I keep hearing people say that the far-left is significantly less organised, more fragmented than the far-right. Why is that? (And to be clear: I’m asking about the far-left, not just the left in general (though they may be linked)
Obligatory:
Because, contrary to what they say, a lot of leftists are intolerant of opinions that differ from their own. A lot of them have a black-white mentality, where either you are 100% with them or otherwise you are against them and might as well be Hitler incarnate. They live in extreme bubbles which just enforces this behaviour. You can see this very well in some subreddits and also here on Lemmy, since Lemmy is very left leaning.
In german we have this saying:
“Treffen sich 2 Linke, bilden sich drei Splittergruppen”
“Two leftists meet, 3 splintergroups are formed”.
One reason is that people on the left are more inclined to disagree with each other, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and accepted as part of the political process. You figure things out by voicing differing opinions and reaching some kind of middle ground. There’s room for disagreement on the left.
People on the right (fascists in America) are more likely to do what they are told by their “superiors” and fall in line. Differing opinions, or lifestyles, are not readily tolerated and you will be excommunicated if you push the accepted boundaries too much.
You can say a lot of negative things about fascism, and you should, but fascists tend to have a lot of solidarity as long as they toe the line. That is, until the critical breaking point, which is usually everyone that isn’t a fascist realizing they actually have to deal with the fascist threat, at which point the fascists start collapsing because you have to be stupid to be fascist so fascism can’t really stand up against a united front against it.
Real-world problems are complex. Every solution to one problem affects other systems in unpredictable ways. When a large group of people agree on a solution, it is usually because it is simplistic and wrong.
Classic example: prices are high. The left blames actual scarcity, corporate greed, climate change, institutional problems. Any solution that might address high prices will be complex and will have side effects. This will cause people to disagree.
On the right, some jerkwad like Trump says “prices are high because of immigration - specifically, the immigration of brown people.” The solution is ICE! Simple, easy to understand, dead wrong. Everyone on the right cheers!!!
In other words: people hear what they want to, an easy scapegoat answer.
Yeah. It has happened over and over. For Hitler, it was the Jews: they cost Germany the war, they are the root of all social problems, etc. It is almost always some minority like immigrants or trans people. Scapegoats unify, complexity divides.
That’s an interesting point. I’ll definitely be more wary of scapegoat answers now.
Basically the “no-true Scotsman” fallacy. It was kind of the same way with libertarians. Some people would unironically argue that if you weren’t in support of allowing someone to own a nuclear warhead recreationally then you “weren’t a REAL libertarian” and should stfu. Then libertarians tried running for president and got like .9% of the vote.
Right-wing people embrace hierarchy. Left-wing people don’t.
Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line.
Mostly agent provocateurs.
Because they’re legitimately crazy. The far right is obviously insane as well, but in a different way.
The far left has a snowflake mentality, every individual person has to be special in some way. This causes a same general “side” but because of them all being “special” in some way, it’s limited.
The far right has the mentality of they’re all cheering for the exact same football team. They’re a mass of identical people at a football game all cheering together. It’s typically called a tribe mentality. Because of those they have a singular goal and not a “I’m special” mentality.
That’s why the ar right person asks you who you voted for and you say Kamala they have a temper tantrum. They are so into a person they’ve never met, never will meet or know nothing about them personally, but to them it’s like their team going to the super bowl intensity. So they assume you must have the exact same intensity for who you voted for. When in reality, I think Kamala was dog shit too, but I’m not voting Trump.
This veers dangerously close to the horseshoe analogy…
Because we are trying to make sense, not just to be convincing.
On the process divergences may appear.
The far right only have to organise around a handful of simplistic ideas. They talk in tabloid headlines. Smear shit and hope the millionaire fash send money your way. It’s as easy as flipping hamburgers.
The left have to deal with the complexities of reality. They need to talk with stakeholders and learn from specialists in a given subject at a given time. They are limited by language that can express the complexity of our societies and what makes them run well.
I’m not saying that’s the full explanation, but it’s inherently harder to organise something more complex and creative. It’s easier to organise a dirty protest.
I was at a Moral Mondays protest in Raleigh NC a while back and someone with a bullhorn called out “What do we want?!”
And the crowd yelled back, all at once:
“Racial justice!”
“Marriage equality!”
“Immigration reform!”
“Police reform!”
“Impeach Trump!”
“Close Guantanamo!”
“Better pay for teachers!”
…and a bunch of other demands too many to understand in a crowd that large, and while I knew I was with the right people, I had a sinking feeling about our chances of achieving much of anything.
That sounds like an exceptionally unplanned rally, or the wrong person had the bullhorn. But we have to start somewhere so well done all.
The far right is funded by deep pockets and is not attacked by the establishment Republicans.
If the Democratic Party establishment would see the left as an asset rather than a threat then things might change.
Well, that’s the thing about the Democratic Party. They actually aren’t left of center. They are performatively left on a few social issues when it’s convenient.
The Democratic Party is at left as it can be without touching underlying capitalist structure, which is to say, it is not properly left at all.
The whole principle of right wing thought is strict vertical hierarchies. For their moral flaws, strict vertical hierarchies are a pretty efficient way to organize the average person. The whole principle of left wing thought is flattened, distributed hierarchies. For their moral virtues, decentralized flat hierarchies are pretty slow to organize. It’s a lot simpler to fall in behind an authority figure than participate in never ending sub-sub-subcommittees.
It’s hard to unify around a course of action when your whole thing is incorporating diverse perspectives and rejecting centralization. I’m not saying it’s not the right thing to do, it is, but it presents inherent challenges.
In other words, taking differing opinions into account and building things is hard. Deferring to what a “superior” is telling you is easy.
The blind believe in 1 strong man at the top and a clear strict hierarchy are key ideas within far right ideology. It’s easier to organise the right, but it’s also easier for the right to en masse follow the crazy dumb ideas of that leader. Left organising from grassroots up is a lot harder, but in theory better.
Lack of money; lack of charismatic central leadership.
Occupy Wallstreet tried to be cute with the mic check thing but needed an MLK like figure.
Doesn’t help that large money from the right is willing to play dirty and continuously drive wedges and stoke division.
The far right is like ICE. Anybody is welcome. Far left is not like that.
The far right is like ICE. Anybody is welcome.
I guess “anybody” doesn’t include immigrants or LGBTQ+.
If they were trying to join their side they would be.
Kind of ironic given the right are the ones always trying to close borders, etc.
And persecute LGBTQ+.
Because the left is diverse, and they’re also peaceful, productive members of society by and large. You have to be a real piece of shit to get good, peaceful, diverse people to unite together to give a strong and militant response
Conservatives are already living in echo chambers, and they thrive off group think, and they’re too stupid to really understand the risks of what they’re doing or how dangerous it is to the country. All you have to do is let a few of them get away with it, and that will embolden the rest.
Conservatives grow up living in fear and self suppression, and they think that’s the natural state that everyone should be in.
