I'm so tried of this "radical left boogeyman" narrative!

[JustKay]

Who are the Trumpers talking about? Me? I think it's me....

I AM the radical left. I am antifa. I am opposed to fascism in all its forms, including the current brand Trump is selling.

Universal healthcare, decent living wages, free school lunches, and limits on how many people can get their hands on automatic weapons. I'm all about that.

I vote, go to church, pay my taxes, volunteer in my community, have never broken the law or hurt another being, and some would say, I'm a decent person.

So what are the Trumpers so afraid of? What's my crime? What makes me so scary?

I think for myself. Very scary indeed!

[johnnyfins]

1. There hasnt been a radical left in this

Country since the 1970s. That doesnt stop the rw boogeyman factory from using the term, though. Always have to make people afraid. You would think people would see through it by now.

[TBF]

14. I'd say 1940s ... although the Panthers and Weathermen

did try. And it didn't take long for the authorities to act out (ie Kent State).

[rampartd]

2. who can we think they are building these prisons for?

after the immigrants are gone and the blacks are assigned to their new masters, they will still have the prisons to fill.

their version of Manicheism was articulated by gw bush

"if ya ain't with us. yer agin us."

[Gaugamela]

3. The "radical left" is everyone who is not MAGA. The radical left are judges and prosecutors

who apply the law equally without fear or favor. It’s common sense pragmatism that seeks to address social problems with real world solutions instead of constantly trying to pound a square peg into the round hole of white supremacist ideology. The radical left are people working together cooperatively for the common good instead of fraudsters trying to dismantle society to sell for parts. The radical left are people who enjoy art and scholarship and creativity and appreciate the benefits of modern science and medicine and know a better world is possible.

[RVN VET71]

32. Radical Left anyone who despises Fascism and the Nazism it spawned

There's much more involved, of course, but that's the absolute core of it. And the Nazi loving fascists of the Trump administration -- and its garbage eating supporters among the lumpenproletariat (all 77,000,000 of them) -- are getting nervous and outraged at its increasing hold on the majority of America's electorate.

[jaymac]

4. thank you, thank you

for posting what we all believe.........

[BOSSHOG]

5. The Radical Left

Have fund raisers for children in the hospital, check on the elderly, volunteer at the local library and food pantry. The radical left prays for peace and doesn’t spend every waking moment figuring out what’s in “it” for me. The radical left doesn’t lie about the current President. The radical left tells the truth about the current president. The radical left doesn’t dump Jack Smiths report chock full of the truth on the American people on New Years. The radical left is a conglomeration of Americana. We are a mystery to those who don’t understand liberty and Justice for all. Who don’t understand why the Constitution really is a big deal. And yet here we are.

[RVN VET71]

33. Could not agree more.

The radical Left is the best and brightest and most caring and compassionate segment of the American electorate.

[Farmer-Rick]

6. I'm with you in that club

Except for the going to church part. I'm a member of the bogeyman club of atheists.

And I think capitalism is at the root of all evil and belong to the bogeyman club of socialists.

And yeah, I also belong to the bogeyman club of Anti Fascists, Antifa. Because if you are Profa (Profascist) you are against democracy, the US Constitution and the rule of law.

But I think I may be the far left that white Christian Nationalists are so afraid of. In my life I had a full career as an officer in the Navy, supported and raised 2 very capable adults and run a farm to sell wholesome healthy food to my neighbors and give a lot to the food banks.

So, people like me are what Trump humpers, Nazis, Christian Nationalists and Profa are afraid of. Be afraid, be very afraid....

[niyad]

7. Welcome to our DU family. You think for yourself, therefore, you are

DANGEROUS!!!

[AZLD4Candidate]

8. As I taught in my history classes for 23 years, tyrants need a nebulous boogeyman to keep people afraid

Xi Jinping used "capitalist reactionaries" when I lived in China.
Mao used "capitalist roaders"
During the cold war, it was "Communists."

There doesn't need to be any defnition. . .it just needs to be an idea of someone who is opposed to what the standing order wants to do, even if what the enemy wants benefits you.

Orwell was wrong. The use of Emmanuel Goldstein as the enemy is wrong because Emmanuel Goldstein can do something a vague, hard to define idea can't do. . .Goldstein can die. Once the enemy (a person) dies, there is no enemy. WW2 proved that. The enemy was Hitler. Once he was gone, the ones that need enemies to cash checks had to find something else.

And an idea is must more frightening than a person. Keep the rubes terrified and you can run to the bank and subjugate them as they will only be concerned with remaining safe.

That's what radical left means. It's an easy thing to say but asked to define it, you'll get a thousand different answers.

[Ol Janx Spirit]

9. They are deathly afraid of our "trans for all" stance...which would mean

all the girls become boys and all the boys become girls...so pretty much just like it was before?



Oh that, and that someone (read: not rich white people) would get anything (read: things we all need like food, healthcare, childcare, a living wage) that they don't deserve (read: because they aren't rich white people.)

Yep. Terrifying....

[Martin Eden]

21. Girls will be Boys and Boys will be Girls

It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world
Except for Lola

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

[Ol Janx Spirit]

22. :D

[WestMichRad]

26. Yeah!

[ananda]

10. They're so afraid of a white minority rule...

that they can't think straight.

[oldmanlynn]

11. Because democrats and or press has not pushed back.

This narrative of radical left democrats has stuck.

GOP propaganda machine is louder than Dems truth propaganda machine.

[calimary]

18. THAT'S the problem. Right there.

Dems don’t speak up, or hit back - VERBALLY, that is.

And while I’m griping, I’d like these reactionary jerks to tell me what’s so wrong about being a Democrat?
- Cuz they don’t think everybody is created equal? Including women?
- Cuz they don’t think our bodies belong to OURSELVES and NOT the government?
- Cuz they think women should never speak for OURSELVES or Heaven forbid, have our own informed opinions? Like we can’t read or something?
- Cuz our priorities have already been cancelled and dismissed before we even get to weigh in?

[Ol Janx Spirit]

23. A human's default position is selfishness--not selflessness. The Republicans have an easier time...

...selling their message that greed is good than do the Democrats selling their message of rejecting greed for the good of all.

This has also been the historical norm.

Two thousand years ago there was a guy fighting for very similar things. And around 1100 years before that was the first recorded labor strike in human history.

Greed and selfishness has built empires and kingdoms and moved mountains and built monuments. Much of our history is shaped more by it than anything else.

Democrats are actually working against human nature, and that is always going to be harder. We have to be okay with that and continue to fight for everyone knowing that Republicans will be fighting for the interest of the people that have always found an easier path to getting what they want--because if we don't...then what?

[BeneteauBum]

12. Demonized for being a Democrat

JustKay, excepting that I believe that religion is organized fraud fraught with hypocrisy, I’m just like you. I’ve paid my dues and raised a wonderful family. My major mantra raising my daughters is that violence is not an option.

I have hard core MAGA friends and acquaintances that say I’m a good person…..cheerful and giving. They call me an exception to the ‘normal’ Democrat. I’ve confronted them about me being the enemy. When they refute that, I ask them if they are disagreeing with the orange POS. That question makes them evasive and uneasy. What can you say? To me these people’s core values are dictated by Fox Spews and are unable to formulate a defendable debate. Things will get better……

Peace ☮️

[surfered]

13. Sadly, demonizing and dehumanizing still works as a political strategy

[Nanjeanne]

15. I wouldn't care about MAGA narrative. It's the

mainstream media’s use of far left that gets my goat. They use that as the way to describe simple progressive policies and in fact even calling these policies is strange when healthcare, family leave, sick days, raising min wage, etc are pretty mainstream too.

[surfered]

16. Welcome to DU, by the way!

[LT Barclay]

17. Just as much a bogeyman outside of MAGAland, but the label is usually "progressive"

[markodochartaigh]

19. The right wing and the reich-wing in the US

have shifted the Overton Window so far to authoritarianism (candy coated with a few libertarian platitudes) since WWII that Eisenhower, the Republican president, would be on the left side of the Democratic party.
And the Overton Window has been shifted to the right on economic and political issues (which our oiligarchs care about) while being shifted left on several social issues (which are important to everyday people). This allows the boogeyman of racial and sexual minority rights to be dangled as a distraction while economic and political issues are shifted ever rightward in the background.

As to your question, why are you so scary? You are exactly what authoritarian leaders hate. You have strong ties to your community, therefore some influence, and you think for yourself outside the manufactured authoritarian zeitgeist. Our oiligarchs pay a lot of money to construct that bubble. The authoritarian state can strip immigrant babies from their parents' arms and bomb random boats off foreign shores with scarcely a ripple of protest, but when well-connected community leaders start being locked up that is likely to generate more resistance and wake up people who previously didn't know and didn't care what was going on.


Edit: Welcome to DU!

[multigraincracker]

20. We could start calling them Neo-Liberal Publicans.

Thanks to the Chicago School of Economics, that changed the original capitalism, or should I say corrupted it.
They went against Adam Smiths view of Libertarian Capitalism, that thought, markets need to be regulated to prevent monopolies. Now power is corrupted by monopolies and have the power to destroy free markets.
Just saying.

[Initech]

24. It's funny that the right wing calls us the "radical" ones.

When they spew the most violent, hateful, anti-American and anti-democracy shit they possibly can.

I just saw some asshole Isreali billionaire on CNBC saying that it was time for our 1st amendment rights to be limited. They want to fuck around with our rights, they can find out just how radical we are.

[Abolishinist]

25. Welcome to DU!

But sadly, it's not just the MAGA crowd. There are DU members who have previously suggested that anyone who watches a certain TV show lacks both decency and intelligence. Imagine that.

[Klarkashton]

27. Accusing the other side of the shit you are doing.

There are radicals but they aren't us.

Who stormed the capitol on J6? That's what this bullshit is all about.

[multigraincracker]

28. 7 million protest No Kings and not any violence.

[TygrBright]

29. Remember their MO: Accuse others of what they are doing themselves.

They know full well their agenda of devolving our democratic republic into a fascist oligarchy controlled by the super-rich is radical as hell in every way. What they are attempting to force on the American people is not "making America great again" in the sense of returning to some utopian past (there never was one). It is certainly not incremental change. It's not even accellerated sociopolitical evolution building on existing structures. It is radical in the sense of razing every social, political, and administrative structure of our nation, and replacing them entirely.

You really cannot get more radical than that.

They also know that the notion of radical change is anxiety-provoking. And when people feel anxious they become even more change-averse, and are likely to see almost any change as threatening.

Therefore, they have to lay off the blame for the whole "radical change" sensation that Americans are very rightly sensing, and definitely wary of, on a scapegoat - the imaginary "radical left" of their fevered imaginations.

Always, always, ALWAYS remember: WHATEVER THEY ARE ACCUSING 'ENEMIES' OF DOING IS WHAT THEY, THEMSELVES ARE CURRENTLY ENGAGED UPON.

"Huge corruption scandal in Minnesota daycare industry"? Look at THAT, not the systematic looting, graft, and corruption spree they are currently using to transfer vast amounts of public wealth into their own offshore accounts.

Whatever they accuse others of, that's what they see in the mirror - and don't want anyone else to look at.

helpfully,
Bright

[Martin68]

30. Me, too. they have no idea what a radical left agenda would look like. It's just a scare tactic. "The radical left" is

the new "commie."

[Aussie105]

31. Some sort of 'Evil Enemy' is always required.

It makes you the victim and justifies the bad things you have done, are doing, and plan to do.

Just being labeled 'left' makes you the enemy, and the 'radical' part forces True Believers (MAGAts) to think some way of retaliating.

McCarthy era 'Reds under the beds!' level.

School yard 'get them before they get you' low level justification, that is all it is.