• HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Oh, there is definitely a far left. They’re just not doing the same kinds of things that the far right are doing, and they’re smaller by an order of magnitude.

    By American standards, the Stop Cop City people are a ‘far left’ group; they’ve used violence (property damage, arson) in order to bring attention to their cause, and to try and prevent an injustice. OTOH, unlike the state’s actions against the far right, which is mostly just shrugging their collective shoulders, action against Stop Cop City has been pretty brutal.

    • masquenox@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      By American standards, the Stop Cop City people are a ‘far left’ group;

      That’s not “far left.” That’s just plain old bog-standard left - whether in the US or anywhere else.

      action against Stop Cop City has been pretty brutal.

      Again… just common-or-garden variety treatment the left has always received from the forces of the status quo - nothing “far left” about it.

      There’s no such thing as a “far left” - and it’s critical that we push back on these kinds of propagandistic framing devices liberals love to use to demonize the left and provide cover for the right. I don’t think leftists realize how powerful and dangerous this basic type of propaganda can be.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        That’s why I qualified it as far-left by American standards.

        We’ve had far-left in the past, but student terrorist movements were largely left behind in the 70s.

        • masquenox@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          but student terrorist movements were largely left behind in the 70s

          The left has never left the use of force in the past - it is as available to us today, and as thoroughly justified, as it was in the 70’s… 1570s, 1870s or 2070s.

          The willingness to use force doesn’t distinguish between a left and a (supposed) “far left” - the left is not a mirror of the right, and there is no leftist equivalent to a far right (which is purely distinguished by it’s proximity to, willingness to control and/or operate the state machinery of violence).

          It’s not about spots on a silly “political compass” infographic and never has been.