Far left - US/UK definition

It seems to me that you are confusing the "collective" with the "cooperative".The left emphasizes pooling our resources for the common good - "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need".That's not a submission of individual freedom - it's an equalization of individual freedom.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Actually, as a leftist commie pinko, I agree for the most part with Steve's description of the left. But this is a debate forum, not a Mutual Admiration Society - so we tend to focus on areas of disagreement.Now, if I may venture dangerously close to the topic:It seems to me that most of the media are owned by rich people - e.g. Conrad Black in Canada. Is it your impression, or that of CanadianSteve, that rich people tend to be leftist?

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

So, how's that working out for you? Any poor people left in the world? Any industrial accidents?

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

As I said, it is not an "inverse loss of power for the individual" but an equalizatation of power for all individuals.The rich and powerful have more individual freedom than the poor and weak. Donald Trump can fly his private jet anywhere in the world - I have to fly Air Canada."Government regulation" is an attempt to keep the gap from getting too big.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

All I know about Ted Turner is that he colourized the movies. Could you give some examples of his left-leaning pronouncements, etc.?

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Which is why I asked for examples of Ted Turner's leftist leanings.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Thanks for the information, Faith.If I may remind you, Bobbins started the topic by asking what is considered "far left" in the US and why the Manchester Guardian would be considered "far left".I suggested that media owners are more likely to be right-wing, because of their economic status. You countered that Ted Turner is both very rich and very left-wing. Which is why I asked you to clarify what about him is left-wing. I think that is very much on topic (and a very unusual place for me to be ).If you want to stay out of a discussion, maybe you should stay out at the beginning instead of the middle. -------------I don't know much about Fox News, either. (You Americans are soooo parochial, aren't you? ) But, as far as I can tell, it's just the right-wing calling the center "left-wing". I see nothing "outrageous" in your references to Turner, and not much that is even "left-leaning".

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Yeah, that's sort of what I was getting at. It isn't very enlightening to say that Turner is "left of Faith" and "right of me". We get a clearer perspective if we compare him to society as a whole. Unfortunately, we can't seem to agree on what "left" means in terms of ideas.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Actually, this discussion would never happen among Canadians. We discuss specific issues and/or policies - usually with reference to the political parties' official stances.Abstract labels such as "left" or "right" seldom come up.That's why it amuses me when Americans try to "categorize" issues in terms of left and right. I may never convince you that my leftist ideas are "right", but maybe you'll eventually understand that the labels are meaningless.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Exactly. As I have said, no "objective description" of left or right is possible.When I say "left of Faith", I mean what you have described as "leftist", not anything objective. Again, those terms can not be defined objectively. I was referring to what Chiroptera and I both perceive the ideas of "society as a whole" to be. If I had been talking to you, I would not have suggested that we were in agreement. Thank you. Coming from you, I take that as a great compliment.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Think again. The OP says:

quote:

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What is far left as defined in the US?

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"As defined in the US" is subjective. The whole point of this thread is about the subjective differences between "left" and "right" between the US and the rest of the world.(As for who has what to contribute - as always, I leave that assessment to the intelligent members of the board. )

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

My point is that we (in Canada) don't use left/right labels as "organizing principles". The only "organizing principles" that we use, as a rule, are specific policies on specific issues.I suspect that the same may be true in the UK, etc.The two-party system in the US seems to lend itself to "conservative Democrats" and "liberal Republicans". That sort of thing doesn't happen in Canada (and the UK?) because our representatives are (generally) required to vote the party line.Because there is only a blurry distinction between the two parties, I think Americans have set up an artificial distinction between "left" and "right" which nobody can really define.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

I certainly don't "realize" that. It is highly debatable, but even I can see that it doesn't belong in this topic.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

As I said upstream somewhere, the left aims to equalize - i.e. to make the poor less poor. Saskatchewan, the most left-wing province, is still one of the best places to be poor in Canada. Would those be the same 80's that virtually destroyed the Conservative Party in Canada and literally destroyed the Conservative Party in Saskatchewan? Funny. Saskatchewan's economy crashed and burned until we got rid of the Conservative Party. Our grandchildren will still be paying off the debt they ran up.

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.

Saskatchewan decreased poverty.(Admittedly, not exactly a "nation". )

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People who think they have all the answers usually don't understand the questions.