General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCan we stop propagating the right wing alt-left trope now?
We have an overtly fascist president. Stop helping him and his goons divide us and put us against each other.
regnaD kciN
(26,045 posts)WoonTars
(694 posts)...and everyone else on the other...
It is a right-wrong false equivalency. Period.
Alt-right people are bigots. The supposed alt-left people are not. "Alt-left" is a right wing term used to excuse the alt-right.
bdamomma
(63,922 posts)from using that term: alt left what total BS
Remember when they called us DemocRats, they have nothing else, what arrogant/ignorant people.
leftstreet
(36,112 posts)Please!
TubbersUK
(1,439 posts)His goons having been pushing this term hard all day on social media.
They need it in general use to support their false equivalencies.
It's no coincidence that Trump also pushed it today.
melman
(7,681 posts)But what I've seen instead is people saying he 'redefined it'. Because they didn't use it like he used it blah blah.
It's always been a bullshit made up term, always a slur, and only ever meant to be divisive. But the people who have been relentlessly throwing it around will never own up to that.
SecularMotion
(7,981 posts)GaryCnf
(1,399 posts)Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)Curmudgeoness
(18,219 posts)Progressive Democrats are not out to "destroy" the Democratic Party. The party needs to work with all factions of Democrats. And alienating a large group of Democrats is not going to help. It is well past time that we stop beating each other up and calling names. We have a f*&king crisis with this Idiot In Chief, and still you want to fight each other.
WTF!
Voltaire2
(13,154 posts)Response to Curmudgeoness (Reply #14)
Post removed
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)LieberDems are the ones that need to look in a mirror, NOT us.
bdamomma
(63,922 posts)let's unite.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)You know, "purists" and "Bernie bros" and "far left." It would help a great deal.
Want to discuss policy differences within the party? Great! Just ditch the pejoratives.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)doesn't play real well. Not among Democrats.
So, it becomes about drawing a cartoon caricature instead of talking specifics.
In 2004 it was the spectre of crazy peace symbol volvo-driving latte sippers for Howard Dean.
By 2016 it became "Bernie Bros".
JI7
(89,264 posts)and other areas where they are on the same side as the right.
they are the ones who attack the lattle liberal establishment .
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)If it's so important to have a clever name to delineate these fearsome beasts you have discovered, then maybe a better job could be done differentiating it from the derpy memery that was thrown at everyone who supported Bernie Sanders in the primaries last year.
JI7
(89,264 posts)they wanted trump to win. their goal was to defeat clinton.
i kind of agree about the name since i don't see them as left at all . i see them as right wing trolls. so that would be a better description. they sure don't care about more liberal/pgoressive policies.
they revealed themselves when they supported trump but for anyone paying attention to what they said it was obvious before .
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)But we agree, it's a stupid name, and the people you describe aren't "left".
Personally, I have no love for Jill Stein any more than I did for Ralph Nader, like when he accepted Republican help to defeat Kerry in 2004. And I sure as shit have no warm fuzzies for anyone who helped the current clusterfuck get into the oval office.
Fact is, though, the bullshit name-calling has hurt our unity. The right wing trolls you mention could give a shit.
kcr
(15,320 posts)I support progressive policies and manage not to get called those names. It's not being a lefty that gets the label. Don't be a Putin apologist. Don't be a party spoiler. Don't fall for and spread RW conspiracy theories.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)and will continue to irritate the small minded by repeating it, that great minds discuss ideas, mediocre minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people.
Oh, there are some small minds on the left, also.
R B Garr
(16,975 posts)Just ditch the perjoratives.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)and Third Way is what conservatve, business friendly Democrats called themselves in the 90s. I'm afraid you are stuck with reading both. However, those terms should be used appropriately and in place of "corporatist," unless the term is being used to describe a set of policies, not people.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way
R B Garr
(16,975 posts)Just because you can link to it on the internet doesn't mean anything. I can also link to ideations about "progressives" that you are complaining about.
Warpy
(111,339 posts)R B Garr
(16,975 posts)ideas now is to mock groups of Democrats.
Reality is a thing. I could link to ideations about "progressives", also, which would be just as meaningful.
Ghost Dog
(16,881 posts)Neoliberalism is a policy model of social studies and economics that transfers control of economic factors to the private sector from the public sector. It takes from the basic principles of neoclassical economics, suggesting that governments must limit subsidies, make reforms to tax law in order to expand the tax base, reduce deficit spending, limit protectionism, and open markets up to trade. It also seeks to abolish fixed exchange rates, back deregulation, permit private property, and privatize businesses run by the state. Liberalism, in economics, refers to a freeing of the economy by eliminating regulations and barriers that restrict what actors can do. Neoliberal policies aim for a laissez-faire approach to economic development.
Neoliberalism has been used by various scholars, critics and analysts, mainly referring to an upspring of 19th century ideas connected to economic liberalism that began in the 1970s and 1980s. These ideals advocate for extensive economic liberalization and policies that extend the rights and abilities of the private sector over the public sector, specifically the shutting down of state and government power over the economy. Neoliberalism supports fiscal austerity, deregulation, free trade, privatization and greatly reduced government spending.
The popularity and support of neoliberalism is divided. This approach has most famously been connected to various economic policies introduced in the United Kingdom by Margaret Thatcher and in the United States by Ronald Reagan. Some academics and analysts, however, attribute the resurgence of neoliberal economic theories in the 1970s and 1980s to financialization and indicate that the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 is ultimately a result of such an approach to the economy.
The exact meaning and usage of the term has changed throughout time. In its earliest sense, neoliberalism referred to an economic philosophy popular among 1930s European liberal scholars, a sort of middle road between classic liberalism and socialist planning. The use and popularity of the term "neoliberal" declined steadily, specifically in the 1960s. Neoliberalism gained popularity again in the 1980s, connected to Chilean economic reforms issued by Augusto Pinochet. During this time, the term gained a negatively slanted connotation and was used primarily by critics of market reform. The meaning of the term also shifted to indicate a more radical laissez-faire capitalist pool of ideas. Most scholars began to associate the term with Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. This new meaning of neoliberalism, popular among Spanish-speaking scholars, diffused into the English-language study of the economy. However, the term is rarely heard in the United States.
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/neoliberalism.asp
R B Garr
(16,975 posts)I could supply plenty of "real" links about progressives, but I bet they wouldn't stay up.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)I always loved being called "Far Left" and a "purist" because I want a due human right that 31 other countries have and an adequate social safety net.
Coventina
(27,172 posts)Initech
(100,102 posts)And the alt right trolls are also putting up fake Antifa sites to keep us fighting with each other.
Weekend Warrior
(1,301 posts)They and we need to start acting like it and unify.
Tavarious Jackson
(1,595 posts)Can we get rid of terms like neoliberal, third way etc??
betsuni
(25,614 posts)Democrats and Democratic voters must be pummeled with silly buzzwords like neoliberal and third way and corporatist and constantly accused of being the same as or worse than Republicans, whereas it is very bad to ever say anything negative about Republicans and Republican voters. This is the New Rule. And the worst thing, the most offensive slur, is to call someone a "bro." This will not be tolerated.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)I mean, it displays a kind of depressing lack of semantic creativity.
Not that "corporatist" is terribly creative, either, of course.
What's ironic is, having had some seriously corporate gigs in my day, corporations are FULL of bros, in my experience. Lousy with em, in fact. That's why they call the suit company Brooks Bros.
virtualobserver
(8,760 posts)SecularMotion
(7,981 posts)While many of them voted for Jill Stein, if they voted at all, some switched over to Donald Trump, like Cassandra Fairbanks, who voted for him after Bernie lost the primary. Fairbanks, a journalist who was recently accused of making a white supremacist hand gesture from the White House press room claims she knows "little" of Russian politics, but wrote several articles for Russian propaganda outlet Sputnik news, supporting Bernie Sanders before switching to Trump. In a recent Cosmopolitan profile, she fawned over the Pussy Grabber in Chief, comparing him to punk rock because they're both against the establishment. Currently, she writes for Breitbart offshoot Big League Politics, where she writes about "free speech activists" and the Seth Rich conspiracy. Given the way she changes her stances to suit whoever's paying her, it's clear that she has no ideology at all.
https://thedailybanter.com/2017/06/the-alt-left-is-losing-its-mind-and-people-are-noticing/
JI7
(89,264 posts)and push other right wing crap they are pretty much the same as the right.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)C'mon, go to town!