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The left today has been successfully caricatured as crypto-Stalinist thought police demanding compliance with fake science and virtue-signaling identity performance from all, on the way to Gulag World with straight white males at the bottom. Ideally killing millions along the way
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How the hell did we end up there from the basics that attract people to the left? 1. Seeing all living things as intrinsically valuable 2. Being upset by others’ pain 2. Accepting that we share a messy planet 3. Being curious about the future and open to letting go the past
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As with the Right, there’s more than one philosophical tradition on the Left which is why, looking at another era, the battle between Social Democratic trade unionists and Stalinist Communists to control union locals was so bloody. The authoritarians are ascendant again
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From the perspective of today, the old left and old right look pretty similar. The “left” and “right” as existing today in their opponent’s discourse are yesterday’s authoritarian fringes amplified by social media.
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There exists a strain of authoritarian thought on the left. Add private groups dedicated to mocking enemies and a pinch of dumpster diving, and the entire left gets tarred by that brush. After all, "occupy libtards" isn't going to signal boost sensible leftists.