For me, being leftist means fighting against injustice and inequality but, most of all, we want to live well.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I do not consider a liberal necessarily to be a leftist.
Leftists' meanness toward those with whom they differ has no echo on the normative right.
To understand the Left, one must understand that in its view the greatest evil is material inequality. The Left is more troubled by economic inequality than by evil as humanity has generally understood the term.
I don't view myself as a political leftie. I view myself as a storyteller who is fair to both sides.
Therefore the vast majority of the people who affirm leftist beliefs think of their views as the only way to properly think about life.
Like normal people, leftists now have to get up in the morning and earn a living, seeing as the fascists have come down so hard on social welfare fraud, and this is the cruel reality. The good old days are gone, and increasingly, leftists are to be found working in ordinary, proper jobs.
Ending poverty calls for humility, honesty, freedom from ideology and refusal to accept cruel simplicities about anyone's human potential. It requires listening to the wisdom and cutting the nonsense from both the Right and the Left.
Liberalism is assisting quality of life, whatever you may choose.
The Left likes to think of itself as the bulwark of progressive liberal individualism, and yet it seeks to progressively coerce others to fund every social program under the sun via majority rule.
Even though I'm a leftist. I think the left eats its own.