Thanks for your response and I appreciate the thought you put into it. I agree we need to greatly and desperately expand social programs. I also don't think Russia or China are perfect, much less socialist, but I wouldn't say the West—including the US—is categorically and unquestionably better in every sort of way. That being said, the Left does need to be broader in the West and everywhere else, which is why I think I'd rather hold solidarity with Leftists in these instances who I may not fully agree with rather than attacking them alongside Right-wingers and fascists.

And, sorry, but, no offense, a centrist is a Right-winger to me and it proves my point.

[–] cooljacob204@kbin.social 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

My point is I'm only a right winger in a small niche bubble which is completely not the reality of things.

To most of the world I'm a lefty and to actually right wingers they would probably call me a communist.

Right winger means maga idiot to most of the ppl in the US not democrat who wants to greatly expand our social programs and nets.

[–] ikiru@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago

Fair enough. I do think there is a popular misunderstanding among the general public about political theory as well as political labels so maybe you shouldn't take that as justification for anything, but I can admit there is gatekeeping and puritanism that happens among the Left in terms of letting people into particular parties/collectives but also in terms of labels in general.

In my opinion, the baseline is that any actual Leftist wants the abolition of Capitalism. If you don't support the abolition of private property as capital, then you are not a Leftist.

Centrists and Democratic Socialists have not been great examples of Leftists to me so I assume anyone who unironically identifies as such is more aligned with the center-Right (i.e., supports the existence of Capitalism but with reforms).