this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2023
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Politics

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from youtube channel Second Thought

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[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 85 points 1 year ago (3 children)

'Neither Left nor Right' is a fascist dogwhistle. Fascism has a rich history of marketing itself as the apolitical choice.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 year ago

And there’s also the fact that in the US, you have the party of the far right and the party of everyone else; centrist is to the left of a lot of Democrats at this point.

[–] jcarax@beehaw.org 14 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Yes, everyone who doesn't align with your political view is facist. That in itself doesn't sound facist at all, does it?

We need to not just be careful about what some horrible people are doing right now, but also about what we become as we react to it.

[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We do need to be careful, yes. But this isnt a case of mislabelling views just because they disagree with their politics. Its important to call out far right nationalist parties for what they are.

As is discussed in the video, Omega_Haxor wasnt making a baseless attack on a belief they disagreed with. Authoritarian politicians do have a history of using this dogwhistle messaging.

[–] jcarax@beehaw.org 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

No, it's a dangerous, generalized statement that if you're against what the far right is doing, you have to align with what we stand for. If not, you're the far right. That is literally what it's saying, and folks might add on some stuff in their head when they interpret it, or some additional hidden intention when they utter it. But ultimately, it will distill down to the literal meaning.

[–] storksforlegs@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

Who said you have to align with a certain set of beliefs to oppose the far right? (Beyond thinking nationalist, xenophobic views are shitty) All kinds of varying political views hate nazis. Anti-facsism is a very large tent.

[–] Omega_Haxors@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

Yikes. A lot to unpack here.

... nah can't be bothered, goodbye.

[–] bastion@feddit.nl 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

This. There is a distinct lack of awareness by both parties of just how fascist their tendencies are. The right has more of the authority-centric tendencies of fascism, and the left has more of the out-of-control virtue signaling, demonization, etc that can lead up to things like the struggle sessions that occurred during China's cultural revolution.

Anyone who says 'those who are not explicitly on our side are enemies' is deeply at risk of losing it to fascism, if they're not already gone.

The interesting thing about this aspect of fascism is how, although it leads ultimately to centralization of power and authoritative control, it's more of a decentralized, manipulative mob of social anxieties run amok.

[–] ondoyant@beehaw.org 9 points 1 year ago

this is such a weird thing to say. fascism is all about authoritarian shit, it is defined by ultranationalism, racism, bigotry, and centralized control, not by "virtue signaling", a phrase more common in right-wing spaces than anywhere else. we can quibble all we want about the left, but demonstrably, who is limiting the freedoms of minority groups, which states are attempting to disenfranchise voters, who has actual real ass nazi's hanging at their parties? it isn't the left, or whatever you think the left is.

like, don't get me wrong, there are very many ways a left wing government can demonstrably get authoritarian, but the term "fascism" is defined by being far-right on the political scale. i would just generally suggest reading some stuff about fascism, because you don't seem to be very well informed on what scholarship says about the ideology at large.

[–] fosforus@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is bullshit. There actually is such thing as the center. Like gender, it's a spectrum.