I’m not sure that’s fair. The “death toll of communism” has more to do with authoritarianism and political maneuvering than economic policy. Also, the people quickest to point out this fact don’t seem to be using the same measuring stick to tally up the equivalent “death toll of capitalism.”

It’s just propaganda that doesn’t hold up to serious scrutiny. All governments - including ‘centrist’ ones - have an awful lot of blood on their hands. Enough blood that I wouldn’t say there’s a significant difference due to economic policy alone.

More people die every year due to the lack of food, medicine and clean water than whatever made up number you can come up with for “far left” policies.

Indeed, studying it is the best way to learn that the huge numbers that get thrown around in pop-history are completely made up cold war propaganda.

If you want a good example of how much they hate it and are apparently even affraid of mentioning it in the US, just go to the US holocaust memorial museum website.
They have the Martin Niemöller poem on the wall… more or less.
Less actually since they omitted the first sentence: First they came for the communists.
Not even mentioned in the article on the website.
Imagine that, jews doing revisionism.
Now if you click on the German version of the article you get the right version.
They knew what they were doing.
Americans can not see or hear the C word under any circumstances.

I’m not even sure capitalism is the right word, at least not in the US. I’d almost describe their ideology as neo-feudalism.

The republicans have always paid lipservice to the idea of meritocracy, of an even playing field, and fair competition. But that isn’t what we’re seeing from them - they’re merging economic and state power in a way that serves to lock in the existing class structure and remove what little social mobility remains. They may pay lipservice to the idea of a free market liberal democracy, but that isn’t the government they’re creating.

Is that so. It hasn’t looked that way to me, from the news. More, it’s looked like people getting paranoid that it’s that way. But I typically only see big news from America, and not from many news sources. What I see more is Trump being a ridiculous bully, making a mess of relations both at home and abroad, and Musk doing the nerd equivalent, trying to solve government bureaucracy as if he knows everything and damaging everything in the process, not heeding anyone’s caution. But not micromanaging society.

But if it is, I don’t think that’s what the Repb supporters see, and this sort of comparison is about how one picks and chooses certain aspects of the two sides to compare.

I mean, that’s just lies. That the ‘Left’ around here enjoys as an oversimplification, but doesn’t help you understand other people at all.

There are some people who treat women as not people, but even the far right, as I understand it, are much broader than that, and less-far right certainly.

There’s lots of things going on, and the Far Right is certainly doing evils. But so, I think, is the Far Left. And Centre. And people and politicians of all sorts.

My point is about perception. If you pick and choose your naïvete (and your lies, misunderstandings and oversimplifications), you can make it look like this meme for either side, and then wonder at people (like the centrists in this meme) who go against an extreme. How then can you understand anyone except your own echo chamber?

Sadly it undercuts your point too, to anyone outside your group who might be learning from you: because if you call people stupid for things they actually don’t mean, that turns them away from you.

Yes, which can be seen as “you’re free to be who you want” (and the rich are free to oppress you); Vs “you’re not free; the government will organise your life” (and I’m sure that goes well…)

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My point, simple and plainly put is that wishing for an egalitarian society (or whatever it is called) isn’t an extremist believe (as in far-x) and most people would usually agree with it.

I just think it is just how much mass media controls most people’s perception, and how is that the key factor antagonizing with finding common ground.

You’re right except that my (EU) view of Lemmy is that it’s not really left leaning.
The large amout of anti-Trump/Musk post doesn’t make it so.
A large part of it is US dems/libs making those posts. They are center-right at best.
And I should know since I point that out to them and see the reaction.
Massive downvotes and an avalanche of vicious comments.

He’s left of far right lol

Americans really need to learn that most people aren’t from their country

Many of us would disagree with that, but in aggregate we’ve just elected “burn this motherfucker down with us inside” instead of the alternative who was still way too far to the right for most of us here on Lemmy, so you are unfortunately correct.

If you proposed children not going hungry to some of my conservative relatives, even in a room of mixed company they would say out loud something like “why should I have to pay to feed the kids they can’t afford because they can’t close their legs or put down the crack pipe long enough to get a job?” (Racist dog whistle very much intentional)

I am responding according to the context of the original statement. Yeh, you could go even further left and have anarchy, but that would be utterly impractical in today’s world.

It’s because Marxists/Communists and Capitalists like to pretend Anarchism isn’t half of socialism because it hurts their arguments.

Even in developing countries, governments do their best to provide free services for those in dire poverty, especially those considered “poorest of the poor”.

Welfare policies are common even in developing countries. They simply don’t have the kind of capital accumulated by European welfare states because they don’t outsource their industrial manufacturing to poorer countries. Hence, the implementation is difficult and bureaucrats are often corrupt. Reagan won an election calling universal healthcare ‘communism’ and actually opposing something so obviously in favour of people – this would not have happened in most poor countries. At least in mine, people consistently vote in favour of better healthcare, public transport and free food regardless of ideology. Fear mongering about ‘commmunism’ has been tried in urban areas, where people have the luxury to care about something like that, and it backfired spectacularly. The phenomenon of voting against one’s self interests because gommunism and freedom seems to be a uniquely American thing.

Gotta love our “Tipping culture”. The more this country is going down I’m reminded of Mr. Pink’s quote “I don’t tip because society says I have to. All right, if someone deserves a tip, if they really put forth an effort, I’ll give them something a little something extra. But this tipping automatically, it’s for the birds.”

It’s gotten to the point where the US needs a real change and yet the 1% really don’t want that change and would rather die on their hills. Which, imo, maybe they should while others watch?

But alas, who am I to judge the wealthy when I’m just a measly common worker.

Jesus Christ.

What gets me is that socialism and communism are totally different things. They’re different means to a similar goal of an end.

Seize the means of production.

Fuck tradition.

Fuck economics.

Kill the people who resist or disagree, or sometimes also if you just feel like killing them. For the rest, strip away basic rights so that they won’t rise up to dismantle the system.

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As someone pointed out, perhaps things are a bit different in America, but this is how I see far left generally from Europe.

Reduce or eliminate private ownership of capital.

It sure is progressive though. That’s such a weird word to use as a pejorative. I mean I can get the theory behind being against a big nanny state, but why call it an unambigously positive term then?

Because hyperbole sells.

I consider myself a Centrist simply because both sides can fuck right off. The Left can’t barely manage to do 3 things right before fumbling everything. The Right traded the former guise of fiscal responsibility for LARPing as Nazis. “Sides” are a false choice forced on voters to give two brands of dickbag a duopoly to their benefit.

Who are these centrists you all are talking about? I have realized that what you Americans consider far left is actually center-leftists/social democrats. By that skewed lens I can only assume that centrists to you are pretty extreme right.

You Americans need to calibrate your political compasses to global standards, because out here wanting universal health care is not far left, it is centrist, maybe center-left on a rainy say.

Those weren’t really centrists. They were right-wing, but not as right-wing and authoritarian as Trump.

That was my point, if you go in either extreme, far left or far right, you end up with a lot of homelessness and starvation… And yes, in my European opinion USA is extreme right even on a sunny day. Thus the rampant misery.