How would you approach persuading a far extreme liberal toward center? What would you set as a realistic goal for a productive discourse? Would it be better attempt to do so in person rather than online?

  • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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    1 month ago

    Far left extremism - silencing all opposition, one party, everyone is equal (except those who are more equal of course), corruption, executions, burning of books, and much more.

    If it sounds very similar to right wing extremism, congrats, you’ve discovered a cool fact: all extremism is bad.

    If you think I’m pulling it out of my ass, those things happened in my country when we were under Soviet communist occupation. Also extreme poverty, never seen before or after their occupation.

    • credo@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Great, but that’s not what republicans mean when they say “extremist liberal.” Instead they have coopted the term “extremist” so it no longer means anything, except what they want it to, when they want it to.

      That’s what extremists do, gaslight, obstruct and project. It’s all 101 level stuff.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        I’m not disagreeing with you, I just really hate when people who know extreme left just from the internet claim how awesome it is. It’s not, there’s really few differences between extreme left and extreme right.

    • jpreston2005@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      you’re describing authoritarianism, not leftism. We want to feed the hungry, care for the poor/sick/elderly, and give every person the opportunity to live happily with dignity. None of that has anything to do with your strawman.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        Did you miss like half of the premise? Or the keyword extreme?

        Your strawman can be broken down very easily when you leave out half the original points.

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        Far left extremism. Soviets wanted to create utopia where everyone is equal, except the leaders of course. That’s not gonna change. And then it cascades into straight up dictatorship.

            • Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world
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              1 month ago

              If someone hands you a bowl of shit and tells you it’s chocolate pudding, that doesn’t make actual chocolate pudding shitty.

              But, I can definitely understand being skeptical of chocolate pudding after eating a bowl of shit.

              At the very least I guess we can both agree that we need to check our pudding for pieces of shit before we dive right in.

        • Susaga@sh.itjust.works
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          1 month ago

          That’s not far left. “Everyone is equal” is left-wing, but adding “except the leaders” is right-wing. It’s not that the far left is like the right, but that those claiming to be far left and doing right wing stuff aren’t as far left as they say they are.

          But when they say they’re left-wing, I’m sure you’ll trust the soviet leadership. Why would they have a reason to lie?

    • Tar_Alcaran@sh.itjust.works
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      1 month ago

      one party

      A well known issue with the left is that leftwing parties tend to split into a million different fractions.

      corruption

      Pretty sure a key feature of left-wing policy is transparency and removal of money in politics. Contrast to, for example, the recent US (right wing) supreme court ruling that bribery is totally legal as long as you do it beforehand.

      executions

      Unless this is your dog whistle for freedom to have an abortion, you’re just Imaging this. The death penalty is very much opposed by every left wing group or person.

      burning of books,

      Maybe, maybe at the far end, republishing books with disclaimers about the period they were written in…

      those things happened in my country when we were under Soviet communist occupation.

      And do you think the Soviet Union under Stalin was very leftwing? Or were they just extremely authoritarian? Did they practice much egalitarianism, or did they merely say they did? We’re they anti-war? Pro multiculturalism?

      • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        Another internet warrior making stuff up. Everything I said happened in my country and happens in every communist country. Your “No True Scotsman” is boring and uninspiring.