Stalinists are not leftists. They’re just conservatives cosplaying as leftists, and if you know anything about the actual history of conservatism (not the “respecting traditions” kind), them calling anyone they don’t like a “liberal” makes much more sense…
There are at least two major axis in politics: the Left-Right axis and the Freedom-Authoritarianism axis.
It might not seem so for people who grew up and live in subverted Democracies with Mathematically-rigged voting systems to enforce Power Duopolies (not as bad as Dictatorship but not actually having Free Choice) because they’ve grown up immersed in the “Two Sides” propaganda framing where all political and social subjects are portrayed as only ever having two possible options rather than the multitude of options that pretty much all human affairs have, so they naturally have a perception of politics that collapses everything into just this one line with two ends.
Stalin was Left + Authoritarian, same as the Communist Party in China.
In Europe there are Leftwing parties which are Left + Freedom such as Social Democrat parties.
In the US there’s only Right + Authoritarian and Right + Center (Democrats do have some Authoritarian tendecies, as seen in the continued militarization of police under them, their crack down on Occupy Wall Street and their reaction to the anti-Genocide movement in Universities, so I hesitate in considering them to be on the Freedom size of that political axis, but they’re definitelly nowhere as Authoritarian as Republicans).
Stalinists are not leftists. They’re just conservatives cosplaying as leftists, and if you know anything about the actual history of conservatism (not the “respecting traditions” kind), them calling anyone they don’t like a “liberal” makes much more sense…
There are at least two major axis in politics: the Left-Right axis and the Freedom-Authoritarianism axis.
It might not seem so for people who grew up and live in subverted Democracies with Mathematically-rigged voting systems to enforce Power Duopolies (not as bad as Dictatorship but not actually having Free Choice) because they’ve grown up immersed in the “Two Sides” propaganda framing where all political and social subjects are portrayed as only ever having two possible options rather than the multitude of options that pretty much all human affairs have, so they naturally have a perception of politics that collapses everything into just this one line with two ends.
Stalin was Left + Authoritarian, same as the Communist Party in China.
In Europe there are Leftwing parties which are Left + Freedom such as Social Democrat parties.
In the US there’s only Right + Authoritarian and Right + Center (Democrats do have some Authoritarian tendecies, as seen in the continued militarization of police under them, their crack down on Occupy Wall Street and their reaction to the anti-Genocide movement in Universities, so I hesitate in considering them to be on the Freedom size of that political axis, but they’re definitelly nowhere as Authoritarian as Republicans).