Americans' misuse of the words "left" and "leftist" — demonstrates how easily manipulated we are

28 March 2021

Let's consider misused political language

And how semantic deception is deliberately chosen by America's Masters.

Preliminary definitions

Two definitions from Wikipedia reveal how confused American political discussions usually are:

Generally, the left-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "ideas such as freedom, equality, fraternity, rights, progress, reform and internationalism".

[T]he right-wing is characterized by an emphasis on "notions such as authority, hierarchy, order, duty, tradition, reaction and nationalism".

Political scientists . . . regard the left as including anarchists, communists, socialists, democratic socialists, social democrats, left-libertarians, progressives and social liberals.

Political scientists . . . regard the right as including conservatives, right-libertarians, neoconservatives, imperialists, monarchists, fascists, reactionaries and traditionalists.

Presumably

How one is politically classified should depend on what principles one actually, or tacitly, supports.

Let's see how Democrats and Republicans fare along the spectrum of Left-Right differences.

In that regard, you may have noticed . . .

. . . how Republicans mistakenly refer to Democrats as "leftists".

That's amusing.

On one hand, it indicates how unaware of political theory Republicans are. Here meaning that virtually no one in the United States knows what a genuine leftist is.

Otherwise, it would be impossible to confuse Corporate Fascism-inclined Democrats — (as all that party's leadership is) — with Leftism of any meaningful variety.

From another perspective, deluded Leftist-accusing language demonstrates how easily manipulated the entirety of the American population is.

Oligarchic puppeteers trick us by deliberately misusing the words that they spew into contexts of heavily propagandized fears.

Reality

American political parties are tools of the political and corporate Right. They only pretend to be meaningfully different from one another.

Democratic and Republican party leadership(s) exist, exclusively, so as to ensure that the Corporatist Elite stays in full charge and profit.

For necessary camouflage . . .

. . . against public detection of their shared Elites-coddling natures:

Democrats like to focus on identity-fractionization to show how purportedly 'liberal' they are.

And Republicans like to retreat to allegedly 'conservative' values — like bigotry, principles-disregarding religion, and societally unworkable levels of libertarianism and money-guarding.

At core, both bands of these Walking Clueless favor retaining the oligarchically controlled Status Quo.

By definition, Democrats cannot possibly be of even marginally Leftist ilk. Unless one assumes that Leftism can be boiled down to a single predilection for supporting the validities — of a seemingly never-ending supply — of specific and divisively divided identity types.

Want to quibble?

Ralph Nader recently took wind out of Quibblers' sails, when he observed that:

“One thing I’ve learned is that Democrats are on an infinite journey towards cowardliness, because now they’re getting credit for their $1.9 trillion stimulus bill, 100% financed on the shoulders of our children and grandchildren, without a single effort to [rescind] the Trump tax cuts that are at least $2 trillion over the ten years since they were passed in 2017.”

Nader points to the many “institutional taboos” that Democrats won’t speak of let alone challenge, such as tax cuts for corporations and the super-rich, as well as an outrageously bloated Pentagon budget.

Democrats may look better compared to “the cruelest, most vicious” Republicans, but they don’t address any of the significant problems impacting Americans every day and, at the same time, stifle dissent from the progressive wing of the party.

He argues that all of this is part of the system that we now live in, thanks to both political parties selling out to corporate interests.

“Corporate capitalism is not capitalism,” argues Nader.

“Capitalism is your ma-and-pa store on Main Street; corporate capitalism is basically corporate socialism because [—] without socialism in Washington bailing out capitalism [—] capitalism would have collapsed a long time ago.”

Nader's point is accurate

Though virtually no one wants to admit it.

If we did, we would have to do some significant society-building work.

The moral? — When you hear labels being slung around . . .

. . . consider what those labels really mean and evaluate why they are being distorted in the manner that they are.

Follow the money.

Better to be a lonely, but free sheep — than a collared and herded one.

Mutton's for dinner.

PeteFree.com

Americans' misuse of the words "left" and "leftist" — demonstrates how easily manipulated we are