There was a post on !mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world called “Lemmy is losing the war against reddit. How do we change things?” Looks like it was removed but there were a couple good discussions there. In a discussion with (I think it was) @hendrik@palaver.p3x.de we came up with this.
Yeah, it’s a weird bunch. Somehow “leftist” while also having a penchant for sexism and odd racism.
I’ve seen people dogmatically defend MTF trans women, all while still being sexist towards women in general. Pretty sure a lot of people on here only defend women who make their dicks hard.
I’ve also seen a bunch of white people try to “educate” actual Asian people over asian culture because they’ve based their personalities on communism or anime.
It really does feel like early Reddit.
Leftism is strange because most people aren’t left-leaning in every topic, just ask them about veganism e.g. Suddenly, a lot of people sound just like your average right-winger. Unfortunately, these people suck at acknowledging their own biases - just like pretty much every other human. They only support necessary social change up to the point they too would have to change.
The really strange thing is, call them out, and they may even turn right entirely, just for calling them out. I remember reading lots of people saying this after the election, despite the right having as much infighting as they have inbreeding. But it works for them.
The point is, I think a lot of people like to think about themselves as being on the left. They acknowledge it to be the correct way and want to think of themselves as being a good person - but they really aren’t, and it often shows.
And I repeat, that’s okay. We all suck at this. But we should still strife for better.
I would say there is no definitive “Left” or “Right”. It depends on which countries policies we are basing this on. If I compare German politics to US politics you would not even consider the Democrats as the left — It shifts with each country.
I think while the political compass doesn’t show every aspects it shows that there are more attributes to consider when talking about political direction.
While I for example might consider myself socially progressive and more on the left side on the spectrum I’d also consider myself more conservative when it comes to fiscal policy for example. That’s why I also argue there is no single correct political orientation if you want to be a good person.
Politically speaking, there is a clear-cut answer for what a good person is, I think. Someone who wants to improve the life of as many people as possible - even at the risk of decreasing their own circumstances. And that is usually what the left should aspire to be.
Socially speaking, this usually means to grant the same rights to everyone. Giving up privileges, overcoming the bias one might have against certain groups and stopping to exploit them.
Fiscally, this usually means supporting the poor. Conservative fiscal policies are mostly based on greed - ‘conserving’ the wealth of those who already have it at the cost of the poor. Going to your example, Germany, conservatives are all about taking money from the poor (Bürgergeld, Bafög, etc.) while denying any policies against the rich (just listen to the conservatives speeches during the vote of confidence: ‘These so called super-rich people don’t exist! We can’t take from those! They are all family-owned businesses! Their wealth creates jobs!’ [loosely translated summary of both Merz and Lindner] Which is just emotionally charged trickle down nonsense that has been disproven multiple times over.). The myth of ‘fiscal responsibility’ is also easily disproved if you look at Merz’ policies he is campaigning on - they have been proven as nonsense within days if not hours.
It’s easy to see which is morally the better choice, both if you’re poor and if you’re rich. Robin Hood isn’t recognized as a heroic figure for nothing.
I think Germany already has quite a good social-safety net. I just also think that if you work hard the taxes shouldn’t be unbearably high and that a business friendly culture and good economy allows for a better social-safety net long term than if you cripple your own economy with too much regulation and taxes.
I said I’m socially progressive which is why I think its important to have a social-safety net where everyone has a decent standard of living and can recover to employment. I think when it comes to regulation we need to focus more on using economic mechanisms to steer companies the right way than just forbid or invent a new bureaucratic point. In international comparison the income tax is really high which mainly harm people from the middle class and a bit from the upper class although they can afford proper consultation and minimize taxes. Thats why I think instead of raising taxes international loopholes should be closed, there needs to be a harder stance on tax evasion and financial crimes.
I read up on some cases calculated by the IFO, Handelsblatt and from the “Sachverständigenrat für Wirtschaft und Transferleistungen” respectively. In there I found scenarios in which you could go from earning 2500€ to 4500€ before taxes and in the end end up with like 400€ more which I personally think is unacceptable. Social benefits should not be discouraging work in such a way. Those aspects personally place me in the party Volt which I also like for their european stance
There’s always a bit of “no-true-leftist” dynamic within left-leaning circles. Vegans have gotten upset at each other for stuff like feeding their pets a diet with or without meat, boiling over into Fediverse drama (not trying to open that discussion here but just highlighting that it has been hotly debated). If we let small differences get in the way of big progress, of course conservatives will win and take us backwards because they will use any opportunity they get, and are somehow better at setting aside differences on unrelated issues than leftists. I don’t have much of a solution besides putting my focus and attention on issues that are more important to me, such as the class war over culture war stuff.
Call me a lib, but I occasionally agree with things conservatives say even if a lot more times I disagree. That doesn’t make me a conservative but there are some that act as if I was.
I literally haven’t seen any of this. Can you provide some examples?
I def see the leftist leanings, but Lemmy as a whole seems super progressive on those topics. You’re not the first person I’ve heard say this though, and I’m wondering if in just missing it by sticking to popular posts and top level comments. Am I missing something big here?
You might be missing it because you may be avoiding the more toxic instances like hexbear. They had a little schism a couple weeks ago when they attempted to tamp down on sexism and racism by handing out temporary bans. However, there was a big backlash because a lot of their more active posters caught bans and messed up user engagement .
The mods ended up getting accused of trying to slow down the “revolution”.
oooh someone should write this up for !fediverselore@lemmy.ca …
Yeah, okay, I def do avoid hexbear, so I can see how I’d miss their contributions to this all.
I knew the instance was full of tankies, but thats interesting to hear that they have (had?) a sexism problem. Just to be clear, it was the “stereotypical” sexism (that is: men hating on women; not hate towards men and/or the LGBT population), right?
It was the more stereotypical sexism for the most part.
I remember the discourse surrounding the man vs. bear thing was less than ideal. Lots of people seemed to feel personally offended that any woman would choose the bear.
Yeah, there was a thread about some guy getting pissy because a woman who was walking at night sped up to get away from them as well.
I had to explain to them that if some random dude who was a foot and a half taller than them and outweighed them by 75lb was walking right behind them at night…they would probably be walking a little more briskly as well.
I have never defended Lauren Boebert!