Where are the Real Leftists?

The "New Left" of the 1960s has simply become the left today. Most Americans who think of these things at all define "left" by the characters of the 60s-70s, and the "student leaders" who came out of those movements. Of course those who pray daily at the shrine of Reagan would include anyone in the Democratic Party, which only shows that they have no real clue who or what a leftist truly is.

My question is: Where are the old-school, John Reed, 1890s-1930s pro-union, pro-worker, screw "peace and love" activist leftists? Are there any on ATS? Has the Sarah Palin "arrogant and ignorant' crowd taken over ATS?

reply to post by Office 4256

Your garden variety commies are like flags. They fly with the prevailing wind... No doubt many have become staunch Republicans once they got a little older and wiser and have been assured a reserved spot at the feeding trough.

Uhhh I don't know if you really know much about leftist ideology or the Democratic party but the fact is that the 60s generation is getting older and dying away. Real liberals hate Sarah Palin because she is stupid and arrogant but they don't hate her for that. If you think that we hate her because she is arrogant and ignorant and we've been brainwashed by the MSM you don't understand us. We don't like her because she's against women's rights and she's anti-choice. I think many of the new liberals are just wishing for something that is different from what the Republican party has been spewing the last 8 years.

Many conservative posters here are worse than the liberal ones that hate Sarah Palin just because she's stupid IMO. A lot of conservative posters are in denial and are Bush sympathizers that don't want to admit that their party has done a lot of bad things in recent times. They just say the Government is always bad and they blame the economic woes on Clinton or they say Bush isn't a true conservative and that he's a liberal. Many liberals like myself want to discuss the real issues with these so called conservatives but they're so blinded by their own ideology and religion that they just can't begin to understand where we're coming from at times.

Also, these so called old liberals were just people of their day talking about social issues. Much like what we do now. Now we are mad at how conservatives seem to think gays have equality like we do and that a civil union is the same as marriage, or, that, say, the auto workers don't deserve benefits (as they say), and, many of us are mad at the neoconservative approach to war.

We're here... just also I should point out the fact that a lot of our criticism is over the war and how it is handled and our disapproval of it. We have good reasons to disapprove of the war. So yeah.

We're here but it's just that a lot of conservatives don't want to seem to listen or accept our side of the argument.

reply to post by Frankidealist35


Uhhh I don't know if you really know much about Conservative ideology....because it sure doesn't sound like it.

Once again you are confusing Republican, or even the new wave neocons with Conservatives. A mistake I've seen you make many times.

reply to post by nyk537


Neoconservatives are liberals who have drifted over to the right. Conservatives are afraid of immediate change and they think government is somehow evil. Conservatives don't believe in global warming. Conservatives also don't want big government yet they want government intervention in EVERY MORAL ISSUE THERE IS. Conservatives don't believe in evolution. Conservatives think that declaring war against other nations is good and they support our troops and they think those that criticize the military hate America. I think I have a good understanding of the conservative ideology. OH yeah, did I forget to mention that conservatives hate labor unions? They think that they cost too much money. Conservatives also have an issue with people who are of different religions than them (like i they're Muslims, to them Muslims=terrorists). They hate the liberal feminism movement. They hate affirmative action. Did I miss anything?

sory OP, but i really think you don't understand what you are talking about...

The situation is different nowadays than it was 100 years ago. You can't deny Che was a true leftist, but he was still different than lets say Lenin. And I AM A TRUE LEFTIST. I'm pro-union, pro-worker, but not screw-peace and love.. Violence must be used to stop other violence and capitalist system is violent, because exploitation is violence. So I support violent revolution against violent systems(capitalism, tirany, ...), otherwisse I'm pro-peace and love..

Honestly, there seems to be so many variations of Left/Right stances that is is hard to keep track of them.

My shot at the right wing ones.

Conservative : Family values, free markets
NeoCons: Secular Values, free markets
Libertarians: Secular Values, really free markets
NeoLiberal: Libertarian......
...dang it, I suck...need someone who can lay these different forms of conservatism out more clearly.