I agree, you should see how mad the liberals got when I told them that the term leftist means someone who is against capitalism, not just people more left than elected representatives. Had a whole fight with me about the word not meaning that and that you could totally be a capitalist supporter and a leftist.

[–] Liz@midwest.social 10 points 7 months ago (4 children)

It really depends who you're talking to. That's the big problem with political buzz words. If Jordan Peterson called me a leftist it basically means that I don't think dominating others is good. If someone on lemmy.ml called me a leftist, they're probably assuming I agree with a bunch of theory I've never even heard of.

[–] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Words have meaning and we dont let people arguing in bad faith determine that meaning. Most republicans would call Biden socialist, but is he by any measure?

[–] SoleInvictus@lemmy.blahaj.zone 8 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I agree. Thanks to conservatism worldwide, leftist has become not a set definition but a term denoting relative ideological standing. Anything other than far-right is proclaimed as "extremist Communist socialism", which is on its face hilarious but also letting idiots dictate the manner in which we communicate.

We really have to wrench these terms back and I believe holding fast to and explaining their actual definitions is the foundation of accomplishing this.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 5 points 7 months ago

Full agreement, if we describe positions as vibe-based and not based on what they attempt to accomplish and how, nothing can be reasonably discussed without first defining terms.

load more comments (1 replies)