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Has the Left lost its mind?

Started by MarcusA, April 27, 2023, 06:49:04 PM

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MarcusA

The Left has certainly lost its mind along with the Right.
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Icarus

The left has also lost its determination to fight back with brass knuckles. Foolishly expecting common sense and common decency to prevail is not working very well.

billy rubin

theres an interesting contrast there between moral values and a social contract that escapes the left.


"I cannot understand the popularity of that kind of music, which is based on repetition. In a civilized society, things don't need to be said more than three times."

MarcusA

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Asmodean

Depends on what "Left" and where.

Where I'm at, no, they have not fully abandoned their senses. Yes, the far-left wing of the movement has grown in recent years, but the majority are still the pro-unions, extended social safety net, collectivist(-ish) crowd.

They are, however, being badly bruised in the polls by the very policy decisions that sort-of define them since we live in "interesting" times, and currently, even their voter base just has different priorities.

Broadly the same goes for the Right - they are still pretty much what they have been in recent memory, except they actually pick up in the polls most of the voters the Left sheds.

There are more than a few polarizing issues and talking heads who will not let one such pass, and these days, I see more tendency for the "uncaring majority" to be dragged into the fight about issues not their own with opinions much stronger than their own. That happens on both sides.

I think that at least some of it is down to "buzzword debate." A lot of the nuance that defines "light" red or blue is lost when the entirety of a political message is a hundred and fifty-ish characters long.

Over here, we even have "light green" for those willing to look. They get fewer votes than their more militant block cousins though, so it appears that relatively few people do look much beyond surface-level doom mongering and chest-thumping.

As a matter of clarity, I suppose I should mention that I used to loosely identify with the Left, but been "driven out" by the "Culture" "war" and the Overton window has since shifted me over to centre-slightly-right. Thus, I'm trying to analyse and formulate this statement not from the point of view of a single political block, but from that of someone who above all else values the individual. (Politically speaking, it would be the inverse of the famous Kennedy quote about asking what you can do for the country.)
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

No one

Left, right, doesn't matter. Not all politicians are bad, some are dead.

Asmodean

A lot of them just try to be sort-of a reflection of the public opinion that got them elected, condensed to its nearest absolute.

Personally, I think "professional political actors" tend to make the worst politicians.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

No one

The power of absolute power and its wake of absolute corruption.

Asmodean

Yes, though beisde my point. I wasn't necessarily talking about professional political operators in power. It's more that my experience is that choosing that sort of career removes a person from them grass roots. Over here, I could probably count on my fingers - with some to spare - the number of people who have "only ever" done politics, who "live in the same world" as I.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

MarcusA

The Left is so tied up with side issues that it has lost sight of the working-class.
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Asmodean

What is "the working class" in "the first world?" Is it the factory worker? Because that voter base is shrinking at the speed of automation, prompting the question; "is the Left right ( :rimshot: ) to "lose sight" of it?"

Over here, they do very little to appeal to the IT tech and the secretary and the trucker, so... Maybe they should?
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

MarcusA

The Left used to be made up of workers, now it is simply bourgeois.
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Asmodean

...So are a lot of those workers. People in the wealthier parts of the world tend to live in cities, which by itself satisfies the term. Looked upon more broadly, while living in cities, we tend to sell stuff to each other and have as few people as possible manufacture it. In ye-olden days, you'd see rows upon rows of people on farms, doing the planting, weeding, harvesting and whatever else have you. Today, that has been largely replaced by them really wide tractor attachemtns. One dude can do a week's job from 50 years ago in a day - and do a week's job of 20 dudes from a hundred years ago in the same time.

How many workers (in the mid-20th century sense) are left there for the Worker Parties? Oh, there are a fair few, but then "a nice minority" is not precisely what most political parties aspire to.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.

MarcusA

The Left is gay now, and the Right fascist.
This user has been banned for spamming the forum.

Asmodean

Neither is actually true, unless you are attempting Gamer-speak.
Quote from: Ecurb Noselrub on July 25, 2013, 08:18:52 PM
In Asmo's grey lump,
wrath and dark clouds gather force.
Luxembourg trembles.