• Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    left-wing populism, which argues for reigning in the excesses of capitalism

    Left wing means ending Capitalism, not just “reigning it in,” which never works long-term.

    • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      “Left-wing,” is a very broad term. In the Weimar Republic, yes, the left-wing alternative to right-wing populism was communism. In America today, Democratic Socialists like Bernie Sanders are the left-wing alternative. If that doesn’t fall in line with your definition of, "left-wing,’ that’s fine, but it most people wouldn’t define it as exclusively anti-capitalist ideologies.

      • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        The Overton Window is relative, sure, but that’s only useful in defined constraints, and only for one point in time. Leftism is socialist, rightism is Capitalist.

        Bernie is a Social Democrat as well.

        • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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          1 month ago

          …and Sanders himself defines Democratic Socialism as the completion of the New Deal reforms, not a gradual transition to a socialist economic system. There’s a difference between the Overton Window shifting and a gradual change in definition over generations, but if you want definitions to remain entirely static, then we’re both using left-wing incorrectly, as it’s, “real,” definition is opposing monarchy’s veto power over parliament.

          • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            1 month ago

            Yes, he calls himself a Democratic Socialist while being a Social Democrat, I’m aware.

            Left wing in the modern context refers to anti-Capitalism.

            • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              Left-wing has always had a loose, relative meaning, and arguing otherwise isn’t attempting to stop the Overton Window from shifting. It’s just an attempt to gatekeep who gets to be a, “real,” leftist.

              • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                1 month ago

                No, it’s getting people aligned on terms so proper organizing can happen. Liberals will never align with anticapitalists, for instance.

                • pjwestin@lemmy.world
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                  1 month ago

                  Right. So, you want to take the term, “left-wing,” which has held different meanings in different contexts over more than two centuries and redefine as exclusively anti-capitalist, so you can tell liberals that they’re not actually left-wing. Now that’s an attempt to shift the Overton Window.

                  • Cowbee [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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                    1 month ago

                    Leftism is revolutionary, rightism is reactionary. Right now, Capitalism is the dominant system being struggled against by Leftists around the globe. During the French Revolution, the proletariat and bourgeoisie both collaborated to overthrow the monarchy, which is why it was left.