WTF is Leftism?

Leftism is broadly defined as anti-capitalism, with the end goal of creating an egalitarian, free society. Liberals usually do not reject capitalism, just the overtly nasty parts, and if they do they're just so focused on identity politics that they give no care to the class struggle.

"Need" is a contentious term as it depends on whose need. Ecology definitely needs it, as does the majority of humanity who lives in squalor doing pointless work for the profits of some insane businessman whose life mission is serving Capital. It could also be said that its his need also.
How the fuck are we supposed to agree on an objective measure of "good"? Leftism would be better for human happiness, it'd more efficiently use human labor and natural resources, it'd be a rational economy under the control of the people it's supposed to serve.

Fuck off with your shitty attitude. We have someone curious and willing to learn and you act like a dick.

inb4 you get in a shitposting war while trying to "teach" him and we'll all become dumber because we watched it.

Money down on this poster continually demanding more proof on his arbitrary points, as you get continually fucked with.

That's a possibility but so far he's just asking questions in a hostile manner and hasn't shown any actual bad faith, whereas everyone else is refusing to actually engage in a discussion.

Now that is a good way to phrase it (still sound like a knob, but less so)

In very simple terms, liberalism is the intent to reform current power structures to generate a secioty which puts 'liberty' above everything else. They see capitalism as a good thing (although classical liberals favour totally free markets and social liberals favour a regulated market), and believe that individual liberty lies in freedom of conscience & social mobility.

Leftism sees that the existing economic system of capitalism is full of contradictions and injustices that are detrimental to itself and to mankind as a whole. As such, leftists seek the abolition of capitalism. They also tend to see that modern political structures are founded around the support of capitalism, and as such either politics must be reformed through teh abolition of capitalism, that said political structures must be destroyed to allow for the abolition of capitalism or said political structures need to be replaced in tandem with the abolition of capitalism: who wants to do what when is where you see the verity of leftist thought models.

So yeah, liberals want to continue with capitalism, in different forms, and want to see the political structures that uphold them made so they can better do so. Leftists are "the movement to disestablish the present state of things" (t. Marx) and the abolition of capitalism informs a leftist's view on other matters.

The left: use guns to take the means of production
The right: use guns to protect the means of production

The former precipitates the latter, in most cases. I have no reason to waste time on the few that don't.

If you want to understand leftism in its embryonic form then go read Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality, especially the latter-half of the text. In it, Rousseau discusses two types of inequality: natural and institutional. Natural inequality is just the facts of innate ability: some people are more intelligent than others, some people are more physically fit than others, etc., etc. And of course there isn't much we can do about natural inequality. But institutional inequality can be deconstructed and abolished. Institutional inequality is what gives others a leg up not due to their own merit, but because a certain system of government, politics, law, etc. favours one class of individuals over another. Very easy example: slavery. Leftism is about abolishing institutional inequality. Leftism is not about equality of outcome. It's about equality of opportunity.

isn't the entire way we think about politics defined by where different sides of a tennis court french politicians would hang out at or something?

"Leftism sees that the existing economic system of capitalism is full of contradictions and injustices that are detrimental to itself and to mankind as a whole."

What you are describing there is Logic, it has nothing to do with any political ideology.

"who wants to do what when is where you see the verity of leftist thought models."

What you are describing there has a name already, Voluntaryism. There is literally no point to adding the label of "leftism"

Monarchists would sit on the right sight of the National Assembly while liberals and republicans would sit on the Left. Usually the dichotomy is defined through a person's view on equality and whether it's good or bad.

Voluntaryism is just rebranded ancapism, and Capitalism is inherently un-voluntary.

Leftism, used in the context of this board, broadly means economic leftism. It constitutes any ideology which promotes a system of social organization which is to succeed capitalism.
Leftists claim that capitalism contains various contradictions that should be overcome to achieve a more just and equal distribution of power and material wealth. More specifically, leftists seek to analyze the existing conditions of people who survive by selling their labour-power for a wage, and promote an active movement to improve these conditions. This usually includes organizing the mass of wage labourers to achieve political power, for example hrough unions or controlling the state.

Leftism is about making white people gay and/or trans. If you ever catch some retard talking about 'socialism' or 'marxism' he's not a leftist.

Praise Adorno (PBUH).

Essential leftist values:
secularism
universalism
democracy
freedom
equality

The thing with liberals is that they always half-ass these and are more than willing to shove them aside when it becomes inconvenient

wow, your logic is shit. Voluntarism is defined by all interactions of any kind being voluntary.

Then you said it is just rebranded anarcho-capitalism, which is not true, and then you said Capitalism is inherently un-voluntary, which is also not true.

Captialism, noun

an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations,

it is your choice to own or not to own the means of production, and it is also your voluntary choice to exchange wealth for other things, or not do that.

"Leftists claim that capitalism contains various contradictions that should be overcome to achieve a more just and equal distribution of power and material wealth. More specifically, leftists seek to analyze the existing conditions of people who survive by selling their labour-power for a wage, and promote an active movement to improve these conditions."

Again, that concept already has a name. Egalitarian humanism.

someone ban this redditor, i haven't seen this much dunning-kruger in most Holla Forumsyp shitposts.

I know what the definition is. In practice it is simply just ancapism, and there's not a Voluntarist who would be against ancapism.
If only I lived in the world you do. Unfortunately I do not choose the circumstances of my birth, and implying that I could someday be part of the bourgeoisie therefor meaning it's just another choice I could make is the same as saying being a slave or not being one is just a choice, because you could just buy yourself out of it.
If the circumstances have been created to create significant leverage against me, then my choice cannot be said to be voluntary. The real world is not full of equal actors with equal leverage over each other.

leftism: everyone is forced to be gay

why it needs to be the foundation of a functional society: gay sex forever

We'll kill the liberals before we kill you lot, nigger

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Well out political ideology is that the resolution to these contradictions and injustices is the abolition of the authority of capital, so yeah.

Well for starters leftism was coined before voluntaryism. Secondly, voluntaryism has no solid stance on the economy and is more of a philosophical standpoint than an ideology founded upon an economic view that capitalism needs to be abolished and the transition to communism (perhaps through socialism depending on where you stand) needs to start.

you can't have truly voluntary interactions if material conditions of life cause someone to HAVE TO enter into those interactions
I have to eat, MUST eat, which means I MUST buy food, my interaction with the providers of that food is voluntary in name only

uh, I'm going to point out the elephant in this board.

We, Europeans, North Americans, South Americans, are not living in a capitalistic society. The EU is not capitalist. America is not capitalist.

Both of them are in fact fascist oligarchies. The governments serve the interest of the corporations, and make laws to benefit them (the definition of Fascism right from the mouth of Mussolini)

and both America and the EU are controlled by an extremely powerful small group of people with no accountability or transparency, and no votes or demands that the public has are ever considered. Oligarchy.

imagine being this much of brainlet
1. stop redditspacing like the faggot you are OP
2. the places you named are all capitalist as they all of them have capital in private hands.

Oligarchy is a political system, capitalism is an economic one: they are not mutually exclusive whatsoever.

"Capitalism is a system of economic organisation based on private ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange". (definition used by an advocate of capitalism)

What part of that is no present in Europe, America.

The means of production in America is owned privately yes, but the only reason why the disparity of wealth you leftists are concerned about exists, is because the government steals from the people via taxation, and gives that money to unethical companies which could not reach even a small fraction of the size they currently are without constant financial and legal help from the government. That's fascism. Fascism can be applied to any economic system. And as far as oligarchy goes, just do a little research into the deep state, into American and European spy agencies, and the EU Commission.

I'll make a correction then. America and the EU are Capitalistic Fascist Oligarchies. They barely even resemble pure capitalism.

[citation needed]
Like seriously, are we at "fascism is what I feel it means" tier rn?

dude, "pure capitalism" without regulations and such was back in the late 1800s/early 1900s. Gilded age, bad working conditions for everyone. Things sucked way more than they did now and oligarchy was even worse.

maybe, but that's not really mutually exclusive with being capitalist. All capitalism means is that there are markets, private property, and people exchange their labour for a wage.

Please go back to reddit as it's clear you don't even know how to use this website.

crony capitalism is capitalism its a feature not a bug

I know the phrase 'OP is a faggot' gets used a lot but it is really applicable here.

no it isn't. Fascism is a specific ultranationalist, historical movement which emerges as a defense mechanism of capital in times of crisis.
not true. Fascism is in every instance capitalist, retaining private ownership of the means of production.
there's no such thing as 'pure capitalism', capitalism is simply any system in which the means of production are owned privately. This exists all over the world, on every continent. As a mode of production is is distinguished by its class structure whereby a small capitalist class owns the capital and a large working class sell their labour to the capitalists to earn wages.

The most basic way to think of it is left = more egalitarian society, right = more hierarchical society.

A simplification but a decent starting point.

I'd say the basic difference is that right-wing views posit an organic, stable, natural state of affairs which is corrupted by an outside force. By removing this outside force, the system can return to its original stability.

Therefore:

Left-wing philosophy, on the other hand, posits that inequalities in a society are based on structural /economic forces which underpin that society, and other elements simply reinforce the structural problems. There is no true stability to return to, but by changing the economic structure we can create a society without those elements.

Considering how pension funds work, the workers are also owning capital.
How is that interpreted by leftists?

Congrats you are actually retarded OP.

'18 years' of studying politics and not even knowing what real leftism is? Are you sure you don't mean to say you're 18 years old and had a course of neoliberal politics in high school?
If you're serious tho, then you are the living example of why we are totally screwed with the politicians of today.

Seriously, we need gulags for people like you.

That's a really good post. Your definition there is actually much better than mine.

You've allegedly been studying politics for almost two decades and can't see a single difference between American liberalism and socialism…?

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No

The more you study a subject the less clear things become not more

Tbf it is what Zizek says about fascism in the terms of "It seeks to recreate a mythical past by removal of a supposed cancer that ended said mythical past".

Neoliberal worker ownership is weird and mutates proles into petty bourgeois.

Wow, we have actual retards browsing leftypol now. Have we hit the mainstream guys?

"Leftism"? My belief is wholely alien to some sucdem or Democrat. In fact, they likely share more in common with you, since the foundation of your beliefs would likely be capitalism and representative democracy. In fact, the vast majority of people on here are anti capitalist. Do you think we are liberals or something? Our conception of liberal would most likely include you bucko. Fuck off.

1. Let right-wingers create the most ridiculous caricature of leftism
2. Start supporting the caricature

Reminded me of this gem. A screenshot I took of a ancap.

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Funny how ancaps assume everyone is equal in power despite believing equality is impossible.

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