Current Events > I'm left.. but why do I feel so distant from modern day lefties?

(+) Yeah! (+)

So a popular topic of discussion among modern day lefties is LGBT politics.

I made the "mistake" of saying how I prefer the "original" pride flag over the one with the triangle, because I believe it's already implied that the original pride flag encompasses everything in terms of equality. However, believing so suddenly got me made out for a racist.

Not to mention saying LGBT, as opposed to LGBTQ+, or getting shit on for saying "lame", as it's ableist now. What the heckeroonies?

You could say you're being left behind

Active Posts: 6

Because if youre not far enough left then you might as well not be

GranolaPanic posted...

No one would attack you over liking one version of the Pride Flag over another.

I just was, lol

Kurumiee posted...

So a popular topic of discussion among modern day lefties is LGBT politics.

I made the "mistake" of saying how I prefer the "original" pride flag over the one with the triangle, because I believe it's already implied that the original pride flag encompasses everything in terms of equality. However, believing so suddenly got me made out for a racist.

Not to mention saying LGBT, as opposed to LGBTQ+, or getting shit on for saying "lame", as it's ableist now. What the heckeroonies?

Go outside. Most leftists would not care if you express any of those opinions. It sounds like you're talking about reactions from some online communities, which aren't representative of the whole.

AsucaHayashi posted...

Because if youre not far enough left then you might as well not be

Republicans are calling MTG a RINO now

As a lefty who does quite like the new flag, there are no winners with identity politics. Don't bother playing because there's just nothing to gain.

I totally agree that some go way too far, especially when coming to language policing. All I can say is to not let asshats like them dissuade you from your views.

This topic was surely made honestly and in good faith.

HairyQueen posted...

Go outside. Most leftists would not care if you express any of those opinions. It sounds like you're talking about reactions from some online communities, which aren't representative of the whole.

How are these people described as among the left? Extreme?

Im quite left and would rather not be associated with the average American progressive.

I agree about the flag though the new one is fine. There are extreme people in every group and most on the left wouldn't attack you for it. I always say LGBT+ and never got any grief over it.

GranolaPanic posted...

And the only time youd be criticized for saying LGBT or LGBTQ+ is if you left off the T on purpose which is something people do.

This.

GranolaPanic posted...

Then post evidence of it. Theres multiple different versions of the Pride Flag. Some like the old one. Others like the newer ones.

And the only time youd be criticized for saying LGBT or LGBTQ+ is if you left off the T on purpose which is something people do.

I agree with this. I've never once heard or seen anyone be chastised for not adding the Q+.

Something is fishy about this topic

A tiny, tiny number of the terminally online will react in the way described in the OP.

No one would try to claim they were representative of the modern day left.

Unless it were for . . . reasons.

I don't usually involve myself with topics like these but:

Murphiroth posted...

This topic was surely made honestly and in good faith.

These kind of posts rub me the wrong way. As if its a way to mischaracterize the TC whenever they have a valid question or criticism on issues such as these. It disallows from healthy conversation and all it does is rile people up.

Kurumiee posted...

So a popular topic of discussion among modern day lefties is LGBT politics.

I made the "mistake" of saying how I prefer the "original" pride flag over the one with the triangle, because I believe it's already implied that the original pride flag encompasses everything in terms of equality. However, believing so suddenly got me made out for a racist.

Not to mention saying LGBT, as opposed to LGBTQ+, or getting shit on for saying "lame", as it's ableist now. What the heckeroonies?

"Modern day lefties"? Not a good start if you wanted me to take you seriously.

My immediate instinct is that TC was completely tactless and annoyed the other people he was talking through some combination of ignorance, callousness, or stubbornness. We'll never know because we'll never know both sides of the story.

YourBestFrenemy posted...

"Modern day lefties"? Not a good start if you wanted me to take you seriously.

How else should I have said it in order to be taken seriously?

Modern progressives have all but abandoned anti-capitalism (only the most dangerously radical left cling to that), the new enemy is "Anti-Woke." I mean, sure you want a living wage and healthcare, but you have to vote for liberals who oppose those things because"would you rather have Trump?"

Yeah, this topic was definitely made in good faith.

YourBestFrenemy posted...

"Modern day lefties"? Not a good start if you wanted me to take you seriously.

Yeah, it's very telling of unnuanced reasoning and over-simplification. The idea of tying a negative experience you had to some amorphous, vague, generality the "the modern left" tells you their reasoning is not geared towards the refinement of ideas and the gathering of perspectives, but the ordering of the world for the sake of simplification.

GranolaPanic posted...

No one would attack you over liking one version of the Pride Flag over another.

No they call that concern trolling.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

I don't usually involve myself with topics like these but:

These kind of posts rub me the wrong way. As if its a way to mischaracterize the TC whenever they have a valid question or criticism on issues such as these. It disallows from healthy conversation and all it does is rile people up.

Oh boohoo, cry me a river.

TC absolutely does not have a valid question or criticism and this topic was not made in good faith. There's no healthy conversation to be had here, just chuddery.

Wait.
Traingles have a meaning?

I just thought it was in some of the flags as a visual design (to break up the monotony of stripes).

Kurumiee posted...

How else should I have said it in order to be taken seriously?

"So a popular topic of discussion among modern day lefties is LGBT politics."

It's not hard to figure out why that first statement from you was completely unnecessary, pointless, and made everything you said after sound completely sus.

I imagine you would feel out of place anywhere. You just happen to associate with people on the left.

This is a straw man in an attempt to throw LGBTQ+ in a bad light and it's not fooling anyone

Will_VIIII posted...

This is a straw man in an attempt to throw LGBTQ+ in a bad light and it's not fooling anyone

It feels similar to if he was like "I'm left but i believe all lives matter but I'm getting shit on for it"

Some right-wing troll trying a troll attempt to make LGBTQ+ look bad during pride.

MedeaLysistrata posted...

I imagine you would feel out of place anywhere. You just happen to associate with people on the left.

Well yeah I'm left handed

This definitely happened and is a concerning issue to be sure...oh damn, is that tres leches cake?!

I feel distant from both political parties these days. The right is absolutely nuts and theyre literally trying to bring us back into the dark ages and force religion on us. They actually seem very focused on taking rights away from us and imposing stuff that we never asked for. Citizens have overwhelmingly voted to stop persecuting the public for marijuana and the government overrode it!!

The left makes more sense to me, in theory, but has terrible execution and the leaders dont represent us. We have Dianne Feinstein (89 years old, worth $110 million) who has to be thawed out from cryogenic storage every time theres an issue, and Trickle Down Biden who is so old that he has no clue of the financial terrors that the common person is facing. We CANNOT move forward unless we start putting young people forward exclusively. I also really am turned off by the cancel culture stuff and identity politics, too.

Kurumiee posted...

How are these people described as among the left? Extreme?

You can't really group them into one because A)This sort of rhetoric is used by many different groups and B)The left can't agree on anything.

The closest catch-all is just liberalism.

Kurumiee posted...

How are these people described as among the left? Extreme?

It's just being too online. There are liberals who are like this. There are leftists who are like this. I don't think how much you argue about pride flags impacts how far to the left you are in any meaningful way.

SpiritSephiroth posted...

I don't usually involve myself with topics like these but:

These kind of posts rub me the wrong way. As if its a way to mischaracterize the TC whenever they have a valid question or criticism on issues such as these. It disallows from healthy conversation and all it does is rile people up.

It's not a "valid criticism" to say "I got bullied because LIBERALS!". Either some else was being ridiculous (in which case no reasonable person would extrapolate that to represent all Liberals), avoidance behavior (Trying to disabuse valid criticism by portraying the criticism as absurd) or ideologically driven to undermine an opposing belief.

TC told us what he wanted us to believe about this conversation he had. We know this pretty intuitively because his story is bereft of details yet all the details he describes about the conversation is designed to discredit the criticism he received.

Most likely, the conversation went badly and TC either doesn't know if the other participants were acting in goodfaith, or TC was arguing poorly and caught criticism because of it. TC's insecurities about a conversation he had is not an indictment of "modern liberals" whatever that's supposed to mean.

steve_madsci posted...

Modern progressives have all but abandoned anti-capitalism (only the most dangerously radical left cling to that), the new enemy is "Anti-Woke." I mean, sure you want a living wage and healthcare, but you have to vote for liberals who oppose those things because"would you rather have Trump?"

It's not progressives who are holding back economic reform. What an absurd thing to think. The coalition of Democrats is held back on reform by moderate Democrats (Who are also more likely to be less supportive of pro-LGBTQ! positions).

It's not that you're out of touch, it's that you put importance in the most unwell people's opinions.

Someone being left leaning doesnt mean they're not a decrepit pile of garbage that lashes out at strangers for sexual gratification.

Southernfatman posted...

I agree about the flag though the new one is fine. There are extreme people in every group and most on the left wouldn't attack you for it. I always say LGBT+ and never got any grief over it.

This.

I've always said LGTBQ and never gotten any grief over leaving out the + before.

I think the problem is that nowadays, leaving out something from that seems like a statement because of the "LGB" crowd who use that as a wedge and therefore a cudgel against the LGTBQ+ community. So I mean, should you blame the community under attack for being more tribal and wary, or should you blame the fascists actually attacking them?

Look, I've met people who assumed that something I did was a microaggression (For instance, once I was carrying papers, and it got windy so I tugged them tighter so they wouldn't go flying everywhere, but it happened to be when I was crossing paths with a black guy, who thought I was doing it because of him) before. Its important to understand where they are coming from and how previous experiences of theirs inform why they feel the way they do rather than get defensive.

Part of actually being on the left is to engage in self-criticism and understand that not everything you do is perfect or will be perceived the way you want it to be, and that it is important to realize you are a member of society, not the entirety of it, and that there are other perspectives than your own. If you can't do that, you are just on the path of being a reactionary, no matter where you feel your politics may be at this moment on time. The villain origin story for so many right wing people is, "Someone interpreted my actions (Maybe correctly!) in a way that made me personally feel uncomfortable, so I've decided that all people like them are the enemy". That's what lacking the ability to be self-critical gets you, all you can do is rage against everyone who isn't exactly like you.

The loudest people online are pretty much always extremists, and plenty of them are assholes.

The terminally online leftists that keep the right awake at night =/= the modern day party. I've canvassed extensively for the NDP over the past 2 and some odd years. It's largely a party of normal peeps that are worried about the rise in right-wing extremism.

Payzmaykr posted...

I feel distant from both political parties these days. The right is absolutely nuts and theyre literally trying to bring us back into the dark ages and force religion on us. They actually seem very focused on taking rights away from us and imposing stuff that we never asked for. Citizens have overwhelmingly voted to stop persecuting the public for marijuana and the government overrode it!!

The left makes more sense to me, in theory, but has terrible execution and the leaders dont represent us. We have Dianne Feinstein (89 years old, worth $110 million) who has to be thawed out from cryogenic storage every time theres an issue, and Trickle Down Biden who is so old that he has no clue of the financial terrors that the common person is facing. We CANNOT move forward unless we start putting young people forward exclusively. I also really am turned off by the cancel culture stuff and identity politics, too.

This. Fucking this.

The odds of someone being attacked for all three of using the wrong pride flag (and called racist over it for some reason), saying LGBT, and using lame as a derogatory term are microscopic unless that person was intentionally associating with extremists who make up a tiny percentage of liberals. Which leads me to believe this topic isn't genuine.

Kurumiee posted...

Well yeah I'm left handed

:')

GranolaPanic posted...

No one would attack you over liking one version of the Pride Flag over another.

My sweet summer child

Priere posted...

My sweet summer child

Another one here

Will_VIIII posted...

Another one here

If someone uses that summer child phrase I pretty much instantly assume they're posting in bad faith. It was used when Trump was in power to shut down people speaking out against him on the pretense that it was hopeless to try and no one should bother.