• IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Mamdani would be like a center left politician in Europe. I guess for most Americans anything slightly to the left of a Hillary Clinton is the limit of the left spectrum.

    • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Anything that isn’t a total leninist commie is “center left”. I love it! You guys are so funny it’s sad. Once again, the left proving is exclusively good at one thing and one thing only: purity testing the left.

      Also, I live in Europe. Mamdani is a boiler plate leftist here. Nothing you said is true.

      The word “left” is extremely fluid on Lemmy, it seems. When Mamdani is campaigning, it’s a big tent word and Mamdani is definitely on the team. After the campaign, when the purity testing begins, “left” has strict leninist parameters in must adhere to. It’s fun, isn’t it

    • huey_m@reddthat.com
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      2 days ago

      Ehhh, this isn’t half as true as it used to be (lived on both sides of the Atlantic extensively, am currently in central Europe). The majority of Europe is as firmly neoliberal as America is ideologically. We have a more robust welfare state, and some of us have some better labor laws, but the core ideals of neoliberalism rule nearly the entire subcontinent with real, old school socialist parties (that are actually still holding socialist views) don’t really have any more power than they do in the US. They get a bit more just by virtue of parliamentary systems, but their actual size and influence is almost non existent in most countries here.

      • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Europe is in decline. It used to have people much to the left of Mamdani who implemented the socialist policies, but neoliberalism has been slowly eroding all of Europe and it is turning into the USA.

        That is why Mamdani is now center-left in Europe. In the past he would just be a centrist or even center-right with his current policies. Everything is relative.

        Compare Mamdani for example to Mechelon in France and Mamdani is clearly far to his right.

        • huey_m@reddthat.com
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          2 days ago

          Well yes, but that’s my point, this trend has been global since the 80’s with Reagan and Thatcher. Continental Europe held out longer, but even here it pretty much rules the day. A lot of Americans have a very, very misinformed view of what politics here look like thinking it much more to the left, and that just hasn’t been the case for arguably a few decades. There’s a few issues we’re even to the right of Americans on. Sure, there are some holdouts, but not many that have impacted politics much in recent history.

          • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Of course but the argument is that Mamdani is nowhere near the edge of leftism. Politicians with far more leftist policies than him have existed and succesfully implemented many. It is not a mythical pipe dream.

            • huey_m@reddthat.com
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              1 day ago

              Definitely agree with that. I’d say he’s near the edge of politicians currently in an actual elected position in the US, but that’s about as far as it goes. Even in the US, there have been politicians further left in power historically. Absolutely no pipe dream.

              • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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                18 hours ago

                Who was more far left than Mamdani in the last two decades? Can you give an example?

                • huey_m@reddthat.com
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                  18 hours ago

                  “Historically” being the key word here… the political landscape of America, and frankly the western world, changed after the 80’s shift to neoliberalism via Reagan and Thatcher.

                  • TheFonz@lemmy.world
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                    13 hours ago

                    Ok. That’s a nice analysis to have for the history books. The US electorate can’t remember what happened 6 mos ago. Can we take this win with Mamdani? Can we take this one win please? Can we not purge him yet? Is that ok? I understand he’s not the perfect leftist. I get it. Can we just take this and work with it?