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@kctipton well much like the far-right it is hard to distinguish which statements originate from the russians/china themselves. The only clue we have is the friendliness of the far-right/left, and the general consistency in talking points, often expressed in ways that are self-defeating or meant to be divisive.
depends on the country you are talking about. In the USA a huge portion of the left is "far-left" and radicalized in all sorts of ways (just as the USA has a huge far-right problem)... Thankfully in much (not all) of the rest of the world you'd be right, there isnt much of a far-left or far-right in say, the Netherlands. The prevelance of the far-left seems limited to the USA, but for anyone not on the extremes of the spectrum they are a very obvious and pervasive group for sure.
In fact the USA is so polarized they tend to exist on the extremes of almost any issue, even non-political ones.
@andytiedye @freemo @kctipton Freemo may not want to give out examples, but I'll wade into that muck. I'm a left-leaning-centrist with libertarian tendencies, so most of what I define as "far left" are good ideas at their core, but taken to the extreme.
A good example is gun control. Most Americans (including most gun owners) are in favor of reasonable gun control. The far left takes this to the extreme, though, and advocates outright banning of guns, usually based on arbitrary factors like what shape or color they are.
A second, quick example would be the whole "forgive student loans" thing. That was entirely driven by the far left in this country.
Another example is environmentally friendly cars. Most people are for electric vehicle subsidies, and improving charger infrastructure... to an extent. But California's attempt to ban non-electric vehicles (while its grid still runs more than 50% on natural gas, and the state faces widespread power shortages!) is endemic of far-left thinking, putting the cart before the horse.
Finally, you have free speech. Both the far left and the far right threaten free speech, but from opposite directions. The far right wants to ban books about homosexuality, while the far left wants the state to punish "disinformation" and charge Trump with incitement over nonsense (a lefty account I saw recently suggested he should be indicted for using the word "fight" on Truth Social, despite the fact that Dems use that term to refer to 'electoral fights' just as often).
So, yeah, I have to agree with Freemo that it's one of those things where, if you can't see it, it might be because you're in the middle of it.
@LouisIngenthron @andytiedye @freemo @kctipton I want to suggest that maybe most of the "radicalization" is in rhetoric, not actual policy preferences. For example, the silly nonsense around accusing Trump of being an evil bad man for using words like "fight" or "You have to show strength, and you have to be strong". There's no policy question there, it's purely a matter of hyperbolic, divisive, distracting rhetoric. (It riles up the faithful, but at the expense of losing credibility with the normies.)
Bad (incoherent) policies like EV-only or "assault weapon" (whatever that is) bans happen and always have, right? I don't know if I'd describe them as extreme? Are they really "far left" or radical? It feels like the interesting axis they're on is more about stupid/incoherent than about "radical left v. right". Some people do have more radical positions, like banning all guns, or eliminating women's sports entirely, and so on, but I think they're still extreme minorities. (Not minorities on mastodon.social, but in the US.)
"forgive student loans" Isn't really extreme left, is it? It's pretty bougie; "welfare for the rich" kind of thing – sop to white D voters, essentially racism.
@ech @andytiedye @freemo @kctipton
To your first point, I have literally heard people on the far left argue that Trump's rhetoric should land him in prison. In that sense, it's really no better than "lock her up".
I would argue that those policies are far left. For the gun example, you have the full spectrum: far left (ban 'em all), centrist (reasonable gun control), and far right ("shall not be infringed").
No, the student loan thing was entirely driven by the far left. It stands as Biden's main concession to them so far in his term. I agree with the problems with targeting... that's a big reason I opposed the measure. But it seems (this is anecdotal based on the far left folks I argued with about it) that the lefties convinced themselves that college-educated minorities would disproportionately benefit, and they rode that wave all the way in.