Inside the mind of a Far-Lefter

Faint of heart be warned

from JoeUser Forums
In my last article, I revealed that I am a former extremist. In fact, if you looked hard enough, you could find an extremist post or two from me. Fortunately, I was not too far gone, and reasonable thinking and this site pulled me back from the far left (and that is my debt to Joeuser).
That brief time of being extremist will probably affect my opinion forever, and I will always feel sympathy for the ones still there. Maybe I can help them, just a little, by showing you what goes on up there.So now, for the first time ever (to my knowledge), I shall reveal the mind of a liberal extremist.
Declassified:The Extremist Files
When I was there, I had no doubt I was right. There was a black and white, but I could not see the gray. I figured that everyone who disagreed was just an idiot blinded by Republicans. I thought people would respond to my 'honesty' and think of me well. It was never that I refused to see the truth, or that I ignored it, I truly could not see it. No matter how many times my views were crushed in debates, I thought I had proven my point. I thought that, no matter what I did, only what I thought was right, could be.

Merely a brief look into the mind. I dont think I will delve much deeper, unless enough people really want to know (which I doubt). The important thing is, do not bring your hatred upon extremists, bring your pity.

It is never that they won't, it's that they can't.
politics
10,437 views 25 replies
Reply #1 from JoeUser Forums Top
I would like to hear more. I don't really understand those who don't see the middle, or the opposite. I was raised to put myself in other peoples shoes, and try to understand them, your insite would mean a lot to me.
Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I am on the far-left. Well, in Canadian terms, I would be just on the left, but in American terms, waaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyy over on the looney lefty side (our center is closer to your left). I will most likely NEVER vote for the Conservative Party, because I disagree with them on way too many issues, and probably vote NDP every time (or maybe Liberal if they had a REALLY good candidate). I try to see the other side, I really do. But, we can never look at things objectively. We always look at them from our own frame of reference (my side being the liberal atheist with libertarian socialist tendencies (please don't make me explain it, just let me use "far left")), and cannot see the other person's frame of reference. So I take an issue, say gay marriage. I look at my side: Our Charter of Rights and Freedoms prevents discrimination against certain groups (I'm pretty sure sexual orientation is included in either it, or a subsequent piece of legislation). I personally have no problem with 2 gay people marrying, why should I? Is it any of my business? Let them marry. Now I try to look at it from the other side. They oppose gay marriage because...(keep in mind that I'm in unexplored territory here)...um...something in the Bible? But we have separation of church and state. The government shouldn't be legalizing religion, they shouldn't be in people's bedrooms...(me drawing a blank)...I guess they have to be brainwashed jesus freaks. I just can't see it from my reference point, plus I disagree, which makes me think that the only explanation is that they are dumb and/or brainwashed jesus freaks. Especially when religion gets involved, because I'm an atheist and don't know too much about Christianity, or any other major religions beyond a few tidbits.

I won't change my opinions to become more moderate, and I won't be ashamed to be called a liberal, because I believe what I believe, from gay marriage to universal health care to marijuana legalization. I guess part of why people like me who are far on one side (and proud of it) find it harder to see the other side because the other side is further away, and obscured by the fog of your own opinions and frame of reference. Now add the fact that most people tend to cluster around the middle, I guess I am noticed more, because there are a lot more people that I disagree with, or are just way too far apart to ever find common ground.

And no matter how badly you were crushed in a debate, you think you won because A: you think the other guy is full of crap and just plain wrong, or B: you (like most people) have a tendency to want to hear yourself talk (especially when it comes to politics) and not listen so much (or just want the other guy to shut up). Case in point: Bush and a lot of Republicans thought he won the first debate.

It is simply damn near impossible to be able to analyze an issue objectively, because you need a frame of reference. And all of ours are different.
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Reply #3 from JoeUser Forums Top
you (like most people) have a tendency to want to hear yourself talk (especially when it comes to politics) and not listen so much (or just want the other guy to shut up).


Nah...this is mostly a Left-wing thing. You're all full of yourselves and enough hot air to kept a balloonists festival aloft.
Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Right winger you are talking out your arse. You are the person most guilty of this of anyone on the Left Right Centre whatever you want
Reply #5 from JoeUser Forums Top
Right winger you are talking out your arse. You are the person most guilty of this of anyone on the Left Right Centre whatever you want


Champas, you are wrong. There are a few others who also like to express their arse side and ignorance around here.

Latour, you are right. It's a frame of reference thing. I know, because only by posting to JU do I really see it. I will never, ever understand the extreme right. Nor, do I ever want to succumb to what I percieve, from my frame of reference, as their hatefulness, yes hatefulness, and their selfishness. Lots of hate and selfishness. For instance:

Let the gays burn in hell. We'll pass laws to prevent them from ever having equal rights, then protray them as people who want special rights, so others will hate them too.

Let the poorest of the poor fend for themselves, even if they don't have two nickels to rub together, a roof over their heads, health care, or whatever to do the fending. Screw 'em.

Pay for a government that just sweeps issues under the rug, cuz it cannot and does not want to be exposed to these things.

Non Christians be damned. We're 85% of this country, so if we wanna play our religious songs, and hang our religious stuff in public places, fuck the rest of you.

Don't tax me to pay for others' sufferings, even if and reguardless of the fact that suffering is usually not of one's making. The suffering are not my problem.

Let's ignore that Rwanda, for example, had a horrific bloodbath recently, wherein one group slaughtered the other, but let's get that despot, Saddam, even though we spent billions propping him up in the first place, regardless that thousands of lives will be lost and their country will be in total ruins. After all, Iraq has oil. Rwanda doesn't.

When we rebuild the country we have just destroyed, don't let the natives have any of the contracts to rebuild. Don't let other nations have any of the contracts to rebuild. We'll give the contracts only to American firms who we deem are capable of fixing the mess we created, and we'll pay them quite handsomely. So what that they loose millions of dollars, or their CEO's are connected to our administration. The lefties will portray it as war profiteering, but we will repay the firms who gave us the money and power handsomely as they paid us.

Let's allow industries to pollute and pollute. Make the taxpayers pay for the cleanup. If there aren't enough tax revenues, well then, do't clean it. But, let's not make the industries pay for their own cleanup. That would cut into their profits. And, they give us a big chunk of their profits.

Let's allow the pharaceutical companies to set inflated prices on drugs, and make people pay those profits. Let's not let them get their drugs from any other country, because that would cut into pharm's profits. And, they give us a big chunk of their profits.

Let's do away with the rights of patients to make their crappy doctors pay for their mistakes. Just tell people that the reason that health care is so high is because of the patients whose lives where changed forever, or lost completely, because they and their families just want some restitution for those lousy doctors. We'll cap patients rights and doctors' responsibilities and people will just buy the lies if we just keep feeding it to them. That way, they won't realize that the true costs of health care are government give aways to pharmaceutical and health care companies. Just deflect the blame so those companies will continue to give us big chunks of their profits.

Let's pass a law, call it the "Patriot Act", thereby labeling anyone who contests it as unpatriotic. Let's diminish the Constitution in the name of fighting terror, even though those diminutions won't do squat to fight terror. But, it will give us a lot more power to see who is with us and who is agin' us. We'll deal with those agin us as we see fit.

OK, that's just a few of my issues. There isn't a lot of middle ground here, unless the extremist righties move toward the center. We lefties just want our country to exhibit some humanity again. Some common decency and fairness. We just want to no longer be protrayed as lunatics, thereby increasing public animosity against us. We just want people to stop being so hateful and selfish, and return to values that will benefit EVERYONE. We are a social species. We have to take care of EVERYONE. We have to educate, protect, provide health care, and housing and food, basic human rights, to everyone. That's my perspective. I'm not an extremist lunatic. I am not an anarchist. I don't advocate communism or fascism. I just want people to have the ability to live lives with dignity and self respect.





Reply #6 from JoeUser Forums Top

Right winger you are talking out your arse. You are the person most guilty of this of anyone on the Left Right Centre whatever you want

No, he is talking truth.  We on the right do listen, and disagree.  But we listen.  The left?  For that check out Dabe's post.  ya think she would ever hear a word not spoken by her gods?  me thinks not.

Reply #7 from JoeUser Forums Top

Let the gays burn in hell. We'll pass laws to prevent them from ever having equal rights, then protray them as people who want special rights, so others will hate them too.

This is as far as I got before I just puked!  Try citing instances (You can quote Jerry falwell if you want, but I am talking mainstream, not extreme) of this behaviour.  I think the Log cabin Republicans would ban you as a heretic.  But that is just me.

Do you even ever listen to right leaning people?  Or do you just follow the mantra of your napoleonic leaders and beleive every piece of trash they tell you! (4 feet are good, 2 feet are better!  bleat after me).

Reply #8 from JoeUser Forums Top
BTW, NJ.  Great post!  I will have to put you on my must read list! You get a very interesting from me!
Reply #9 from JoeUser Forums Top
Thanks. And nice Animal Farm reference. But I believe they didnt say the are, just "4 feet good, 2 feet better!"
Reply #10 from JoeUser Forums Top
Right winger you are talking out your arse. You are the person most guilty of this of anyone on the Left Right Centre whatever you want


I have no problem with people having opinions of their own and expressing them. However, if I see something I don't agree with, I'll take issue with it. You libs are just so arrogant and sure of yourselves, and your positions, that you absolutely hate it when a cons comes along punches holes in your ego. What I live for is when some of your more smug libs on here try to show your superior intelligence and some cons refutes everything you say with a different, stronger perspective or facts and figures. So many times the lib just ignores us and/or stops replying. You know what that means? It means we won the debate.

I mean come on, if you don't like having your ideas challenged and don't want to argue, don't post, you know?
Reply #11 from JoeUser Forums Top
NJF: Great post. Glad to have you on our side. I look forward to reading stuff from you in the future
Reply #12 from JoeUser Forums Top
Rightwinger: Do you mean to say that NJF is on the right? That would be preposterous. I know him personally, and yes, his days of extremism were a very scary time indeed. I once thought I leaned a bit to the conservative side. A little wrong, I was. Just a little.

And nice post, NJ. Gets an interesting.
Reply #13 from JoeUser Forums Top
But I believe they didnt say the are, just "4 feet good, 2 feet better!"


That is in fact correct.
Reply #14 from JoeUser Forums Top
But I believe they didnt say the are, just "4 feet good, 2 feet better!"


That is in fact correct.
Reply #15 from JoeUser Forums Top

Rightwinger: Do you mean to say that NJF is on the right? That would be preposterous. I know him personally, and yes, his days of extremism were a very scary time indeed. I once thought I leaned a bit to the conservative side. A little wrong, I was. Just a little.

And nice post, NJ. Gets an interesting.
----TheFazz

I can at least hope for him, can't I?

He may still be liberal, but that's okay, if he's learned to listen to other positions and at least consider their validity. Too many libs are as he says he was...so sure of their own trees that they can't see the rest of the forest.

JoeUser.com: the 12-step program for recovering liberals.

Step1: Admit you have a problem.......
Reply #16 from JoeUser Forums Top
Right winger you are talking out your arse. You are the person most guilty of this of anyone on the Left Right Centre whatever you want

No, he is talking truth. We on the right do listen, and disagree. But we listen. The left? For that check out Dabe's post. ya think she would ever hear a word not spoken by her gods? me thinks not.


My God! Ya know, to be hold a political opinion I'd expect at least a fragment of intellectual discussion but it seems that politics on Joe User is always reduced to bickering from both sides that make sweeping generalizations about the other. Neither of these so-called "sides" speak for me. I wonder just how many of you spitting this rhetoric back and forth just complain about things and don't actually do anything. How many are actually involved in any sort of political or community action?

-suspeckted
Reply #17 from JoeUser Forums Top
How many are actually involved in any sort of political or community action?


Politcal, probably not a whole lot.....that's why we ELECT people to do it for us.

Community? Probably quite a few, if they have time left over from earning a living, much of which they're required to pay back in taxes, thanks to the tax-happy Democrats......oh, sorry. That was a sweeping generalization, wasn't it?
Reply #18 from JoeUser Forums Top
hehe

you are all a bunch of jackasses

so am I

that's all you need to know about the mind of an "extremist"
Reply #19 from JoeUser Forums Top
that's all you need to know about the mind of an "extremist"
---Myrrander

Hmm.....then that would make you an extreme jackass, wouldn't it?

WELL!! At least he finally owns up to it!!
Reply #20 from JoeUser Forums Top
Fazz: An interesting from YOU!? You enjoyed something I wrote!? This must have been an amazing article! Though I have to say I didn't really expect/want it to degenerate into a Right/Left bashing party. But what was I thinking, it's Joeuser!

Rightwinger: Me? Right wing? Don't make me laugh! I may be more moderate but I'm certainly still a liberal.

Suspeckted: I agree, even when I was still extremist I got a little sick of the Right/Left stuff here.
Reply #21 from PolMach Forums Top
Though I have to say I didn't really expect/want it to degenerate into a Right/Left bashing party.


I would agree. The original post was very good, NJ. At first it was a serious look into why people on the edges of the poitical spectrum have trouble seeing through the eyes of people on the other edge. I offered my thoughts as a far-lefter, then I almost vomited when people (Rightwinger) twisted my words into a liberal bash, and it went downhill from there. There goes all of what's left in civility down the crapper.
Reply #22 from JoeUser Forums Top
Thank you Latour, that was my intent. Personally I'm sick of all the Righ/Left crap we get around here, so please, just this once, can we discuss the article and not why the Right sucks/why the Left is evil?
Reply #23 from JoeUser Forums Top
Politcal, probably not a whole lot.....that's why we ELECT people to do it for us. Community? Probably quite a few, if they have time left over from earning a living, much of which they're required to pay back in taxes, thanks to the tax-happy Democrats......oh, sorry. That was a sweeping generalization, wasn't it?


Listen Rightwingy - I work 48 hours a week at three jobs and I still find time to volunteer with my community/political group and various school events...and I'm not a parent.

suspeckted

PS - I also make under $25000 a year, and I'm not a democrat.
Reply #24 from JoeUser Forums Top
Hey NJ,

just thought I'd properly check out your site after your kind comments on mine.

You write some good stuff, you should post more often. I'd like to hear the story of how you became an extremist and what made you change your mind.
Reply #25 from JoeUser Forums Top
Just kidding, NJF....."more moderate" is better than a blockhead in any direction. Glad you were saved from the eternal damnation of extremism, though. Just keeping an open mind is the best you can do; I try, but sometimes it's hard.

Suspeckted: Good for you. I was just saying, is all..... I mean, I have to work a lot, too, 70-75 hours a week at two jobs (and strangely I'm still a conservative Hm....). I wish I could be more active, but I can't. No time.