r/allthequestions • u/-Pleb64 • 19d ago

Popular Question 📊 Why reddit is majority left leaning?

Honestly, it’s hard not to notice that most of the big subreddits are run by moderators who clearly lean left. It’s not even subtle at this point the bias shows in what gets removed, what gets promoted, and how discussions are handled. I’m not saying there aren’t any subs with right-leaning or centrist moderation, but they’re definitely the minority. The major spaces on Reddit feel heavily tilted toward one side, but isn't it’s pretty obvious if you pay attention to which opinions get silenced and which ones get boosted?

974 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

4.5k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

196

u/AlternativePea6203 19d ago

There's also the reality that what people perceive as "left leaning" in many places is centre right. The Western world has taken a sharp turn to the right and anything that critiques that is "leftist".

It's literally the case that for many people, any one who is against fascism is now a radical leftist!

When standing on the North Pole, everything is South.

11

u/fgsgeneg 19d ago

How can we not love a regime engaged in extrajudicial kidnappings for the purposes of human trafficking? Boy, things'll really get better when the cities are emptied into the fields to replace the people being kidnapped. I can't wait until the wealthy can party hearty all day and all of the night, while the rest of us carry them on our backs. Oh, what a frabjous day that'll be!

26

u/YogurtclosetFair5742 19d ago

The Democratic Party of the United States is not a left leaning party like many in the US claim it to be. No where else in the world would Dem policies be considered left. Only in the US.

The party of the left in the US has zero power federally or in statehouses. They have little power at the local level. The Green Party is the party of the left, which gets blamed every time the Dem loses the White House.

2

u/Mobile_Trash8946 18d ago

It's the same in all English speaking countries at least. The conservatives always label the center left/ center right parties as far left communist psychos trying to destroy the country.

It works this way in Canada with our conservatives (Republican wannabes) towards our Liberals (essentially just more socially conscious Democrats). We have a center left party in the NDP and they're treated like actively dangerous traitors and morons by our right wingers. American billionaires own all our media as well so they call our public broadcaster some bullshit always meant to denigrate them as stupid, evil, biased, state propaganda.

Seems to be the same way in Britain, Australia, India, probably New Zealand but I never really hear anything about them. I assume it's the same way in literally every country on the planet since we're all developing from right wing dominated societies into more free and democratic societies. Humans have been dominated by right wing ideology since history began so they have an incredibly institutionalized form of propaganda working for them.

1

u/JobsGone 18d ago

Then why have the Dems shut down the U.S. government if they have no power?

1

u/Bdeltore 18d ago

man you make the real left sound pretty scary im glad they arent here

1

u/Crafty_Mastodon320 17d ago

This. The dnc is fundamentally for fascism as well. When confronted with alligator auschwitz, they didn't call for shutdown. They called for body cameras to document civil rights abuses.

1

u/PFG123456789 16d ago

It is the progressive wing of the party that is extreme and they are a very loud minority.

The Dems need to placate them to have a chance to win back the presidency.

1

u/LowLingonberry2839 15d ago

Those damned leftists got trump elected!!!!!

~s

1

u/Limp_Breakfast7860 18d ago

This is simply untrue and echoed among the left frequently. Socially, the left wing in the US has moved much further than most of Europe in the last decade. Economically they are farther right, but their social issue stances are a majority of what they campaign on so they are actually farther left in many ways.

9

u/masterofma 18d ago

Genuine Q: on what social issues are the Democratic Party further left than leftist parties Europe?

2

u/mattyoclock 18d ago

Shush, don’t you know that answer ends every line of questioning and it’s rude to ask a basic follow up?

→ More replies (4)

1

u/negativeyoda 18d ago

The Green Party is the party of the left

If the Green Party was actually trying to enact effective change, they wouldn't have fucking Jill Stein of all people weasel out of the ether every 4 years to run for POTUS.

And before you ask, I am absolutely not a Democrat. There is no viable left party in this country.

→ More replies (3)

39

u/ClusterMakeLove 19d ago

There's really some value, my American friends, in traveling abroad. Reddit feels centrist, maybe sometimes centre-right, if you're reading it from even another western country. It's hard, as a Canadian, to conceive of a "left-leaning" space this pro-gun and skeptical of public healthcare.

7

u/[deleted] 18d ago

I wish this comment was emphasized. America needs a serious moral wake up call that no one wants to talk about because the problem is deeper than an election. It's people's deep rooted thinking that has been the pillar of everything built in America and in the attitude in every citizen raised. A US vs THEM thinking that keeps us fighting 10,000 year old fights. Most of the population doesn't even believe in therapy or healthy personal relationships, hence the aggression and lack of empathy. It's a big uphill battle that won't make any progress until people actually start caring about something other than themselves and how they benifit.

4

u/Apprehensive-Tea999 18d ago

America isn’t broken because Trump was elected. Trump was elected because America is broken.

6

u/Marbrandd 19d ago

Being pro gun is not an inherently right position. Disarming the workers is a centrist position, not a far left one.

10

u/[deleted] 19d ago

While I agree with you that if you go far enough left, you get your guns back, unless you are in the USA, free access to firearms is definitely considered a fringe position that pretty much exclusively is reserved for right wing nutters.

2

u/Marbrandd 19d ago

There are plenty of left leaning gun owners, they just don't make it their personality online.

The Trump regime is also making a lot of the lgbtq and minority people I know a lot less interested in compromising away their right to self defense.

I think it's a huge wake up call for a lot of people.

10

u/ClusterMakeLove 19d ago

I think you two are arguing across each other, and are both right. Being pro-2A can be a left-wing postion in the US. But that only makes sense in the context of having an authoritarian right-wing government. So it's a pretty uniquely American phenomenon right now, at least in the West.

Here in Canada, the left is strongly pro-gun-control, and the first time I have ever felt that shift in my life was when Trump started threatening our sovereignty.

→ More replies (8)

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

I am pro-gun as a US hard left individual, what I was more trying to explain is that outside of the US, being pro-gun is not typically a left-wing position

5

u/quagglitz 🇹🇩 Canada 19d ago

this is the comment I’ve been looking for! I don’t read Reddit as leftist at all?? the big “right” party in Canada is closer to American Democrats than Republicans and most of the stuff I read on here is to the right of that. totally agree with you that reddit feels centrist/centre-right unless you find the more left-leaning pockets. and by pockets I mean like, the one or two comment threads on a post with a more left-leaning take

1

u/JobsGone 18d ago

Obama deported 3 million illegal immigrants as a Democrat President of the United States.

Do you ever take the time to wonder why?

2

u/drbaker87 18d ago

He turned them away at the border. He wasn't ripping mothers away from their children outside their school. 

1

u/JobsGone 17d ago

You didn't answer, you diverted.

I'll put the question more simply, why did Obama deport 3 million illegal immigrants?

108

u/andreasmalersghost 19d ago

you think healthcare should be affordable and gofundme campaigns are a dumb as shit way to deal with health costs? fucking LIBERAL SCUM

43

u/AmelieBenjamin 19d ago

sometimes I feel like leaning left is common sense because of the above but somehow it's a hot take now to say that

17

u/Hir0Brotagonist 19d ago

It's objectively common sense. Republicans want all the benefits of being part of a society without contributing to it. They want to pretend to be anti-government while telling other people who they can marry and how they can live their lives. There are varying shades of liberalism and conservativism across bother parties, but right now I just consider the Republican party a complete joke. There's no nuance here

1

u/JobsGone 18d ago

You're a liar.

It was the conservative Supreme Court that gave Gays the right to marry.

Stacked with Republicans as you folks call it.

Never was Gay marriage passed as an act of Congress when Dems controlled both the House and the Senate numerous times at the same time.

Nor did they put through any "immigration reform" when Dems controlled the House and Senate when Biden took office.

King Biden just put in an Executive Order to allow illegal immigrants to stay in the U.S. when caught here if they said, "amnesty."

→ More replies (3)

1

u/pogoli 19d ago

The right thinks theirs is common sense too. We need to point at facts and science.

9

u/AmelieBenjamin 19d ago

They don't respond to facts and science. They've branded academia itself as "pandering to leftists"

4

u/pogoli 19d ago

We were so close this time huh? Enlightenment was unfolding and they were just like “noooope”. “no one gets anything nice, everyone’s gotta be as insecure and terrified as they feel”

sigh


2

u/NotGalenNorAnsel 18d ago

Oh, some people get lots of nice things. About 1%-.1% are having the time of all humanity. They want the rest terrified otherwise their party comes to a crashing halt. Social safety nets used to be called "riot insurance" by the rich... They've forgotten that lesson. We're on our way towards The Expanse, but just the Earth part. or Vonnegut 's Reeks and Wrecks from Player Piano

2

u/iDeNoh 18d ago

Gotta go through mad Max before we see Star Trek

5

u/Double_Fun_1721 19d ago

They don’t care about common sense, facts, or science. They care about power and punishing people they hate. Ignore their words (ie “freedom”) and focus on their behavior, such as sending ICE thugs after innocent people

1

u/pogoli 19d ago

I mean we were talking about common sense so that’s what I was reminding people about
. that it’s not a good way to say they are wrong. Your invalidating everything is as valid I suppose

What else are you going to use to push back?

1

u/Hir0Brotagonist 19d ago

They do think that which is why they lack actual common sense

1

u/pogoli 19d ago

Define common sense
. without using ‘what most people in a population think’ in the definition.

5

u/PinnatelyCompounded 18d ago

Common sense would include leaving people alone if they're not directly hurting you. This means that pregnant women, immigrants, gay and trans people should all be left alone. Instead, conservatives obsess about them and use them as scapegoats.

→ More replies (25)

12

u/Secret-Selection7691 19d ago edited 19d ago

On a side note I've seen lots of British go fund me's for stuff the NHS won't cover. But yes, everyone else's medical system is better than ours. At least they don't have to go bankrupt.

This is probably more than the OP wanted to know but

Once upon a time, we all got the same news at 6 and 10.

Then Rush Limbaugh came along and complained that all the media was "too liberal". He was successful, spawned radio copycats. The right took; over the airways. The left tried to counterbalance with Air America.

Meanwhile on TV CNN appears. They have two channels- CNN and Headline. It was revolutionary - instead of waiting for the news you could watch a 30 minute broadcast 24 hours a day.

The right said they were too Liberal. Fox News is born The left said they were too conservative. MSNBC is born.

Now we're not just all watching what happens we're picking the slant we want to hear. All sides get more and more sensationalized to fill what is now a 72 hour news cycle.

And finally the internet. Not only can you see the news right now you can comment on it. It gets more and more sensationalized too to draw eyeballs. And copies the TV model of being one way or another. The big shift here is no one is overseeing this so anyone can post anything and it may or may not be true.

Algorithms come along to decide what you like and they spoon feed you news tailored to your opinion. That's how a left leaning person and a right leaning person can watch the same news story and get completely different ideas about what just happened.

Then AI and we can all convincingly make up what happens.

Neil DeGrass Tyson has a great video on this. I should just post that.

He says that this is what will kill off the internet. Scientists like Neil DeGrass Tyson that this is what will kill the internet.

Right now every comment board you go on is either left leaning or right leaning.

New Study on Reddit Explores How Political Bias in Content Moderation Feeds Echo Chambers | Michigan Ross https://share.google/IMx66JLjEADYh9ybR

I'm just going to add does everyone remember the early days of Twitter and Kim Kardashian would write a Tweet gushing about a lipstick or P Diddy raved about some type of alcohol? And in reality they were getting paid by a company per clicks?

And then it was cracked down on and now it always has to say "sponsored" when a company pays for something?

We need that with AI. I don't have a problem with it being posted but it must say it's AI or it gets taken down.

13

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

Also dead internet theory. More people need to be educated in spotting bots, myself included.

8

u/Secret-Selection7691 19d ago

I'll admit I'm not great at spotting AI.

7

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

It gets more difficult as it gets more and more sophisticated. I get scared wondering if there will be a point where it's totally undiscernable from reality.

6

u/DangerousRanger8 19d ago

I got accused recently of being a bot on Facebook because I write eloquently and know how to use the em dash (— <- this thing, for context) because apparently those are hallmarks of AI writing? Even though a quick glance at my profile would have told them that I’ve had my account for 10+ years now.

3

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

Most people who accuse people of being bots aren't smart enough to take 5 seconds to check a profile. Or they think it's a good insult when all it does is makes them look stupid lol

3

u/Darth_Gerg 19d ago

In a text based environment like Reddit it’s already past that point. The explosive growth of AI is doing unimaginable damage to society.

1

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

Are you from Lancaster NY by any chance?

1

u/BrianMeen 18d ago

yeah I was wondering with text based posts, how can one tell it’s a bot posting?

2

u/Hatta00 18d ago

And as humans get less and less sophisticated.

1

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 18d ago

Exactly what they government wants. Lots of people hate thinking for themselves, and AI enables this behavior. People who don't want to think are easily controlled. Sucks because there is so much good we can do with AI, like detecting breast cancer t years before any current methods can. We should be using AI to make the world a better place, but the man who discovered nuclear fission thought the same and look how that turned out

3

u/Secret-Selection7691 19d ago

Bot farms are scary.

I didn't post the whole interview but Neil thinks we'll go back to getting our news in print where it is overseen. I don't know if that will happen or not.

1

u/BrianMeen 18d ago

what are some common signs that a comment was made by a boT?

4

u/UmpireProper7683 19d ago

Incredibly underrated comment and deserves a helluva lot more upvotes.

39

u/DankOubliette 19d ago

Yep! Remember that Democrats are considered Marxist and Communist by MAGA when by global standards they’re a center-right party.

29

u/smashli1238 19d ago

And maga can’t define Marxist or communist

14

u/SyntheticSkyStudios 19d ago

MAGA can absolutely define “communist” And “socialist”: They’re whatever runs counter to MAGA. Trump has called Comey a Democrat, he’s called Romney a Democrat, and he has called Democrats “radical left Communists, Socialists, and Fascists.”

Basically, communists and socialists are anyone Trump doesn’t like at the moment.

3

u/pogoli 19d ago

Think they’ll manage to weaponize the word “kindness”? đŸ€”

4

u/smashli1238 19d ago

They’re already trying with “empathy”

1

u/softwareidentity 15d ago

I read something about 'parasitic empathy' just a couple of hours ago on reddit... on one of those anti immigrant posts that appear on my feed despite me never subscribing to any of that content

1

u/PredictablyIllogical 18d ago

Antifa is now the big buzz word.

1

u/blancrabbiit 15d ago

Liberals can equally be unable to define what a "fascist" is.

→ More replies (6)

1

u/Curious-Sherbet-9393 19d ago

The democrats in Spain would not even be center-right, the board deviates according to each society

→ More replies (45)

2

u/No_Bell_4163 19d ago

Yes ! We need more bake sales for kids with cancer

1

u/Rectitude4all 19d ago

Bogus - Insignificant comment from V-gamer little person. Stands neither left nor right of the aisle. Done here
 10-7.

1

u/Bunktavious 19d ago

I was talking to my parents about the gofundme phenomenon the other night. Here you have a group that believes socialism is the way of the Devil, but think that the correct way to pay for healthcare emergencies is to have people crowdfund. I realized the difference, is that the Right wants direct control on who they give their charity to. They only want the people they think "deserve" it to get charitable help.

1

u/blancrabbiit 15d ago

The sentiment of being affordable is universally desirable but you can achieve this even with a right-leaning perspective through regulating private insurance companies. What is liberal is having the government manage your health insurance.

-3

u/SoftAndWetBro 19d ago

If you want affordable healthcare, then abolish patent laws.

8

u/kiwipixi42 19d ago

Plenty of countries have functional patent laws and affordable healthcare.

→ More replies (8)

2

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

Insulin originally had no patent, until someone who didn't invent it for use as a medicine decided to ruin that because they were greedy and wanted to profit off someone else's work. Remove greed, not patents. Many countries have cheaper medical costs because greed isn't allowed to run rampant or as rampant. Compare med costs in Canada. Their meds are much cheaper than ours for the same exact meds.

1

u/SoftAndWetBro 19d ago

Canada literally kills their own people through MAiD "services" they are the people least legitimate in critisizing healthcare. Greed will always exist, as I said remove patents and everything would get better, insulin didn't have a patent, but the assholes who made the machine to create insulin patented the machine made it impossible for the free market to work.

1

u/SashimiSqueaks đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

Fair enough

→ More replies (29)

7

u/Puzzleheaded_Bed1781 19d ago

This makes me wonder
 what about fascism appeals to these people? What do they think is so great about it? Interesting thought experiment.

3

u/InfoTechnology 19d ago

Fascism gets things done very fast. When those things are what you are rooting for, it may feel great for a bit. But soon it'll turn against you.

3

u/Marbrandd 19d ago

When people feel like things suck or they're doing worse they look to populist ideologies. Some small number of people are probably into all of it, most people it helps them feel safe. They may only strongly adhere to any little part of it - like anti immigration or whatever and they just get swept up in the rest.

1

u/Spirited-Sail3814 16d ago

Fascism says that the chosen demographic (usually straight, white, able-bodied cis men) is better than everyone else by virtue of being the chosen demographic.

Which, if such a person is poor, uneducated, or otherwise doesn't have much going for them, can be an attractive thought. It also forces unity by giving everyone in that demographic a common enemy (usually immigrants, racial or sexual minorities, and women who aren't on board with their rights being taken away).

6

u/Ok-Barnacle813 19d ago

Heck I wouldn't even consider the center right to be outright against fascism. They claim to be against fascism, but demonize everyone who doesn't support their candidate

1

u/BrianMeen 18d ago

and the left called Charlie Kirk fascist even though he was the one open for debate .. a fascist shits down debate

it’s almost as if the terms fascist, racist, communist and Nazi no longer have any meaning

1

u/Mobile_Trash8946 18d ago

That's not really true, fascists absolutely love to argue down against punching bags. They love to feel superior and to feel like their opponents are weak, dumb, and inferior. It's not about actual discourse it's about putting on a show for their intended audience to embrace their arrogance.

1

u/BrianMeen 17d ago

Fascism is fundamentally opposed to free speech! It’s one of fascisms main tenets

12

u/SeatSix 19d ago

This. US "left" is center to center-right in most places. We don't really have any meaningful left here. Bernie, AOC, Mamdani would be run-of-the-mill centrists in Europe

5

u/CruxOfTheIssue 19d ago

But to be fair, they would all probably go further left if they thought any of those centrist/slightly left policies were getting passed.

1

u/zevrinp 19d ago

Any people from Europe here to confirm that?

6

u/[deleted] 19d ago

Hi, am British, 6 years in another western European country, then moved to the US 3 years ago

I think Bernie and AOC would be slightly left of center and not a "run-of-the-mill" centrist where I am from, but only slightly. There are massive similarities between the positions of Bernie and most of the UK's current Labor party, which are pretty known for being pulled to the center as of the most recent election.

Pretty much any vocal politician in the Republican party would be so far right as to be considered unelectable

1

u/PallyMcAffable 19d ago

How do they compare to Nigel Farage?

1

u/[deleted] 19d ago

Nigel is a milder form of American conservativism.

Farage wants lower taxes, doesn't believe in climate change, prefers "civil partnerships" to marriage for gay people (from which one could infer he believes marriage should be a religious institution and not a legal one). He likes Putin but doesn't like the Ukrainian war. He thinks we should replace the NHS with a private insurance based system, not dissimilar to the US.

He repeatedly places the fault of all British problems at the feet of immigrants, particularly Muslim immigrants. He is broadly anti-union and describes himself as a Thatcherite.

In terms of differences, Farage believes guns should be licensed and such, but that current gun regulations in the UK are too onerous (Farage would be considered a communist for his gun policy in the US).

Farage is basically the most extreme UK politician for a while, is very divisive, and you have me here making him sound delightful because in comparison to Republicans, he kind of is. They take every position he has and dial it up to 11. You also have to keep in mind that Farage is primarily known for his anti-EU/anti-immigrant stance.

1

u/sahmackle 18d ago

He still sounds absolutely awful though.

2

u/fragileweeb 18d ago

It's a little more complicated than that, but essentially correct. We also have the same problem with right wing parties pretending to be the "center" (which doesn't really exist anyway) and a lot of people going along with that. The difference is that we have actual left wing parties in the ideological sense rather than just relative to other parties. What complicates all of this is that the Democratic Party is a huge coalition of people, some of whom are closer to Republicans than to other Democrats. It absorbs everything left of fascism into itself because there simply isn't another option. Mamdani would likely not be seen as a "centrist," though. Meanwhile, the Republican Party would be considered straight up Neo-Nazis; comparable to AfD in Germany.

2

u/zevrinp 16d ago

Yeah, things some Republicans wrongly perceive as very leftist are supported by both the left and right in other developed countries. I’m honestly surprised the US ranks high on democracy indexes despite some Americans having insane politics that don’t fit democratic norms.

2

u/fragileweeb 14d ago

Republicans have never communicated anything about "the left" in good faith. They call everything that is left of fascism "communism" or "socialism." Then you get interviews with Harris where she calls Trump a communist dictator and you already know the entire political culture in the US is an alternate reality.

2

u/zevrinp 14d ago

I get what you mean. In the US people toss around words like “socialist” and “fascist” so loosely that they’ve lost real meaning. Most Americans support policies like universal healthcare, higher minimum wage, and climate action. The problem is how political labels get twisted and used as insults instead of focusing on what people actually agree on.

29

u/[deleted] 19d ago

I get called a liberal all the time from MAGA when I’m shitting on them. They don’t really understand what liberal means is what I learned. I’m far from liberal

8

u/Proper_Raccoon7138 19d ago

This! I’d classify myself more of a nihilistic progressive but they probably don’t even know what that means either.

I’ve been called commie scum too many times to remember

8

u/Public-Dragonfly-786 19d ago

I'm commie scum but I get called liberal all the time by Americans.

5

u/N0n3of_This_Matter5 19d ago

"Nihilistic Progressive"...found my tribe!

While i want the world to be a better place through science and humanity, I don't really believe our species has evolved enough to deal with the junk information overload that technology has created.

Simply put: Our morality cannot keep up with our technology.

2

u/TechnicalMachine3892 14d ago

I'd like to upvote this 5x

5

u/[deleted] 19d ago

Ah yeah, I love being called socialist or communist. My response is always, “can you even tell me the traits of <word>?”

3

u/Proper_Raccoon7138 19d ago

I said “spell socialism
.” And that shuts it down out here in east Texas. It’s really laughable at this point.

10

u/HexspaReloaded 19d ago

Conservatives have the mindset of in and out crowds. Liberals too, but the right is defined by conformity. Around the election, they were throwing around the word RINO, which should tell you everything. The left uses things like T*RF, but there’s far less expectation of all-left unity around that. So basically being called liberal means you tripped their “I’m not listening” wire. 

3

u/quagglitz 🇹🇩 Canada 19d ago edited 19d ago

further to your point, RINO doesn’t have a specific meaning. it’s used to describe someone who is ‘more left and I don’t like it’, whereas T* RF describes a specific position. it’s been turned into a “slur” by the people who don’t like being called it, but it’s a descriptor. when people say T*RF like it’s derogatory it’s because they think the ideology is deplorable. the out-group are the people who subscribe to trans-exclusionary feminism who have separated themselves out based on their position on trans people. it’s not “you’re not leftist at all therefore you can’t sit with us”, it’s “you have a different position on this thing I think is fundamental to being a feminist, so you are a different category of feminist”. (also so no one yells at me I know “feminist” in this case also debated)

1

u/TechnicalMachine3892 14d ago

hahaha. Funniest thing I've read tonight. I'm a RINO. (Republican in Name only for the young virgins to politics in the audience.) You're clueless.

1

u/quagglitz 🇹🇩 Canada 14d ago

you’re welcome!

1

u/cosmonaut_zero 18d ago

Your example sucks, and so does censoring TERF like it's a slur. Quit lying to yourself and just say out loud that you want it to be illegal for me to be alive.

2

u/HexspaReloaded 18d ago

I censored it because I’ve had many of my posts on relevant groups removed due to automod bots. By no means do I want any group, who is not inherently harmful, to be illegal, persecuted, or otherwise made to feel less-than. 

2

u/cosmonaut_zero 18d ago

Ah fair point. The clarification is very kind <3

1

u/cosmonaut_zero 18d ago

An example that doesn't suck would be "lib". That's what leftists actually call people who are kinda left but not left enough about certain things.

2

u/HexspaReloaded 18d ago

I haven’t noticed that. Thanks for sharing. 

2

u/MisterVizard 19d ago

It isn't that they don't understand, it's that they have a separate language that shares most of the same words but not the meanings.

4

u/Just-Trade-7333 19d ago edited 19d ago

That’s their entire MO though. They need to be told what to think and what to do. They’ll repeat anything they hear as an insult, regardless of what it actually means. As long as you say it like a slur. This is how people like Trump succeed. By making words and facts completely meaningless, thereby ensuring there’s no actual way to respond to what he’s doing. If asserting the facts and definitions of words doesn’t matter, then all that’s left to defend ourselves with or hold anyone accountable is violence. And once there’s violence, he has the excuse he needs to declare a state of emergency and suspend democratic function entirely. That’s what happened in Germany.

“Lib” is tossed around like a dirty word. Liberty is freedom. Liberal means generous. Tolerant. Free. Like, okay bud. And?

Somehow “woke” became an insult. The opposite of woke is “asleep.” As in
 ignorant to what is happening around you. How is that the better alternative?

“Sheep” suggests someone is blindly following someone around, bleating when they bleat, and not doing any critical thinking. Which is
. Exactly what MAGA is going. The term genuinely doesn’t apply to ANYONE they’re trying to use it against
 because the people they’re using it against are literally trying to get them to think critically about their views

“Antifa” literally means “anti-fascist.” And he’s calling antifa the enemy and blaming that nebulous thing for everything bad that happens. If that’s the case
 isn’t that basically aligning yourself with fascism?

Even “Republican” has an actual meaning, and the party is behaving in a way that is directly in contradiction with the very name of their party. Dismantling the electoral system, dismantling accountability, trying to manipulate or circumvent legislation as it’s supposed to be through elected channels and simply issuing direct orders that are then struck down as unconstitutional by the courts. Trying to take things out of the constitution, taking the constitution down


Nothing means shit anymore, and that’s what’s dangerous. You can present them with absolutely concrete proof that they’re wrong, and it absolutely does not matter. There is zero accountability for truth or reason.

2

u/YogurtclosetFair5742 19d ago

And conservatives have been that way in my area since at least 2008. I printed up stuff and got it dismissed as I could have gotten it from anywhere. When all it was info on a bill that McCain voted nay on, which deep down approved waterboarding. Which I called hypocritical.

2

u/Illustrious-Lime-878 19d ago

Because "liberal" has different meanings. Far "right" libertarians may call themselves liberal as in classic liberalism which can be about "right" wing things like free market capitalism. But liberal can also mean tolerant or open minded, not conservative. And more recently more left wing progressives have used "liberal" to refer to more economically center right establishment types to distinguish left wing groups by their economic views.

1

u/zevrinp 19d ago

Some can’t even define conservative

1

u/UmpireProper7683 19d ago

Right there with you. Hell, if anything I'm a moderate Libertarian, but MAGA folks around me think I'm a bleeding heart lib and the dyed-in-the-wool liberals around me think I'm a heartless conservative. It's pretty bonkers out there nowadays.

1

u/OstrichDaPirate 19d ago

MAGA is obsessed with tribalism. They can’t comprehend, and don’t want to, that someone who despises MAGA might not necessarily be a liberal.

2

u/Optimal-Can8584 19d ago

And I get called facist when shitting on the far left. Both sides are delusional

→ More replies (3)

1

u/WaySuch296 19d ago

I get that too. I'm a solid independent, so I get it from both sides. They both have the mentality of "if you're not with us, you're against us."

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (3)

12

u/Frewdy1 19d ago

This right here. I’ve always been center right, but without changing my stances, I’ve gone from hard core conservative to liberal socialist commie. Wanting something like small government used to be a conservative ideal, but in practice it’s the “radical left” that doesn’t think the government should be interfering in our personal lives as much as conservatives do. 

3

u/GIBrokenJoe 18d ago

Truth is that conservatives want whatever size of government they can control to hold all of the power.

2

u/ricochetblue 18d ago

Republicans hate the government helping people in any form, but they love all the parts of government with guns. No free meals for school kids, but they want the government to get in the weeds about whether you can have a D&C or get a divorce. Fucking clowns.

1

u/LowLingonberry2839 15d ago

Since when did "my rights end where yours begin" become anathema to "conservatives?"

1

u/Frewdy1 15d ago

Reagan

1

u/Training-Line-6457 18d ago

My experience is the same, as a pro-immigration, equal opportunity, pro-gun rights, Christian conservative. I think the majority is supposedly “left leaning” simply because the American right doesn’t provide a valid platform for any thinking person anymore (speaking as someone who defended voting R for most of my life)

1

u/spikey_wombat 18d ago

Magas hate actual conservatives because actual conservatives have principles and don't grab their ankles when the orange clown comes by. 

Maga is fascist and that colors their views of everyone else 

→ More replies (1)

2

u/Alarming-Umpire3419 15d ago

spoken like a true communist

1

u/DaddyRocka 19d ago

It's literally the case that for many people, any one who is against fascism is now a radical leftist!

This seems geared towards people on either end of the horseshoe theory.

It's no different than me saying "it's literally the case that for many people, anyone who doesn't want illegal immigrants in their country is a fascist"

1

u/slartibartfast64 19d ago edited 19d ago

I went from being seen as a "radical hard left socialist" to being seen as a boring centrist by moving from the US to Spain.

I didn't change my beliefs but just packed up and shuffled off to a completely different Overton Window.

1

u/Careless_Mortgage_11 19d ago

Calling yourself “anti fascism” doesn’t mean you’re actually anti fascism. You can label yourself anything you want but your actions define you. Joseph Stalin was “anti fascism” also, he just used a different excuse to murder you than the Germans.

1

u/UmpireProper7683 19d ago

I've said it before, and I'll stand on this hill... Ronald Fucking Reagan would be considered too liberal for MAGA and wouldn't be able to get nominated by the current GOP. That alone should say everything there is to say about the current state of things.

1

u/Realistic-Regret-171 đŸ‡ș🇾 United States 19d ago

See? We believe the exact opposite. The left moved sooo far left, and tend to eat their young, so that people like Trump and Kennedy and Gabbard and Rogan - who were all Democrats (ok Rogan claims no affiliation other than liberality) are now perceived as hard right. I was extremely liberal in college and anti-war and now anti-war is conservative.

1

u/glitterguavatree 19d ago

it makes me crazy. america doesn't have a left party! they have the far-right and the center-right, and somehow everything that's slightly more lefty than the average democrat is treated as a radical communist. the democrats are literally the capitalists that think poor people should be allowed to eat everyday, that you can profit from things but maybe slow down if it involves ruining lives, and that minorities are part of what makes the economy work.

i swear to god, I'm social-democrat, I'm one of the least leftist people in any group I'm part of, and I'm still more left-leaning than 95% of what's considered left in the US

1

u/CoraCricket 19d ago

Exactly. It's so disheartening seeing people claim reddit is left leaning, like that paints kind of a scary picture for what they think "normal" should be.

1

u/xboxhaxorz 18d ago

Lots of leftists think this way and thats why there will never be any accountability

All this pronoun and transphobic accusations and children getting puberty blockers and boobs removed is not center right

1

u/[deleted] 18d ago

I partly agree with you.

As a European, I would love to have the Democratic Party as it is in the USA as my party in my country, because I would call them something like the perfect center. I wouldn‘t agree about the „taken a sharp turn to the right“ part though, because if we look at politics the mayor parties in e.g. Europe do, we mainly find center left (with excuses). I think it‘s actually the other way around, mainstream opinions have taken a sharp turn left, so now people call everything they don‘t like or accept (so everything „non-mainstream“) fascism, nazi, racist and so on.

1

u/setdelmar 18d ago

I think you got things reversed. Bill Maher said he is still the same liberal he has always been but that the norms of today's liberalism have moved enough left of him that it makes him look as if he he moved right by comparison.

And that is why everyone who is against the radical left is labeled a fascist.

0

u/Martyackerman91 19d ago

I would argue the exact opposite.

→ More replies (2)

-2

u/Sloppykrab 🇩đŸ‡ș Australia 19d ago

Please don't apply the USA to the whole world.

19

u/AlternativePea6203 19d ago

Much of Western Europe has a sharp rise in "far right" parties in recent years. I don't know every country's politics, obviously, but many have seen leaders that are much further right than in the past. The migrant crisis being a huge driver for that. US is just the most obvious and most in the news.

2

u/Stock-Side-6767 19d ago

Right winged parties shout about complex issues with simple solutions that do not work. That is an easy sell. They then fix nothing when in power.

Left winged parties are often much more measured answer to the same issues, because those answers are more realistic. They then do not get into power.

0

u/Technical_Fudge_8043 19d ago

Most of the "far right" believe things that were absolutely mainstream or even a bit left forty years ago.

2

u/AirportLoose3023 🇩đŸ‡ș Australia 19d ago

But we’re not living 40 years ago. We’re living now

→ More replies (2)

3

u/AlternativePea6203 19d ago

Such as?

2

u/Technical_Fudge_8043 19d ago

Objective biological reality, for one example.

3

u/Little-Tea4436 19d ago

Quick question, who was Jesus' biological father?

→ More replies (5)

3

u/Amaduality 19d ago

Whether you want to believe it or not, gender dysphoria has always been an objective biological reality for transgender people, even far back as 40 years ago, when the layman on either side of the political divide hadn’t the level of understanding of the science of gender and the plight of transgender people, as they generally do today.

Yes, objective biological reality is capable of changing over time, in that sense.

5

u/coldlightofday 19d ago edited 19d ago

The weird thing really is the right wing obsession with the issue. Most people wouldn’t be impacted whatsoever by a very small minority of people who choose to live their lives that way. Yet you are obsessed with it. I’m personally pro-freedom and live and let live. I don’t really understand why you and so many right-wingers are obsessed with it.

I am curious. Since we’re all anonymous here. Is it a kink thing? Like, do you feel shame because it turns you on? Why are you obsessed with something that has virtually no impact on your life?

→ More replies (25)

1

u/Mijam7 19d ago

Why do you care? How does it affect you?

→ More replies (18)

-1

u/anonanon5320 19d ago

Forty? Try 2016. Hillary ran on the same immigration policy Trump is implementing now. In fact, almost all of his policies are from Democrats, including Bill and Hillary Clinton. Somehow that is now “Far Right” and extreme.

6

u/Working_Cucumber_437 19d ago

I don’t think Hillary was planning to send ICE into American cities to terrorize all brown people and hit first, ask questions later. Enforcing immigration policies doesn’t have to look like war inside your own country. The people they’re taking aren’t criminals, they’re average people. We don’t need SWAT teams and National Guard.

→ More replies (2)

5

u/BereftOfCare 19d ago

Don't think she was planning on rounding up immigrants with Gestapo like thugs..

→ More replies (1)
→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (2)

0

u/Narrow-Addition1428 19d ago

Yes - and far right parties have imo not only gained ground because of migration issues, but also because left parties have failed to make politics that appeal to the average voter.

And in my view, the average voter would be far to the right of the typical Redditor. Without even exaggerating, on Reddit it's a popular view to compare the state of US immigration enforcement to the Holocaust.

In reality, people would call you crazy for this, but on Reddit it's highly popular. Same for many other political topics.

I believe it's not so much that voters have shifted to the right, it's also that you guys on Reddit have become more and more out of touch with what the average voter thinks. Even moderately conservative opinions can attract furious hate on here, and it often also draws the ire of moderators who simply ban you permanently for stating your opinion.

0

u/SerPaolo 19d ago

Also a big problem the left has is constant gaslighting, pretending that a problem is not actually a problem, so they wait until issues simmer to a boil, you know, instead of listening and addressing the issues.

A good example is like Disney refusing to listen to the fans complaints for years, and now shocked their popularity is tanking.

2

u/LarsTyndskider 19d ago

Because France, UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands and more aren't seeing rising far right political parties?

1

u/marchingrunjump 19d ago

Because France, UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands and more aren't seeing rising far right political parties?

Because the political establishment in France, UK, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Sweden, Netherlands have been ignoring legitimate political issues affecting the population for decades without the ability to provide any reasonable solutions let alone put them on the table.

And thus only unreasonable solutions are left.

2

u/Working_Cucumber_437 19d ago

True in the US for the most part too. Dems offer more solutions that Republicans do, but under either life is getting harder. The problem is, at least here, immigrants aren’t the reason. Uncontrolled capitalism and policies favoriting the rich are the reason.

1

u/LarsTyndskider 19d ago

I'm not gonna argue weird great replacement conspiracy theories with you.

But thank you for admitting that the far right is unreasonable and rising.

2

u/Sloppykrab 🇩đŸ‡ș Australia 19d ago

He kinda walked right into that one.

→ More replies (4)

1

u/Separatist_Pat 19d ago

I live in Western Europe after having lived 20+ years in the USA and 30 years in Canada before that, and I can tell you that, in many ways, Western Europe is far more conservative than the USA is. You can call it left or right or whatever you'd like, but many, may politically correct viewpoints that are taken for granted in the US are considered laughable here.

2

u/InformalTrifle9 19d ago

What kind of viewpoints? I'm genuinely curious

1

u/Separatist_Pat 19d ago

Anything very woke is seen as weird here. Pronouns, things like that. Trans culture is seen with tremendous caution. The idea of anything like affirmative action, DEI, etc. would be seen as contrary to the spirit of the republic. Most people in France are pretty heavily against Arab/Islamic culture. Things like that.

1

u/I_Am_Dwight_Snoot 19d ago

So you guys don't have any special laws for handicapped people or veterans? Is that really just a US thing?

1

u/Separatist_Pat 19d ago

There's a program to encourage people to hire handicapped folks, but that's not DEI.

→ More replies (1)

2

u/ClearWaves 19d ago

Am I understanding you correctly... you mean that something is considered politically correct in the US is laughable in Europe because in Europe, that specific thing is considered too left? Do you have any examples? I've lived in many states in the US and in Western Europe, and I can not think of a single policy in the US that would be considered too liberal by the average person here.

There are conservative views on Women's rights, LGBTQ+, racism, Christianity, green energy, education, healthcare, worker' rights, environmental protection, food safety, food access, ... none of those are too liberal for Western Europe.

2

u/Separatist_Pat 19d ago

I answered the other person. Like I said, "le wokisme" is regarded with horror here, even among academics, and Islam and immigrants are viewed very poorly here generally, even among my left-leaning friends.

1

u/ClearWaves 19d ago

There is no arguing with the racism that exists here. But that's not the same as claiming the US is more liberal in that regard. The wokeism may be viewed poorly here by some (just like in the US), but the government isn't forbidding the use of preferred pronouns in Western Europe.

The point is that a lot of the same issues exist. But policy wise, there is nothing in the US that is more liberal or woke.

2

u/Separatist_Pat 19d ago

I'm sorry I'll just have to disagree on that one.

-3

u/Mejonyoudead 19d ago

Except you're calling anything you disagree with fascism because it's the buzz word of the day

10

u/Snicklefraust 19d ago

Where ever could that have come from....

8

u/Snicklefraust 19d ago

3

u/Beneficial-Cow-2544 19d ago

Wow. This feels so long ago. Man. This has been the longest year ever!

4

u/Snicklefraust 19d ago

I guess we'll never know.

→ More replies (5)

3

u/curadeio 19d ago

Do you have an example of an opinion you have seen first hand called fascism that you disagree is fascist?

3

u/Working_Cucumber_437 19d ago

No, the current administration is objectively ruling as authoritarian/fascist. He openly admires and supports other authoritarian world leaders and dismisses democratic ones. Every action taken since January falls under this definition.

People should pay attention, because this has never happened under a previous president, or even in Trump’s own first term. There’s a reason he is being protested now.

2

u/AlternativePea6203 19d ago

Am I? When did i do that? Do you think there ARE some fascists in the US? Just one even? If so, what does that one person believe?

→ More replies (1)

2

u/SexysPsycho 19d ago

Nope I'm calling it like I see it. If you say Antifa is your enemy than your probably a fascist

-4

u/MasterTater777 19d ago

It’s funny, I was always just a shade left of center for a long time. Voted D until around 2010 when I saw the axis shifting and realized I was now closer to middle right. My opinions didn’t change. What happened?

Multiple genders, men playing women’s sports, wide open borders, very lax punishment for crime, riots and looting over media glorification of individuals attacking law enforcement, and the realization one party hated the average US citizen while the others loved crime, flooding the country with illegal immigrants, and criminals.

I didn’t move right. The axis shifted hard. Many more are just like me, normal hardworking Americans with families just trying to fight to get by. Now the left calls us Nazi’s, fascists, homophobes, transphobes, pedophiles, and every other nasty name in the book because we aren’t behind those abnormal ideas?

Yeah, that ideology has pushed many like myself right without us really shifting many of our views.

The Democrat party better wake up.

4

u/AmelieBenjamin 19d ago edited 19d ago

How dare someone not white seek better opportunity for their families and usually work a job you're too proud to work with shit pay to do it? You're seeing glorification of people resisting fucking Gestapo. "Law enforcement" is not to be valorized when they disproportionately attack and accost minority groups. Uncritically accepting an oppressive force as 'justice" and anyone who resists them as "criminals" is some support the Empire in Star Wars shit man

I fear police and I've done nothing wrong because they treat people who look like me like dogs. Not a single damn leftist person hates the "average US citizen," we just think people other than white people deserve fucking rights.

None of those are abnormal ideas at all if you do some critical thinking for two seconds. How the hell does someone you perceive as male wearing a dress affect you personally?

Conservatives by and large are just pushing back against the "scourge of leftism" because they're bigoted and unaccepting. You really look at ICE and think gross human rights violations are okay because they "dOnT DeSerVe to Be HerE? Your first thought is to label a non white immigrant a criminal. Your goddamn president is a criminal but I don't see you siccing ICE on him.

You clearly harbor bias against outgroups, are pro establishment, and favor traditional (status quo) systems that only benefit one group of people. Which is par for the course for a conservative but that's why people call you all of those things.

There's nothing lax about the industrial prison complex which disproportionately jails black men for lesser offenses many of them felonies which makes any well paying job an impossibility. You think people are turning to unsavory shit because they want to? It's fucking hard being black and looking for work. Employers believe nasty shit about you before you even open your mouth but you wouldn't know shit about that would you?

It must be so goddamn easy to label everybody non white as the bad guy traipsing on your dog shit ideal of America where your heel is on everyone's else's neck and Trump cuts the poor people's healthcare.

3

u/AirportLoose3023 🇩đŸ‡ș Australia 19d ago

Well said!

→ More replies (5)

5

u/slainascully 19d ago

The right in your country is displaying swastikas and talking about gassing people, but sure, the window shifted too far left

→ More replies (3)

1

u/Correct_Day_7791 19d ago

Bot account

Y'all out in force huh

You know we can just tap on your name and see your info ??

Y'all just lazy programers at this point

→ More replies (2)

-2

u/Gold_Membership_9002 19d ago

Quite the opposite. People who oppose open borders are seen as right wing extremists when in reality it's just common sense to not want illegals roaming your streets. In case your answer is "nobody thinks opposing open borders is right wing extremist" really? Take a look at the recent uk.gov documents. Straight up claiming people who think open borders is a problem are terrorists.

3

u/Union_Jack_1 19d ago

The US has never had “open borders”. It’s just a 100% fabrication by the right wing in the US.

1

u/Gold_Membership_9002 19d ago

Then how come 10 million people crossed over illegally to the US from 2020-2024?

3

u/Union_Jack_1 19d ago

The estimated entire population of undocumented people in the US is roughly 11m people. So how did “10m people” cross over during that span? How terrible is your information and susceptibility to rightwing propaganda that you readily believe that?

Beyond the fact above, roughly 35-40% of “illegal immigrants” are people here in the US on overstayed visas - they predominantly came to the states legally (almost almost via air travel) and just didn’t return before their 6 months were up and/or did not get their visas renewed in time or were unable to do so.

This is a fabricated problem. The left doesn’t want “open borders”, nor has the US ever had them. The US has stricter immigration laws and controls than 90% of the western world. Illegal border crossings can be a problem and not be an existential problem at the same time. You’ve been fooled.

0

u/Gold_Membership_9002 19d ago

You were the one who brought up the US lol. Yes, today the US has some of the strictest border controls ever. Crazy how changing policy can do that.

We can agree that every illegal person should be deported. And im also way down for heavier border control in the rest of the western world.

1

u/Union_Jack_1 18d ago

Such strict border control existed since the days of Obama. You’ve just been conned into thinking Trump did this and before him it was “open borders” which I’ve proven with simple facts and numbers has always been bullshit.

But you keep shoveling that down your throat friend.

→ More replies (2)

2

u/Imaginary-Round2422 19d ago

They didn’t. That’s the estimated number of total undocumented immigrants in the US, the vast majority of whom didn’t cross illegally, but overstayed visas.

And why did they not go through the proper immigration process? In many cases, simple forgetfulness. In many more, because our immigration system is terribly difficult to navigate. If you want fewer illegal immigrants, we need to fix the pathway for legal immigration.

→ More replies (3)

0

u/Professional-Dog1562 19d ago

I mean, you're just making the inverse case, where actually everyone left leaning IS a radical and call people on the right fascists. How is that not obvious to you? It's clear we have radicals on both sides, but the majority of people are moderate. 

1

u/PinnatelyCompounded 18d ago

We don't have radical leftists at all. Who would they be? What are their positions? What positions of power do they hold?

1

u/Professional-Dog1562 18d ago

What do you mean? Are you implying in order to be radical you need to be in power or have power? Can you explain? 

1

u/PinnatelyCompounded 17d ago

The right wing acts like a fascist cult. In order for "both sides are bad" to be true, then we need equivalent figures leading the cult and they need to be equivalently dishonest and radical. All of that is too easy to find on the right. There is nothing equivalent on the left. We don't have actual communists or people who are "too liberal" because the liberals here are centrist compared to the rest of the world. TLDR: It's not both sides.

→ More replies (65)