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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.
@freemo @LouisIngenthron @kctipton @freemo @andytiedye hold on.. you’re all over the place; lot to unpack; this should really be dozen separate threads. W.r.t guns, dems (that means USian liberals not EU liberals) advocate gun *control* not gun *prohibition*. You’ve subcategorized prohibition under “gun control” & it distorts & muddies the water. It attempts to use a fraction of 1% extreme minority as reps for mainstream dems.
@koherecoWatchdog @LouisIngenthron @kctipton @andytiedye
I should also point out, to confuse things more, I see two forms of extremism at play... there is extremism of views,a nd extermism of application. A peaceful levelheaded communist willing to discuss philosophy in good faith might have an extremism of views, but is not particularly extreme in their application... meanwhile a more moderate left person who will block you if you have any deviation of opinion, or might be violent and cause riots in support of hillary might not have the most extreme views but clearly extreme in their application.
So to muddy the waters more I have a tendency to lump these two together when i talk about "far-left", which may not be the best for communication purposes.
