Extreme Right and Extreme Left - 50 years ago and today

What do right-wingers consider "extreme left" today?

Grab on to your hats!

To right-wingers, "extreme left" means fighting for the right of gays to marry, for the right of a women over her body, any attempt to preserve the environment, overturning massive tax cuts for the rich that Republicans have been giving billionaires every time they are in power, regulating guns in an attempt to stop mass shootings, and the senseless killing especially of children, and "the mother of them all"... a twitter hashtag: #BlackLivesMatter. Not that BLM has ever put any bombs, or killed or kidnapped anybody,... the worst they do is set trash cans on fire and... scream very very loudly. That's it!

THAT is what "extreme left" means to the right.

Now, compare that to what "extremism" meant in the past.

1960s and 70s

Extreme Right: Just like today, the extreme right was represented by racists (very commonly Democrats) and neo-nazis. Mainstream Americans were anti-communist. But the extreme right took it to fanatic levels and conspiracy theories, represented by organizations like the John Birch Society. They promoted conspiracy theories by which groups that claimed that the modern version of the ancient Illuminati were in a conspiracy to institute worldwide communism. They were mostly non-violent. However, they were mostly ignored by mainstream conservatives.

Extreme Left: The meaning of the term was very different then from what even right-wingers describe as "extreme". Back then, the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) was a real thing. Most of its funding came from the Soviet Union, and it was closely related to the labor movement. Acts of domestic terrorism were not uncommon. Carried out by organizations like the Black Panther Party, and the Weather Underground.

Today

Many things happened since the 60s and 70s. Extremist movements have come and gone. But here is where we stand TODAY:

Extreme Right: The Trump administration's FBI has declared far-right terrorism the worst threat to national security. And terrorist acts are very common: shootings, violence, kidnapping attempts, .... Most of them motivated by QAnon conspiracy theories. Most likely due to the lukewarm response by the previous President to these attacks. Sometimes even inciting them. Like he did on January 6, 2021

Extreme Left: Attempts to create an actual extreme left organization have failed. Like the attempt to organize a movement called ANTIFA, which never actually crystalized except for a handful of public protests in response to Fascist public protests. But, lacking any support from ... anybody... they have pretty much disappeared. So the "extreme left" has been a complete failure.

 

Today we have come to a point in which there IS no "extreme left". There is only extreme right, right and center. What we consider "center left" used to be mainstream in the 60s. But, of course, to the extreme right anything that doesn't appeal to them is "extreme left".

 

Sure we can all recall parents putting dresses on their boys and having their son's penises cut off during the 50s. It was a common occurrence for boys to go into girls bathrooms and dominate in girls sports. The 1950's had pride month, black history month and everybody hated the founding fathers. There were drag queen story hours at every public library. The men who stormed Normandy did to provide reparations to descendants of slaves. Nothing has changed at all...... nothing at all. The mainstream has always supported the things that the left invented 5 years ago.

 

Having their son's... what? Are you feeling ok? You having some sort of flashback or something?

 

since clinton passed the hereto-for republican NAFTA becoming republican lite, and mr obama rejected the idea of wallstreet reform when he really had an elected manade the country has maintained its decades long sway to the right, while RW media angily spouts mostly very small nonsensical (economically speaking) social outrage

 

576 leftist riots murdering hundreds of Americans and police officers
576 leftist riots destroying billions in American businesses burning them to the ground and looting
Far left extremist taking over the city of Seattle
Far left extremist attacking the White House, the SCOTUS
Far left extremist burning down federal buildings
Far left extremist burning down police stations
Far left extremist Antifa attacking civilians on the street over their political beliefs
Far left extremist dedicated to causes such as Puerto Rican independence carried out bombings and other violent attacks across the United States
Far left extremist like ALF and ELF targeting animal research facilities and corporations for acts of vandalism and destruction of property
Far left extremist BLM ambushing and murdering police officers in Dallas
Far left Antifa designated as a terrorist organization

The far left encompasses multiple ideologies, but security experts have shown that a large percentage of far-left radicals subscribe to at least one of three main classifications:
anarchism,
communism/socialism/Marxism
and autonomous radicals.

Combined with a desire for violent confrontation and rejection of state authority, some on the far left have used social justice issues such as racial equality and immigration rights as a pretext to engage in violent retribution against symbols of the state. This is most prominently seen today in the use of black bloc tactics during protests, which ideological opponents have seized on to cast black bloc and Antifa as organized and unified groups.

I guess you forgot about all those. Don't tell us, its all in everyones imagination and none of this ever happened.
Isn't that how CNN has controlled the minds of the left now?

 

Spot on! The so-called "left" has shown, for better or worse, it's openness to right-wing ideas, while the right has remained hidden behind their ideology and their "prophets"

 

There really are big things happening here, but this thread (imho) seems to boil down to the same old snarky sniping that has never gotten us any where good.

A while back the Pew people did a pretty good analysis on the political spectrum.

 

And by that you mean FACTS, of course.

I mean, it's obvious seeing that you can't rebut any of them....

 

Naturally I understand that u see ur things ur way, perhaps I did too brief a job of explaining my point. Pse understand that if someone else had started a thread about how the "extreme left" had taken over the electoral process over the past 50 years pushing the moderates off the table, I'd STILL be talking about big things happening here and that snarky sniping must be put aside.

Are u aware that there can be very good people other than ur self who could hold an opinion that could differ from yours? If u can't see that then ur presenting an impasse. otoh, if u agree that there could be then please understand that it's THOSE people that we don't want to antagonize.

 

Facts aren't my way or your way. They're just facts.

Neither this nor your previous response address the facts in any way. I could not care less what your opinion is about my opinions. If anything I said is not factual, point it out and rebut it. If not, I have no interest in wasting my time or your time.

 

And from the FBI whistleblowers we now know this was false propaganda from the fbi.

 

awww, how cute
OP leaves out the part where that long ago the left was trying to make blacks go to the back of the bus
How convenient!

 

Ah, but the extreme don't see themselves as extreme.

 

Im reminded of the network news clips claiming "mostly peaceful" protest with a burning city scape in the background.

 

It's not to hard to believe that there are whistleblowers in the FBI that said that, but in spite of all the wistleblower laws on the books, too many of them end up "missing".

 

Can you please clarify, @Golem?

 

Sounds like someone posting Me good, you bad as loud as they can over and over again on every thread and then decided to start his own hate thread against anyone who doesn't believe like he does. In this case, they are no better than the extremist right wingers.

 

"...the extreme right was represented by racists (very commonly Democrats)"
Yes. Many (most?) of those who defended slavery and later Jim Crowe were Democrats.

 

This is all very enlightening, Golem, but, uh... got any LINKS to credible information that supports this hypothesis?

BTW, really... it bears pointing out that anyone attempting to say that we of the far-Right were ever 'Nazis' or 'Nazi-supporters' is completely full of ****! But, hey, I didn't provide a link, either, so you call 'bullshit' on what I wrote, too.

 

What hypothesis?

In fact... why would a hypothesis NEED a link? However, your answer to the first question might clarify.

 

"What hypothesis"...? The entirely of your OP! Man... talk about 'getting down in the weeds'.... You took a position that makes many claims. All I've asked you to do is to substantiate those claims. I know you understand the concept.

 

Why would a hypothesis need a link?

Do you understand what a hypothesis is? I suggest you look it up.

And if you want me to substantiate any specific claim, please indicate which.

 

The American Communist party is still a real thing and the Democrats are all Communists. There's no such thing as a Democrat who isn't an "extremist ".

 

Without reading, I will say nothing.
They are the same ideologically. Just different topics.