Leftism and Precise Language

bigsley
6 min readNov 30, 2024

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Using precise language is important for movement building because imprecise language can cause semantic chaos and is a site of weakness where outside forces can cause discord.

There is a concept of “politically correct” language — the idea behind PC is that “if you say the wrong thing there will be consequences.” I do not believe in community systems which are punitive with respect to the use of language — emphasis on using language “correctly” is, at best, unnecessarily purist and, at worst, manifestation of academic or class privilege.

Precise language is both self- and other-serving. When I flap my mouth at you my hope is that the ideas it generates in your head match the ideas that are in my head. If I am able to describe my ideas more precisely it’s more likely that this will happen, which will benefit both of us, since misunderstanding can create conflict and negative feedback cycles.

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To this end, I’d like to try to lay out some terms to disambiguate concepts around political identity. Hopefully this can be a collaborative project wherein we can figure out how to use various somewhat related terms in ways that serve our goals in constructing positive, convivial movements.

In particular, I want to use this clarification to de-mystify so-called “Horseshoe Theory” which states that if you go far enough Left or Right you end up at Fascism.

The terms I want to clarify are:

Leftist
Right-wing / “Rightist?”
Progressive
Conservative
Reactionary
Liberal
Democrat
Republican
Woke
Fascist

Here are my definitions:

Leftist: a person who is committed to Justice as a central value and generally committed to a set of supporting values such as Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.

Rightist: a person who is committed to Injustice as a central value and generally committed to supportive beliefs such as Uniformity, Inequity, and Exclusion. Instead of Justice, rightist are often committed to a more every-day notion of “fairness.”

If a person is put in prison for committing a petty crime, a far-Left person might say that this is “Unjust” because incarceration itself does not promote Justice in society. A far-Right person might say this is “Fair” because “if you do the crime, you serve the time.

A person cannot be both Leftist and Rightist because the values of these stances are mutually inconsistent.

A person can hold some Leftist or some Rightist values.

Progressive: a person who believes that society should generally be moving “forward” towards new values, expressions, ways of being, etc.

Conservative: a person who believes that society should put its energy into maintaining currently existing values and traditions.

Reactionary: a person who believes that society should put its energy into moving “backwards” towards values, expressions, and ways of being which existed in either the historic or mythical past.

A person can hold a combination of progressive, conservative, and reactionary points of view. For instance, they may believe that we should put up solar panels to move towards a greener future while also believing that society should not tolerate homosexuals and should move towards a heteronormative social state.

Liberal: The etymology of the term “Liberal” is literally “free” and its history lies in traditions of privilege such as land-ownership and the right to vote. Historically, liberals have been distinguished from “non-liberals” by their degree of social freedom. Liberal ideology specifies a class of “free people” who should have significantly more rights (material, financial, political, etc.) than others

A person can be Rightist and Liberal. This is no contradiction. For instance, a person might believe that being Educated and Rich entitles them to freedom of movement, access to resources, etc. and that other people with similar levels of education and wealth should be entitled to such while also believing that society overall should not be arranged such that everyone has access (or even potential access) to these privileges.

Democrat: A person who lays their political allegiance with the Democratic party.

Republican: A person who lays their political allegiance with the Republican party.

A person who isn’t a US citizen can’t really be a Democrat or Republican. It doesn’t make sense.

Neither Democrats nor Republicans can be Leftists, since the stated values of those political parties are inconsistent with the values of Justice, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging. Some people who identify as Democrats may hold some of the above values, but their allegiance to the Democratic party undercuts their ability to do so with integrity to those values.

Woke: “Woke” is a sort of pejorative term used to refer to people who have learned some things about society’s systems and are overly ego-attached to a particular frame of reference or lens for viewing those systems.

Fascist: A Fascist is a person who holds Power as the highest value. This may manifest in “governmental fascism” where the person believes the Government should have Power and work through manifestation of that power. This may also manifest in “corporate fascism” where the person believes that Corporations should have Power and work through that power.

A person cannot be a Leftist and a Fascist because one cannot simultaneously and consistently hold Justice and Power as highest values.

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In my opinion, the most common misconception in this milieu of terms is the conflation of “Leftist” and “Progressive.” One does not have to be Progressive to be Leftist and one does not have to be Leftist to be Progressive.

Leftism is about a value-orientation.
Progressivism is about a time- and change-orientation.

For instance, I would argue that pro-Indigenous Leftists are sometimes not Progressive since they may be actively trying to bolster existing Indigenous peoples, cultural ways, etc. which is, in the lexicon above, a Conservative stance.

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“Horseshoe Theory”: The idea that “if you go far enough Left or Right you end up at Fascism.”

I believe that this theory functions through the conflation of Progressivism and Leftism, described above.

I believe it is entirely true that if one is “too Progressive” one ends up being Fascist. Why? Because Progressivism necessarily requires a desired end-goal, and being “too Progressive” means that one holds a strong and bold end goal as their motivation. The only way to get to a specific end-goal is through manifestation of Power.

Similarly, if one is “too Conservative” one ends up being Fascist. This is for much the same reason — if one has too specific/well-defined enough of an idea of ways society should stay the same they will only be able to achieve this goal through manifestation of Power.

The same can obviously be said of being “too Reactionary.”

Leftism holds Justice as its highest value, it is not oriented intrinsically to a specific set of objectives or outcomes.

However, Leftists must act. And, when they do, they employ Power. However, as soon as they begin to value Power above Justice, they are de facto no longer Leftists.

This can be very confusing, because it’s possible that a person starts out as a Leftist, begins organizing, accrues (say) popularity, becomes enamored with that popularity and the Power/Privilege it entails, and ceases to be a Leftist.

When I see people “go out the Left” what I generally see is people who are loosely attached to Leftist values or who pretend to hold Leftist values and get dragged into a specific progressive, conservative, or reactionary form which has a superficial resemblance to Leftist values but which ultimately subverts Justice to Power.

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The main reason that I wanted to write about this is that I think that “Horseshoe Theory” scares people away from Leftism. When I think about all of the Leftists I know I think about healthcare workers, therapists, farmers, people who work for community good, create gardens, stand in solidarity with unhoused people, etc. When I was working on eviction defense for the folks at Wood Street Commons in West Oakland all of the people who showed up to help the unhoused folks were Leftists.

The idea that somehow becoming involved in unhoused justice and solidarity will lead people to become Fascist is bonkers.

Please don’t let “Horseshoe Theory” dissuade you from becoming involved in one of the many wholesome, humble, Justice-oriented Leftist organizations which are doing so much good at every level: local, state, national, global.

Please continue to manifest Power in service of Justice and Love.

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Whoever you are, I hope you find this helpful. I dedicate whatever merit may arise from the reading of this to the Liberation of all beings. I dedicate whatever merit may arise from the discussions we may have on these topics to the Liberation of all beings. Blessed be and much love to you.

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bigsley
bigsley

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