What has happened to leftism?

Are you sure about that? Because the reason I became a leftist was the constant disgust capitalism was bringing to me.

Watching abject consumerism in department stores while the homeless sleep in benches outside in the cold. My friends wasting away in piece of shit wage slave jobs with no prospect of escape. The idiotic fetishization of everything made commercial and a product. The constant bringing down of the working class by smug "feel good" liberals and piece of shit corporate whore conservatives.

You can frame that in an individualist manner, but over the years I have realized that individualism is the main justification for Capitalism, it the cleverest lie the bourgies tell us. Humans are social animals, and empathy is part of that, the alienation brought by capitalism is that individualist psychoses that makes people unable to relate and communicate with one another. If christianity expresses that same solidarity with the downtrodden and the wretched of the earth as brothers in the struggle, the so much the better.

Even right wingers can be left by that definition, by donating to charity and shit like that.
Left means to change the current system to another system (communism in our case.) The more left leaning, the more they want to change.
Right means to keep the current system in power or even reverse.

But I know what you mean.

The Middle class students are mostly social democrats, liberals or feminists who want to adopt a political opinion. They want to look smart and they chose a position that is more 'moral' so they look like nice people, because people like to be associated with nice. They are only associated with leftism because they want to change something in the current system. But they don't change that much of the current order in the grand scale of things. Most of them are not even 'left' because they just want to change social things even though the left-right spectrum is purely economical based.

People look at leftism as just a group and not a spectrum, and get the wrong idea.

Back in the day, the 'moderate leftists' were nudists, pacifists, feminists, etc. This has happened all the time.

These people aren't radical leftists like us, they are another group.

It's very rare that any politician who ever comes into power doesn't change the system in some small way. How much does the system have to change in order for it to be considered "left"? The UK and the US are both corporatist countries, for example, but they're hardly the same. By contrast, it's quite common to see people on this board call Stalinism "state capitalism". By that definition, the US is the same as the USSR.

Additionally, there are groups like libertarians who want the complete opposite of what communists want, but this is apparently not "changing the system"? If it were, libertarianism would also be a left wing ideology. By your definition, there is essentially nobody who is right wing. Go out and talk to your average voter, and they'll certainly want some form of change in government. Maybe it's less than others, but nobody anywhere is completely happy with the status quo

Are corporations still in power after the change?
If so, they are right, because the actual system hasn't been changed, the rulers hasn't been changed. Some policies may has been changed, but the corporations are still in power. And by using the generic argument that Libertarianism will only increase corporate control over the people, they only increased the control the corporations, and never actually changed who rules under the system.

Fuck off

This.

This. This. This.

My guess is that what we see is US-based cancerous leftism that grew increasingly self-centric and alienating to the working class.

Smug affluent US college majors can't understand the struggles of working class.

I am guilty of all this crap. Much shame. Wat do? Be a proper prolie?

Yes.

Why be a better person by trying to veer away from some random user's idea of what a hipster is, when you can actually engage in local direct action?

Leftism happened to Leftism.

I think the idea is that the upper class ain't better than the rest of us, and its their mismanagement of soceity is the reason its broken.

The instant it stopped being Socialism and starting being "leftism" is what happened to western "leftism".

In the east, after Stalin, Socialism started emulating fascism more.

I agree. The problem is the concept of "leftist" is fucking bogus.

There are liberals, there are progressives, and there are socialists.

Liberals - wealthy elitests

Progressives - middle class "intellecual" moralists, proto-fascists

Socialists - working class trade unionists.

Pick a side.

that is the stupidest fucking definition. Why lump progressives under one brush because of the stupid SJW boogeyman?

...

virtue signalling

That's a tad reductionist, don't you think? But to answer your question, it's still demonized because Red Scare propaganda was so effective. Also the USSR didn't do much to help either.

This is bait.
Watchlist the poster and let this thread die.

So serious question time, has the 'old left' (really need a better term here) come up with any new models or theories? How do you do socialism without it becoming authoritarian? Failing that you must make the authoritarianism appeal to the masses.

lurk moar