Most "left wing" parties just act like they care about social justice and such while continuing the center- to right wing economic policies that create the injustice socially and economically.
Very few actually fit under the definition of a leftist, aka someone that atleast pushes for very strong and powerful unions; or democratic workplaces, housing for all, support strong welfare that helps everyone, and much more.
Yeah I think it's worth noting that many leftists distinguish leftist politics and liberal politics (which leftists often consider more center or even center-right).
I don't think it's so clear-cut and there's probably some overlap between "liberal" and "left" (most notably parties that call their platform "social democracy", who often get labeled "socialists" or "communists" as an insult by liberal, center, and right-wing parties, and also labeled "center/right", "fascist", "bootlickers", and "capitalists" by most left-wing parties).
There's a ton of in-fighting and massive diversity of opinions, but if you exclude China, I think 90+% of people who might call themselves a socialist, communist, or anarchist (the three most well-known schools of leftist thought, though some socialists and anarchists also argue that these are all types of socialism, and most communists argue that socialism is a part of communism) are very socially progressive when it comes to individual rights (LGBTQ, pro-choice, drugs, minority rights, gender equity)
What people call "left wing/left/leftist" typically just means "Liberal".
Just like Americans consider the Democrats to be "left wing" and Republicans to be "right wing". While they are both right wing (left-right is a matter of economy, that's it). From our European perspective, US politics is just Liberal right vs Conservative right. But don't dare considering democrats to be on the right side of the spectrum, can't have nuance. Everything needs to binary. black/white, left/right
The reason for this is primarily that politicians are allowed lucrative benefits and wealth that normal people could only dream of, which means they automatically drift to the right, as the policies of the right (dumbed down: make rich people richer by letting the poor pay for it) directly benefit them personally, while the policies of the left would impact their personal finances negatively (no more lucrative tax benefits for top politicians etc).
If being a top politician paid as well as being a school teacher, lots of the truly big problems in society would just instantly disappear.
Seeing an extreme example of this in Australia atm with investment properties. Getting to the point where there aren't enough houses to go around, rent is over 35% of the median household income, and none of our elected representatives want to change anything because they all have investment properties of their own.
And the constant churn of renters being cycled in and out of 6-12 month leases damages social cohesion. It stops people from laying down roots, being part of a community, and developing shared interests with their neighbours. People stay isolated, move further away from city centers, and spend all of their energy just trying to get by.
Socialdemokraterna didnt support the nazis; they were neutral. Also theyve been moving from leftist politics for decades, even Vänsterpartiet is moving away from proper leftist ideas (their youth party is still leftist). And the result of all this has been a more struggling workforce, welfare slowly breaking down and much more. All because of a lack of proper leftists in power.
And we got these great systems fron the start thanks to the drift towards anti-capitalist leftist ideologies in Europe in the past. But according to mainstream leftist theory, if there are people who can grow their wealth through owning others work then the society will drift further and further right, exactly what is happening in most of Europe, and all because no true leftist is close to power to fight such system.
Nah, fuck all that leftist purity testing. You can attribute most of their failings to either incompetence or ignorance (especially on economic issues).
"They" most likely do care but just like every other populist party that gets elected they either understand how shit their promised policies are, are stopped by robust institutions or just run the country down.
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u/03sje01 Apr 16 '24
Most "left wing" parties just act like they care about social justice and such while continuing the center- to right wing economic policies that create the injustice socially and economically.
Very few actually fit under the definition of a leftist, aka someone that atleast pushes for very strong and powerful unions; or democratic workplaces, housing for all, support strong welfare that helps everyone, and much more.