Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
JackRiddler » Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:09 pm wrote:Heaven Swan » Sat Jul 07, 2018 7:49 pm wrote:
Wait a minute. Is this some inside joke I’m not getting or are you implying that Wombaticus Rex, our former moderator is a fascist and and/or incel?
No. Obviously not. Try reading what I write, instead of the parts you bold.
I am giving him shit because he's saying shit, in this case. I like him fine, he writes great stuff on this board sometimes. I found the Angleton article unforgettable.
Rory is also giving shit, with a story (unlinked, no details, thus only from one unreliable source for now, that source being Rory) of men being mean to a woman, as if it speaks to the "left." The difference being, this is every day and everywhere in almost every context in the U.S. and around the world, and a serious problem, but it is not a per-se "left" problem. It is a men problem. Ideologically, at least, the left opposes it. The right embraces it. It is programmatic for most tendencies on the right that feminists are bad, that there is no rape culture, that women's bodies should be controlled, that childbirth should be forced on them, that day care centers make serial killers, that women are naturally weepy and men get the job done, etc. Pretty much the opposite positions are programmatic, on the left, regardless of the kind of bad individual behavior that can be found everywhere else. To bring up some story of individual behaviors (uncited, unlinked, and not real as long as it's the unreliable Rory's trap talking, and no other source), it is distraction and derailing of the discussion, just like WR's hit-and-run comment: playing to stereotypes and (right-wing) prejudices about groups of people rather than actual progammatic differences. That's basically what Greer is serving up, and it may as well be out of Breitbart for his understanding of social movements or actual left groups. There is nothing whatsoever new in this kind of "centrist" move, it is a lazy way to get easy cheers from lazy thinkers.
What isn't being addressed here are the ideas of health care as human right, economic and social justice, ending mass incarceration, ending prohibition, ending empire, converting to renewable energies, cutting the military and spending on human needs, increasingly also MMT and a jobs for all program. These are left - generally speaking, progressive and socialist - ideas (Ending empire can also be found on the right). They are not Democratic party platforms, since, of course, at the top and official levels, except for a small minority, the Democratic Party is not leftist but basically the other right wing, neoliberal, imperialist capitalist party. Hillary Clinton is not remotely "the left" and the TV pundits playing "liberals" are just players, serving up right-wing politics as if it is oppositional.
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Luther Blissett » Fri Jul 20, 2018 8:12 pm wrote:Currently reading The Ghost and am very interested in whatever this Angleton piece is. Where can I read it?
Luther Blissett » Sat Jul 21, 2018 6:55 am wrote:I’d be worried about reactionaries classifying anti-nazi behavior as the “regressive left” like they do often do, and expanding the term to include all sorts of extra definitions. Women’s reproductive health? Pipeline and clearcutting sabotage? Black lives mattering? I can see all being fodder for them.
Elvis » Sat Jul 21, 2018 3:53 am wrote:From the Dept. of Incomplete Ideas:
Proposal: 1) switch to a vertical axis -- progressive is UP, regressive is DOWN.
The "test" is, does it move humanity forward, or hold it back? There is no middle or circular continuum where the two meet; there is only forward and backward.
And accordingly, 2) change the dialectic to "progressive vs. regressive"; choices are more clearly spelled out from this perspective. Tough luck for regressives.
Syncretic politics
Syncretic politics, or spectral-syncretic, refers to politics that combine elements from across the conventional left–right political spectrum. The term "syncretic politics" has been derived from the idea of syncretism (syncretic religion).[1] The main idea of syncretic politics is that taking political positions of neutrality by combining elements associated with the left and right can achieve a goal of reconciliation.[2][3][4] Since this umbrella term is defined by the combination of the two standard poles of a given one-dimensional political spectrum, it refers to quite heterogeneous approaches.[5]
Historical examples
The Falange of Spain presented itself as syncretic.[6] Falangism has attacked both the left and the right as its "enemies", declaring itself to be neither left nor right, but a Third Position.[7]
In Hungary, there has been a strong presence of syncretic political parties since the revolutions of 1989. They won the election in 1990 forming a coalition government: Hungarian Democratic Forum, Independent Smallholders, Agrarian Workers and Civic Party and KDNP. KDNP later became a close ally of FIDESZ, losing this attribute in the process. After the first four-year term syncretic parties went into a decline, many of them disappearing and only two new ones emerging since then: Hungarian Justice and Life Party and Politics Can Be Different,[8] the latter still being present in the Hungarian parliament. Notable politicians are Prime Minister József Antall, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development József Torgyán and green leader András Schiffer.
At the peak of the Cold War, the former Argentinian President Juan Perón (1946–1955; 1973–1974) defined the international position of his doctrine (Peronism) as a "third position" between capitalism and communism, a stance which became a precedent of the Non-Aligned Movement.
In the United States, Third Way adherents embrace fiscal conservatism to a greater extent than traditional social liberals and advocate some replacement of welfare with workfare and sometimes have a stronger preference for market solutions to traditional problems (as in pollution markets) while rejecting pure laissez-faire economics and other right-libertarian positions. This style of governing was firmly adopted and partly redefined during the administration of President Bill Clinton.[9] Political scientist Stephen Skowronek introduced the term "Third Way" into the interpretation of American presidential politics.[10][11][12] Such Presidents undermine the opposition by borrowing policies from it in an effort to seize the middle and with it to achieve political dominance. This technique is known as triangulation and was used by Bill Clinton and other New Democrats who sought to move beyond the party's New Deal liberalism reputation in response to the political realignment of the 1980s. Through this strategy, Clinton adopted themes associated with the Republican Party, such as fiscal conservatism, welfare reform, deregulation and law and order policies. Famously, he declared in the 1996 State of the Union Address that "the era of big government is over".[13]
In the United Kingdom, the emergence of New Labour under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown was a pitch for the Third Way, mixing economic neoliberal policies, such as banking privatisation, with socially progressive policies.
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