eihwaz
Posts: 367
Joined: 10/6/2008 Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: juliaoceania ... got me to wondering what you think Far Left and Far Right mean. They get thrown around here a lot. The terms also get associated in a negative way with "crazy" thinking, as if the only "rational" way to think is mainstream. [...] My main questions are, how do you identify? Do you think it is insulting to be labelled far left or far right? And why? My notion of "far left" and "far right" is of people who are unwilling to think independently or critically, who accept whole some worldview and narrative full of myths, legends, certainties, slogans, shibboleths, canards, and sound bites. They're unwilling to think independently or critically. I suspect that many "far leftists" and "far rightists" (or "far lefties" and "far righties" if you will) are really authoritarians at heart. Occasionally I encounter someone considered far whatever who has actually thought hard about their beliefs and positions, and continues to do so. A person like that can be worth having a conversation with. Many of my views would probably be considered "left" or even "far left" (depending on who's doing the considering, I guess) but others are rather more moderate or maybe even conservative. I don't find it insulting to be categorized as left (or right), I'd just prefer not to be, as I don't particularly identify with those categories. (The absolute worst are those "you liberals" conversations.)
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