Liberals of all parties, unite!

[muckefuck]

princeofcairo is fond of saying "Never underestimate the anti-Semitism of the Left." He's seen the extremes meet on this topic far, far too many times.

mollpeartree is fond of saying, "Never underestimate the sexism of the Left." She's seen way too many instances in her time.

I think I've seen enough homophobia, classism, racism, and general inflexibility among soi-disant "liberals" to generalise this to "Never underestimate the intolerance of the Left" and be done with it.

Comments

Left vs. Liberal

[innerdoggie.livejournal.com]

Do you mean "left" or "liberals?" When I say "left" I mean anarchists, Green Party, anti-globalization protesters with giant dirty puppets, socialists, left-over communists, and religious left pacifists. (Sounds like my neighborhood!)

"Liberals" in USA (to me at least) is the "left" of the Democratic party (with maybe a few Republicans and independents), where there may be a whiff of anti-globalization, etc., but without giant puppets. (Senator Kennedy, for example).

"Liberals" in Euro-land (to me) mean "Classic Liberals" who like human rights with their capitalism. (Sounds like _The Economist_)

Comments?

[muckefuck.livejournal.com]

I think the caution holds for both. In their original statements, princeofcairo and mollpeartree may well have been referring to "the Left" in your sense, since it's not these extremists' intolerance that's unexpected, it's the targets (though I suspect that PoC, being much further right, has a broader defintion of "the Left" than others). Some of Moll's experiences came while working on the GCJ, if that helps.

I'm not sure exactly how the people whose attitudes prompted me to write this identify themselves. A fair number seem to be on the West Coast, which increases the probability of fringeness.