Rules & Board Info: PLEASE READ before posting
Rules
- No Spamming
- Please be civil
- This forum is primarily for people who are fiscally left-wing (social democrats, democratic socialists, socialists, communists, anarcho-syndicalists, etc). You do not have to be a social liberal (like the US Democrats) to post here. I am fairly socially liberal. More so than mainstream liberals. I'd consider myself a civil libertarian, fiscal leftist.
- I'm not a big fan of identity politics. There's nothing wrong with bringing up gender, race or LGBT matters. But Identity politics is divisive and has driven white heterosexual cis males away from the left into the clutches of the conservatives. As a white heterosexual cis male myself, I find myself between a rock and a hard place politically. I abhor the right. I'm neither a fiscal conservative nor a social conservative. I'm a fiscal leftist and a social liberal. But I'm tired of mainstream liberal and social democrat parties demonizing white heterosexual cis males. I hold my nose and vote for the social democrats because I just can't fucking stand the conservatives. But I can't stand the pandering to special interest groups at the expense of working-class white heterosexual males by the mainstream liberals and social democrats. Yes I'm white, heterosexual, cis male, leftist and socially liberal and my voice does matter. And I don't like how my leftism has been hijacked by special interest groups who are primarily concerned with their pet issues rather than agitating for the working-class.
- Because of the increasingly polarized political environment, working-class white cis males who lean left are forced to make a compromise. You either stay with the left and put up with the demonization of white cis males from the left. To your personal detriment. Or you join the right and eschew your old leftist beliefs. To the detriment of your economic self-interests among other things. There's no room for any in between in modern politics these days. Moderates are not welcomed, shouted down and vilified. Dissent is not tolerated today. I'm not a big fan of this. It's important for the left to offer an olive branch to the working-class white heterosexual male.
- If the left wants to be competitive in the west, it's pretty important not to alienate such a large group (white heterosexual males) within the west. But "the left" making it seem like white heterosexual cis males are the cause of all problems is about as shameful as the neo-nazis at /pol/ making it seem like teh j00z are the cause of all the world's problems.
- Right-wingers are welcome to have discussions and debates. But we don't want to allow them to flood this forum. They already have /pol/ and whatever other assorted conservative and libertarian forums on 8chan.
How are we different from /pol/?
/pol/ claims to be in favor of free speech. But it is basically a right-wing echo chamber. Left-wing dissent is not tolerated on that board. So it's necessary for left-wingers to have a voice.
How are we different from /leftypol/?
/leftypol/'s culture is very much "pro-revolution" and anti-reform. Whereas I'm an incremental reformist and don't advocate the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie.
My perspective is that the socialists/communists/anarchists won't be having their violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie anytime soon. A leftist "purist" path is too divisive and won't lead to any progress for the working-class. Modern working-class people don't give a shit about Karl Marx, Engels and flowery 19th century language. This kind of approach is out-of-touch with the modern working-class. We should speak the language of the modern working-class and aim for reform in order to actually get something done politically to better the lives of working-class.
Examples of leftist politicians that I support?
- Bernie Sanders (US Senator for Vermont, Presidential candidate for the US Democrat Party nomination #feelthebern)
- Jeremy Corbyn (UK Labour Party Leader)
- Elizabeth May (Green Party of Canada leader)
- Kshama Sawant (Seattle, Washington City Councillor, Socialist Alternative)