The right side is just liberalism. This is what happens when the left and liberal are melded together in everyday western society/language and the water is muddied. It’s intended. It confuses people, overwhelms them, and leads them to use the apparatus that the ruling class has placed in front of us to circumvent true working class interests and movements. It’s why liberals scoff at potential allies (leftists), instead of seeing the truth: a unified working class.
This framing isn't particularly helpful for solidarity.
The left relies on coalitions. Criticizing the stewards of those coalitions because they fail to address the needs of the people they rely on for votes is helpful and constructive. Just reducing all left-wing voters to a pair of stereotypes and trying to push one of those stereotypes away from the other? Not helpful.
We need nuanced dialogue and mutual aid. It's a matter of survival. This isn't that.
This is why I usually try not to label myself these days. Invariably there is nuance that I'm not aware of, or that some others interpret differently.
I'm NOT a democrat, republican, conservative, communist, socialist, liberal, maga, or anarchist.
But I lean left on social issues, often hard left, though I say that while also saying I'm firmly anti-authoritarian. And I don't really put fiscal on a separate axis because there are fiscal impacts to any set of beliefs with regard to how various social issues should be considered. I'm also not at all conversant in the slightest bit of nuance regarding how the economy works.
I'm sure some folks would call me a leftist based on the above. Others would insist I'm a liberal. Am I a progressive? Not sure.
I'm really struggling to find a party that i fully agree with.
For one, i like true leftist ideals, but i don't like guns, so i guess the left parts of the image doesn't apply to me.
On the other side, i think the long-standing support for Ukraine is an atrocious mistake, because it prolongs the suffering unnecessarily (after all, the uproar in Ukraine is mostly an CIA-inspired action after all i believe, and diplomatic solutions were not sought). But shitting on that pink hat (which is clearly a symbol for queer/trans people) is just unacceptable. just leave the people live their own private life as they want. What's so difficult about that?
Edit: as per the comments, i stand corrected and am sorry for my half-assed take. i'll leave it up anyways, because i guess it's a chance to learn for any reader.
That's why I'd rather call myself center left. By US standards I'm still probably "far left", because I'm for public healthcare, strong regulations and very robust social safety net.
But unlike probably most people here on lemmy, if someone runs a business that's not completely out of control and has unionized employees, I don't think there's a problem with that.
The "left" is way too broad of a grouping today. The classic political compass is 2D with left-right referring to economic and up-down (authoritarian-libertarian) to social policy. And even that is oversimplifying it, many saying it should be 3D. Grouping everyone into either A or B is I guess what humans do when their understanding of a topic is too narrow.
I find this especially funny with Trump's tariffs. You know, the mechanism with which you control the market... closing it... like leftist economic policy does. Trump is a leftist now? Any more tariffs and he'll be a complete communist! Dismantle more government and he'll be an anarchist! It just completely falls apart.