since the Overton window shifted Right.
if you kept your principles you’re now Left. that’s how the window works.
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 months ago
tankies are such a small niche group, i dont think theres enough of them to have a significant on policy, unlike right wingers have real numbers on thier hands.
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
They run TikTok among many other CCP funded operations, I wouldn't disregard them personally.
DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social 2 months ago
Lol
The tankies engaged in hypercapitalism
frostedtrailblazer@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
You’re not wrong. Many of them are exposed to propaganda on TikTok and it is a growing issue. Espionage is being done to divide the left and consolidate the right. Just because it’s not as noticeable as the propaganda from the right doesn’t mean that it’s not having subtle effects. If it gets people to disengage or not look out for their best interests then it is effective. All this to say, there is a way to bring about positive change that has to do with being involved locally.
Highlandcow@feddit.uk 2 months ago
Isn’t there a difference between the right and the far right though
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
I wouldn't say so, I'm a consequentialist so when I see a pedophile felon in the white house removing the 14th amendment while not a single GOP congressman opposes him, I feel like the entirety of the US right is effectively gone and only the far right remains.
Gold_E_Lox@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
the one’s who do the bad shit and the one’s who support it. sure if thats enough difference for you ig
Juice@midwest.social 2 months ago
In many cases, I think so. People everywhere get their morality from culture. Since many people are raised conservative, and risk damaging their social connection in their community by straying from conservative values, people can be very protective of certain social conventions and perspectives, out of fear of social isolation or even alienating themselves from their actual nature in order to adhere to social convention.
Its an understatement to say that the far right/fascism weaponizes this fact. But many many conservatives are workers which means that they share lived exploitation with the rest of us. Capitalism is the force that divides the working class, and when we participate in divisive/sectarian tendencies then whatever ideology we claim, leftist or whatever, then we are carrying water for the billionaire class.
Its not always that simple though. Many people experience real trauma by having conservative values thrust upon them. Objective morality is a plague, but so is dualism. We need to think completely differently and work with others to navigate these dynamics
Nalivai@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Thanks for the grasroots money, this small group is actually very loud. The loudest of them all. They maintain the illusion that communism is when you like Russia, and that’s their entire purpose
BrainInABox@lemmy.ml 2 months ago
Imagine looking at the current state of the USA and saying “communists are the problem!”
TheDemonBuer@lemmy.world 2 months ago
If you think the next US civil war will be fought between Nazis and Marxism-Leninists, you don’t understand American politics very well. The US in 2025 isn’t Stalingrad in 1942.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 months ago
Nitpick: They're Marxist-Leninists, not Marxism-Leninists.
blarth@thelemmy.club 2 months ago
HappyFrog@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 months ago
!enlightenedcentrism@lemmy.world
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
Let's be honest, the Nazis and Tankies align on like 98% of policy. They both support Donald Trump, for example. They both enable ethnostates to send minorities to camps. They believe in a nation ruled by one supreme absolute leader.
Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz 2 months ago
They both support Donald Trump, for example.
lmao what?
They both enable ethnostates to send minorities to camps.
lmao what?
They believe in a nation ruled by one supreme absolute leader.
Dictatorship of the proletariat doesn’t mean total rule by one dude named proletariat, it means total rule by the people.
TurkishKebab@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
These liberals and their “both-siding” will be the death of us all
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
Tankies support China and the USSR, neither of which have ever practiced rule by the proletariat, and of which the remainder is committing their own little genocide at home.
Juice@midwest.social 2 months ago
The ACP is the only american so-called communist org that supports Trump, and virtually every other segment of the serious organized left considers them a fascist org. Don’t buy into fascist framing of issues or you are working for the fascists when you spread them
Mubelotix@jlai.lu 2 months ago
And they are both downvoting you haha
Jinarched@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
When I have centrist views about anything (not just politics but more trivial matters like pop culture), I’m reluctant to share them online because extremists on both sides interpret you as an extremist on the opposing side
BaroqueInMind@piefed.social 2 months ago
Centrist views such as? grabs popcorn
No seriously, what do you happen to be sitting on the fence about?
Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 months ago
Daniel Sloss has a funny bit about exactly this.
https://youtu.be/O-qcXpapsoY
Sadly it’s so true
RizzRustbolt@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The very model of the modern major liberal.
passepartout@feddit.org 2 months ago
Regardless of online / offline, this can be attributed to a method of gaining and maintaining political power called divide and conquer.
devolution@lemmy.world 2 months ago
It’s not a bell curve. It’s a trumpet headed to the right.
Ek-Hou-Van-Braai@piefed.social 2 months ago
Wait does bellend mean at the end of a bell curve?
DmMacniel@feddit.org 2 months ago
No its what german dogs do.
BlueCanoe@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Ideological polarization is actually pretty low among average Americans. It’s mostly felt among the highly politically engaged and politicians. So to that extent, this image seems accurate.
QuinnyCoded@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
it is very clear you don’t live in a small southern county
FridaySteve@lemmy.world 2 months ago
People need something else to focus on. When everything is politics then politics is everything and it’s stupidly difficult to get people interested in doing anything positive.
astutemural@midwest.social 2 months ago
It’s hard to avoid politics when giving kids lunch at school is fucking political for some reason.
There is a group to blame for politicizing everything, and it is disingenuous to blame ‘people’ in general instead of that group in particular.
NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io 2 months ago
I mean, everything is politics whether anybody likes it or not, because politics is just what you get when you have a hierarchical power structure.
TowardsTheFuture@lemmy.zip 2 months ago
Maybe if you mean this as the left vs the left… sure.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
The enlightened centrism is strong in this one. No, the US don’t have a conflict of left vs. right. The conflict is between the right and everyone else. And most of the right are just rubes who think they being part of some kind of movement but in reality are just being fleeced by a bunch of grifters
halvar@lemy.lol 2 months ago
I’d say the curve it’s much flatter on the left side. As in right side is shouting tankie, meanwhile there are like 2 tankies and the right wants to set the whole barn on fire to get them both.
finitebanjo@piefed.world 2 months ago
Meanwhile thr Tankies are in the Right's barn the entire time.
kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 months ago
Not just the right vs. everyone else, the right vs. everyone. The right is also fighting itself.
maus@sh.itjust.works 2 months ago
The left is also fighting itself. Literally the comment chains in this post are prime examples.
People who probably align with the majority of the stances, tearing each other down with bad faith arguments, grandstanding over the remaining things they disagree on.
“Perfect is the enemy of good.”
I might not politically align with the average .ml user, but my views are a hell of a lot closer aligned with them than MAGAt views.
Xanthobilly@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Grifters? They’re hellbent on christofascism.
No_Eponym@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
And if they suffer under that Christofacist regime they helped bring about? That is righteous and holy suffering, and their reward will be eternal in Heaven.
Voting against their interest? No, they are voting in their eternal interests, so what does it matter if they endure poverty, violence, sickness, famine and the destruction of our biome in this life? 'Tis but a moment before the beauty they have earned in the Here After brother!
Tollana1234567@lemmy.today 2 months ago
also the usa has never had a true left to begin with, being the most right wing of the western countries should be telling.
Katana314@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Perfect example of this was Jimmy Kimmel. He openly said that shooting a commentator was a horrible thing, and tried to call for moderation. MAGA declared that wasn’t enough, and ordered him fired.
They have specified that if you’re not with them, you’re against them.
Canconda@lemmy.ca 2 months ago
Kimmel got fired for pointing the spotlight back at Trump and Epstein. Had nothing to do with Kirk.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Doesn’t directly bringing up “enlightened centrism” (I assume sarcastically) from a non-right position indicate disdain for centrism? That would be a conflict between whatever you are and both centrists (for not being where you are - right of you, but to them, still left of the Right) and the Right.
Also, if you’re aware of the Three Percenters and their claim that only 3% of colonial America supported the revolution, it means that even if they’re off by a factor of 10, with 30% for the revolution, and 30% against, it leaves 40%, a plurality of people, who have the sentiment from this meme where they just want to be left alone and not forced against their will into a conflict that indroduces instability and violence to their lives.
Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 months ago
“Enlightened centrism” is not the same as centrism and yes that label is meant to be sarcastic. There are basically two kinds of enlightened centrists. One are right-wingers who want to avoid the social stigma of being far right. The other one are people who close their eyes to the blatant attempt by the right wing to destroy democracy and pretend everything is normal. That’s what basically the corporate media are doing.
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 2 months ago
Letter from Birmingham Jail, MLK Jr.