• rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      33
      ·
      4 months ago

      Yeah, it’s hard to explain in the US and Canada, where there are only two major parties, that they don’t represent two ends of a political spectrum. They’re just two dominant parties that have different ideas; on a lot of things, they even agree and don’t hide it.

      I wish we, as kids in society, had learned more about specific right-wing and left-wing policies in history and civics so that this distinction could be made more clear. Or at least that we were taught what liberalism is and what neoliberalism is and how they’re different.

      But we didn’t and weren’t, so when people think “liberal” they think “left,” and we’re all worse off for it.

      • DessertStorms@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        12
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        But we didn’t and weren’t

        Deliberately of course, precisely to maintain ignorance, and keep the Overton window firmly on the right…

      • marcos@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        10
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        so when people think “liberal” they think “left”

        Ouch.

        I guess both have crazy US-only meanings, because well, “liberal” is the core of the right-wing idea.

        • rand_alpha19@moist.catsweat.com
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          9
          ·
          4 months ago

          Yes, that’s exactly what I mean. It’s nuts that a word means something totally different in one specific area of the world because it’s politically convenient to ignore what it actually means.

    • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      12
      arrow-down
      6
      ·
      4 months ago

      All such descriptors are relative; by definition, the Democratic Party is “left.”

      • Samsy@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        6
        arrow-down
        9
        ·
        4 months ago

        The only left US-politician in the last 200 years is Bernie Sanders. The rest of the democrats are just on the “left” side from every GOP statement. Which doesn’t make the democrats left.

        • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          4 months ago

          You say shit like that and expected to be taken seriously? Even if you were conceptually correct, Eugene Debs is right there. Educate yourself, son.

      • DessertStorms@lemmy.blahaj.zone
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        That doesn’t magically make democrats “the left” (E: and therefore doesn’t explain why they wouldn’t be fans of CNN, being centrists, at best) lmao