To wonder what is so bad about being a 'lefty'?

[imwithspud]

I see it all the time during political discussions on social media. That if you hold certain views you are branded a 'lefty' or 'loony left' like its some sort of insult. I've noticed that it tends to be a stock response by some people when they can't think of something more intelligent to say.

Aibu to wonder what is so 'loony' about holding left wing views, and that actually the world would be a better place if people were more tolerant?

It seems like to some you can only be a socialist if you aren't considered rich? Unless I've massively missed the point there

It's just an easy way to score a cheap point against anybody who is left leaning. Well off? You hypocrite. Poor? You're just voting for your own interests, aren't you? You can't win.

I suppose, on the contrary, that if you're right leaning, the equivalent would be; Well off? Definitely not a hypocrite then just an exploitative parasite. Poor? Well, nobody could accuse you of voting in your own interests, could they?! .

I have been called a loony leftie, an anarchist, a communist, you name it. Daisy I disagree. My life is dedicated to promoting social equality. I've chosen it as a career and I regularly attend rallies, support charities, etc. I also like going out for expensive cocktails now and again. Being left wing doesn't mean you have to live like a pauper. To me it's about having empathy and doing your bit, whatever that may be.

Oly5 Fri 16-Sep-16 14:34:49

I'm wealthy but v left wing. Why do I have to be poor to champion views of tolerance, and to wish for a universal healthcare and social security system that genuinely look after those in need?
So what if I had Bupa? Can't I still wish and campaign for better provisions for people who are less well off?

This^ OK, I'm not wealthy but I'm too painfully aware that even those in a currently comfortable position are often only an illness or accident away from their lives becoming very different.

Lefty lefty married to a lefty lefty, here.

I don't have a problem with those who have money being socialist as long as they are empathic too some
seem to think it goes hand in hand it doesn't.

What I can't abide is the mc socialist that tell the working class what is better for them and that isn't apparently the trappings they have had that had made their life more comfortable and allowed them to largely choose their career, where they live and gives them more opportunities in the life

I agree we are not well off by any means but I'd like to think if we were I would still hold the same views and beliefs that I have now and I would hate to be told I couldn't express them just because I'm well off.

If anything people like J.K Rowling expressing their views would have more influence due to her position as a household name than me or you. Which depending on your position is either a good or a bad thing.

it usually gets flung at me when people are losing an argument

I am a lefy, a dogooder and a wishy washy liberal - I care not

I work in the public sector, my kids go to the local comp and I happily pay taxes - I also occasionally ready The Guardian

I am such a stereotype

To me it has more sinister connotations. Israel-hating, anti Semitic, Islamist apologists; helping to chip away at free speech.

^^ Yes is this not more of the so called "regressive left" rather than looney left.

The far left is as bad if not indeed far far worse than the far right after all.

Indeed it can be argued Hitler was a socialist. Looney left is a softer epithet but actually there are sinister scary core to it.

And at what income level is someone considered a 'champagne' socialist rather than a common or garden one? JK Rowling is well-known for her socialist tendencies, but pays her taxes and uses her position to talk about important social issues. Shall we all despise her because she has money? Does having money mean she should STFU about everything?

There has been a spat between her and certain Corbyn supporters because she doesn't think he is the best thing since sliced bread.

Some of the troiling she has had (along with the usual 'Blairite' 'red labour' and join the Tories' jibes) has been disgraceful.

I work in the public sector, my kids go to the local comp and I happily pay taxes - I also occasionally ready The Guardian

so, so do millions of tory - swing voters?!

Being left wing doesn't mean you have to live like a pauper. To me it's about having empathy and doing your bit, whatever that may be.

^^ hate to break it to you but you wont this find this behavior the sole preserve of the left by any means. I wouldn't say it was the preserve of the left at all in fact but in general good people.

Left wing/liberals in my experience have been the least tolerant people I have known. And lefties use right wing/conservative as an insult more than right wing people use liberal as an insult.

But really it's just both sides using each other's descriptions as insults. neither side is wrong, people are just different.

Humid You can't win

Just trying to break some of the accusations of being hypocrites - I don't think I ever claimed they where exclusive preserves of 'lefties'

"or got them into fancy state schools,"

Is a 'fancy state school' what a good comprehensive is called by Tories?

Like comprehensives are either 'bog standard', or 'crap' or 'sink' and if they're not any of these things and are actually good schools which turn out high achieving children, they're 'fancy' or 'leafy'.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with being a lefty. Being written off as a champagne socialist or loony lefty or is really no kind of insult to worry about - only very poorly informed and unimaginative individuals without an original bone in their body resort to that sort of name-calling nowadays.

Be lefty and be proud!

"or got them into fancy state schools,"

Is a 'fancy state school' what a good comprehensive is called by Tories?

Like comprehensives are either 'bog standard', or 'crap' or 'sink' and if they're not any of these things and are actually good schools which turn out high achieving children, they're 'fancy' or 'leafy'.

Surely it's possible to empathise with those who are less well off and to want everyone to have the opportunity to have a decent standard of living regardless of your background?

The thing about left wing politics is that it's the well off who fund a decent standard of living for the less well off.
So, if you have left wing views, it's not unreasonable to expect you to reduce your own standard of living in order to significantly change someone else's.

My own experience of the left wing is that of intolerance. I've been derided as 'an embarrassment to women' for being a Tory. Never mind the fact that I'm campaigning for women's equality in politics - apparently, politics would be better off if I didn't exist

Oh, and I'm left handed, so that theory is disproved

"What I can't abide is the mc socialist that tell the working class what is better for them and that isn't apparently the trappings they have had that had made their life more comfortable and allowed them to largely choose their career, where they live and gives them more opportunities in the life"

Are you referring to m/c people who are against grammar schools and private schools?

That'll be me then.

Not telling you what to do of course, just saying that I think selective schools and private schools undermine any claims this country might make to be a meritocracy of offer its children equality of opportunity.

Or are you talking about the rights of successful w/c people to own second homes and pay the people who work for them less than the minimum wage?

"is that it's the well off who fund a decent standard of living for the less well off."

Not the profits of industry staffed by people mostly working for quite shitty pay?

Most revenue doesn't come from income tax or from NIC.

Yes I am

What so many mc socialists don't get is that wc people want the opportunities to have these choices

And why would someone from a working class background who is able to afford a second home employ people and pay them less than a minimum wage or could we not possibly treat people

treat people that might work for us with dignity

So, if you have left wing views, it's not unreasonable to expect you to reduce your own standard of living in order to significantly change someone else's

Or maybe ask why the money the Government take in could be better spent elsewhere?

The Government takes in a lot of our money. I bet that there are different ways it could be spent - and that people who are left wing / right wing might have different views.

My living standards could stay exactly the same - but the way the Government spends taxpayers money could significantly change someone else's.

Personally I don't think we should be spending billions on a nuclear weapons system. I think that the money could be better spent elsewhere - schools, the NHS, preventing people getting to the NHS, housing etc - all things that could make people's lives better. Does that make me a lefty?

The Government still takes my taxes. It just spends them differently.

"Never mind the fact that I'm campaigning for women's equality in politics"

Don't bother.

Why not just campaign for better rights for part time workers, people in low paid jobs, public sector jobs, and on zero hours contract. Also for a big increase in affordable housing.

The things which have really disempowered women and made their lives intolerable have been poor pay, having no rights at work and insecure and unaffordable housing, all things which have been made worse by Tory policies and austerity which have DISPROPORTIONATELY hurt women and impoverished them.

We don't need more women like Theresa May and various other career politicians who don't give a shit about the lives of ordinary women because they have fuck all in common with any of them.

The terms are outdated. No-one really knows what left or right really means any more. It is just an insult along with the equivalent right-wing insults.

Is it left wing or right wing to support share ownership by staff?

Is it left wing to "leave the NHS resources for those who need them" and go private. Or right wing because I "leave the poor to the NHS and its troubles while I use my ill-gotten money to pay for treatment that you can't have"???)

Is it left wing to encourage mass immigration?("Yes" it is inclusive and liberal but "no" as it exploits immigrants as cheap labour. "Yes" it means you are not racist. "No" it benefits the rich and screws the poor)

"What so many mc socialists don't get is that wc people want the opportunities to have these choices"

Of course they get it.

That doesn't mean that they have to support policies which disadvantage the majority of children to benefit the few.

I am a full blown leftie, despite my Tory upbringing. But I think most lefties don't help themselves with their perpetual, virtue signalling circle jerk that goes on and on. Actually do something. Don't just insult people by calling them a racist bigot as that shuts down a conversation, and no-one rethinks their position just because someone insults them.