this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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The only people who think leftist is a pejorative are conservatives. Hmmmm....
Call me a liberal though - and I'll probably ignore it because it's not worth explaining the difference to most people who will do so. But in my head dem's fighting words. And ironically, I think there are many who also identify as leftists who would think I'm not left enough to call myself a leftist.
Signed, a Leftist.
You're right. The only people who use the term "leftist" are conservatives, or people who have studied European politics, because it doesn't actually define anything in American politics. There is no "leftist" party and there are no "leftist" political groups. "Liberalism" is far more common because it describes an amenable approach to social issues, but also a laisez-faire approach to economic and foreign policy issues. I get not wanting to be called a liberal, or worse a neoliberal, but we do not have a proper labour party, or a communist party, or anything else even remotely resembling the "left." It would be nice if we did, but the far right has done an excellent job of demonizing the very idea of it.
That's what I was referring to, which is why I assumed you might be a European, where such parties and ideologies exist out in the open.
I meant no offense.
It was the as a pejorative part that was significant to me, not use of the term itself. If someone is calling me a leftist with a sneer - that person is a conservative.
No offense taken, but I did wonder because of your seeming assumption that it would be pejorative. (Also please note I'm not OP)
I disagree that those two things are requirements for leftist to have a meaning. I'm also quite sure we have many leftist political groups, even if they have little political power.
The term is only used in a pejorative sense because the only people who use it are conservatives who use it as an insult.
I'm a unicorn I guess.