MovieChat Forums > Politics > Political leanings?

Political leanings?

posted 8 years ago by JigsawX (265)
22 replies | jump to latest

Hey all, I was just wondering, if you were comfortable saying so, what your political leanings are. I've no interest in arguing over policy, I'm just curious as to what types of people we have here.

Undoubtedly, some may try and start arguments, which I've no intention to engage in, but hey, if that's your thing, go at it.

As far as I'm concerned, I consider myself a far-leftist. The terms "progressive" and "socialist" are what I most commonly use. Related, I voted third party across the board last election (including a vote for a Libertarian), and plan to do so from now on.

Anyhow, I'm interested in what other people consider themselves.

Hope this finds all well.

[–] Kawada_Kira (7282) 8 years ago

My politics are communist.

You and I are probably the only leftists on this board. The IMDb politics board was extremely right-wing, and so far the moviechat politics board is very right-wing too, as most of its posters migrated from the board on IMDb.

[–] JigsawX (265) 8 years ago

Interesting. I know I saw some anti-Trump posts, but I think it's fair to guess most of those are by mere liberals/mainstream Democratic supporters. I had no idea, though, that the politics board was heavily leaning one direction - I never got on the politics board back on IMDb, so I must have been blissfully ignorant. :p

Thanks for the reply.

[–] Kawada_Kira (7282) 8 years ago

Most of the reasonable people got driven off the board on IMDb over the years. There were a couple progressive-minded people, a couple of Greens and the like, but they were few and far between by the end. The majority of the posters were Republicans, plus some Democrats. I'm not counting the troll accounts that probably comprised half the board.

Anyway hopefully this one will turn out better.

[–] Bubbathegut (18054) 8 years ago

the boards were anti obama when he was president and now they are anti trump. sadly all the hillary will win posts have been bumped off or didn't make the transition.

[–] Bubbathegut (18054) 8 years ago

imdb politics boards were actually extremely left wing, 9 out of 10 posts were anti trump

[–] Kawada_Kira (7282) 8 years ago

Anti-Trump isn't "extremely left-wing", and I recall most of the posts being pro-Trump or at least generally in the spirit of Trump's politics (for example, every third or fourth thread was an Islamophobic hate-fest).

[–] Bubbathegut (18054) 8 years ago

the majority of those threads were people mocking them cause they were 100% sure hillary would win, we never got to see holiday hobo cut off his left nut.

[–] JigsawX (265) 8 years ago

That is an important note - plenty of mainstream Clinton supporters were anti-Trump, and exactly none of those people are "extremely left-wing."

As a progressive, I was anti-Trump, but I was also extremely anti-Clinton, so there are important distinctions there.

[–] Kawada_Kira (7282) 8 years ago

Indeed. There are a surprising number of people who literally can't grasp the concept that there's a wider range of opinion in the world than the absurdly narrow spectrum of Democrats and Republicans. Such differences as exist between those parties are mainly those of personality contests, or some petty disagreement over the specific strategy for how to exploit and bomb the whole world. Clinton herself is very right-wing, well to the right of Nixon and i'd argue even to the right of Reagan. There is no left in the Dem-Repub game; the choice is between right-wing and more right-wing. Being "to the left" of the Republicans certainly doesn't mean being leftist.

The whole problem in the US is that it doesn't have a strong, well-organized left, it hasn't since the days of McCarthyism (with the exception of the brief explosion of mass movement politics in the 1960s), and therefore there is no meaningful challenge to the establishment from below. As a result, the ruling parties have been allowed to constantly move further and further to the right, unchecked by any actual leftist pressure, for the last 50 years. The lack of a left is why this country is in such a miserable state. And pretending that the neoliberal corporate puppets and militaristic imperialists of the Democratic Party are "left" only perpetuates this problem.

[–] JigsawX (265) 8 years ago

Completely agree. If I may ask, did you vote in 2016, and if so, who for? Obviously, you need not answer, but I'm always curious as to who, if I may use this term, "actual leftists" voted for.

I wrote-in Jill Stein myself, though if I could go back in time, I'd have written in Monica Moorehead (of the Workers World Party) instead. As far as I know, she didn't get a single write-in in my state, and if I could have been the sole voter of her, well, that would have been unique.

I know other leftists got behind candidates like Alyson Kennedy, Bradford Lyttle, Jerry White, Mimi Soltysik (who I could have voted for, but didn't due to personal reasons), Gloria La Riva, and Jeff Mackler (from the Socialist Action - he technically ran a write-in campaign, but got only 15 votes in New York).

Like I said, you need not answer, I'm just always curious about that type of thing.

[–] Kawada_Kira (7282) 8 years ago

I voted for Jill Stein. I was actually more inclined to Gloria La Riva, but it was looking like the Greens might make a good showing and I wanted to contribute to that. Stein's results were actually great by Green Party standards (more votes than the Greens got in their previous three presidential campaigns combined), but still kind of disappointing compared to what I was hoping for.

I was hoping she'd get 5% of the vote, to make the Greens eligible for federal funding in the next election. That's the main reason I voted for her. But she only got 1.06% (again, great by Green standards, but still). I had been thinking that, with the Dem and Repub candidates both being as atrocious and unlikable as they were (polls showed that Clinton and Trump were the two least-trusted presidential candidates in the history of US election polling), 2016 would be a good year for third parties. And it was, in a way. But it wasn't enough to get them over the threshold.

If I could go back, i'd vote for La Riva. I doubt i'll be voting Green again in the future, as I have a number of issues with the Green Party (only one of which is their narrow electoral focus at the expense of building an actual movement in the streets... they handicap themselves with that, and would probably do a lot better in elections if they'd do more stuff between election years). I'm also not that crazy about Stein herself, though I do really like Ajamu Baraka, her VP candidate whom I already knew to be a Marxist and whose writings on Black Agenda Report I was familiar with. Putting him on the ticket really sweetened the deal for me. But in the future i'll probably go PSL, or Workers World Party, something in that range.

[–] JigsawX (265) 8 years ago

Quite interesting.

In my state of Indiana, Jill Stein got 625 write-in votes back in 2012. In 2016, while still a write-in, she got 7,841 votes, so you can see a definite increase (but as you said, still not enough to push the Green Party anywhere near 5% nationally).

Even though 2016 seemed ripe for a third party success, the fear tactics and "lesser of two evils" argument was coming strong from both sides. I personally know progressives who said that they'd not vote for Clinton, but when it came to election day, faltered and voted for her anyway, as they were "scared of Trump."

So the two-party system won again, and based off the reaction of the Democratic Party (who are mainly blaming Clinton's loss not due to her atrocious centrist/right-wing policies but to Russia), that won't soon change.

La Riva wasn't a choice for me - Stein, Soltysik, and Moorehead were the only leftist choices I could have written in. I liked Moorehead's platform - it was strongly anti-capitalist, and I respected that. Personally, I don't know the policy differences between La Riva and Moorehead (I didn't much research La Riva as she wasn't a choice for me), but I do know she's a solid choice. Really, any of the eight leftists I mentioned would have been acceptable (though Lyttle certainly has problems). Hell, I would have voted for three of the six candidates who ran in the Democratic primary (Sanders, Chafee, and Lessig, in that order).

Anyhow, thanks for the reply - I'm sure we'll have interesting conversations in the future given our moderately similar viewpoints. Hope this finds you well.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (436) 8 years ago

Well I agree with 95%+ of what Paul Joseph Watson say, so make up your own mind of what I am. I'm honestly not sure if it's safe to refer to myself as anything because the next day some lunatic is gonna coin that term for himself like Richard Spencer did with 'alt right'....

[–] JigsawX (265) 8 years ago

Truth be told, I'm not even sure what label to put on Alex Jones, so I certainly don't know what label to give to Watson. From what I've seen of Watson (which, I admit, is little), they seem in the same vein.

I do wonder, if Richard Spencer's use of the term "alt-right" is, as you see it, incorrect to it's original intent, what would you consider Spencer? Legitimately curious - not asking in order to disagree with you or anything.

[–] Sandoz (2021) 8 years ago

"...if Richard Spencer's use of the term "alt-right" is, as you see it, incorrect to it's original intent, what would you consider Spencer? "

Greedy Hate-mongering Crackpots seems to be an ideal and accurate label for them.

[–] EricCartmanBrah (436) 8 years ago

Richard Spencer is obviously a white supremacist. Not sure if it's appropriate to call him a neo nazi because that word has been trivialized to the extreme and there are way too many variables to take in to account. For instance many self declared neo nazis don't like Anders Breivik because they see him as a Jew supporting terrorist.

Oh and 'alt right' originally was very similar to being a right wing populist.

[–] Hans-Wilhelm (1356) 8 years ago

Conservative.

Political speakers that I share a lot of views with are (maybe not on everything but many things)

Dinesh D'souza, Bill O'Reilly, Ben Shapiro and Dennis Prager.

[–] CactusPants (363) 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Hans-Wilhelm (1356) 8 years ago

Tweet...tweet.

[–] Bubbathegut (18054) 8 years ago

cut that nut Hobo!

[–] 00 (74) 8 years ago

I am a centrist

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 8 years ago

Conservative.

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