A few things that are accessible within the USA include:
- Participating in mutual aid programs
- Campaigning on the local level, including for positions like poll watchers
- Making your voice heard in community events in general
- Joining your local DSA, networking
why specify leftists that will vote for biden? or leftists at all?
I made another post asking how people who wouldn’t vote were planning on doing direct action, and I got criticized for not asking about the people who were… so I made this post.
I can’t win
Leftism isn’t about winning, that’s the part you’re missing. If you’re just doing what you can to win than you’re no different to and will fall for the same things as a fascist. I remember hearing “leftists are addicted to losing” and what makes that quote especially good is that it came from a guy who later outed themselves as being a fascist infiltrator once they no longer needed to convince people to vote Democrat.
Marxists don’t care about winning. That’s idealism. What we want is an improving of material conditions for the working class.
What he meant is that people are unhappy when he asks about non-voters, and also when he asks about voters. He can’t win [the approval of people on Lemmy]. Also, not all leftists are marxists.
If you can be a “leftist” without being at least some branch of marxism, than the term has lost all its meaning. I mean you don’t have to like the guy (he has many flaws) to realize the importance his work had on kickstarting the anticapitalist movement that started the left.
I self identify as a leftist but I don’t think I’m ready to call myself a marxist. Maybe one day that will change, maybe not. Regardless of what definitions you may be about to link for me, what I think usually separates me from those I view as liberals is that they tend not to see corporate greed as a problem, or not as a pervasive problem.
The problem with corporation isn’t the “greed,” becuase that aspect is unsolvable. It’s that their current structure exists to exploit everything possible to benefit a very small number of people and they all act in cohort without coordination. A virtuous corporation cannot exist.
I’m going to keep calling this greed.
Call it Capitalism. It’s a systemic issue, not a lack of individual morals.
Am I missing something or did you make that other post on the notvoting comm of solarpunk?
That’s like asking someone at a housewarming party why they oppose Israel’s genocide and then setting up a table on the campus mall to get people’s pro-israel views…
Are you an American? Because the only Americans who call people “leftist” are using it in a pejorative sense.
I call myself a leftist, thanks. But it’s messy and complicated, because there’s a lot of pragmatism mixed in there from the time I’ve spent in groups that have an anarchistic bent, since I’ve noted that they have a very, very hard time agreeing on action; great for debate, bad for decisions.
Cursed with the burden of eternal introspection, versus the fascist who can be content to act without thought.
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.
“Liberal” is the only political pejorative I know
Gotta make sure everyone knows they’re “cool” and totally part of the club