Calling “Die Linke” far-left is imho, frankly, insane. Upwards of 80% of their positions are virtually the same ones the SPD had back in the few decades of them being actually moderately left under Willy Brandt. If you want far-left, that’s the MLPD.
Just because every other major party keeps moving further and further to the right doesn’t magically make the only moderate-left wing party far-left.
And for clarification: Left vs right is the political axis of the economic class struggle. It’s neither liberal vs illiberal nor progressive vs conservative.
In Germany this is especially entertaining: Die Linke are literally the only political party with seats in the Bundestag who don’t think mass murdering of children is totally acceptable as long as the murderers belong to a good race and the children to a bad race.
Even the German Greens hold that view that the race of a person is more important than their actual actions in determining the moral acceptability of what they do, to such an extreme level that even mass murdering of children becomes acceptable if one is a Jew.
So calling Die Linke far-left is pretty much an admission that, at least for these people, in Germany NOT holding the same views of the value of human life and the importance of race as the NAZIs held, is an “extremist” position.
I like to think that the basic principle of being Leftwing is “the greater good for the greatest number” and you will notice that there’s no qualifications there about some deserving more good things than others.
You will also observe that Equality is invariably a concern of Leftwing political ideologies, even if they diverge in for example thinking that we should aim for Equality Of Outcomes vs thinking we should aim for Equality Of Opportunity instead because the former isn’t actually possible.
IMHO, being a Humanitarian naturally follows from wanting to maximize the wellness of everybody in an equal way.
In summary, people who are genuinelly leftwing out of principle (so, those who reached their leftwing political views from their own personal principles, not tose who are tribalist followers of leftwing parties or ideologies that merelly parrot “their” team’s slogans) are Humanists in practice - in what they desire and what they do - even when not explicitly identifying as Humanists.
Calling “Die Linke” far-left is imho, frankly, insane. Upwards of 80% of their positions are virtually the same ones the SPD had back in the few decades of them being actually moderately left under Willy Brandt. If you want far-left, that’s the MLPD.
Just because every other major party keeps moving further and further to the right doesn’t magically make the only moderate-left wing party far-left.
And for clarification: Left vs right is the political axis of the economic class struggle. It’s neither liberal vs illiberal nor progressive vs conservative.
In Germany this is especially entertaining: Die Linke are literally the only political party with seats in the Bundestag who don’t think mass murdering of children is totally acceptable as long as the murderers belong to a good race and the children to a bad race.
Even the German Greens hold that view that the race of a person is more important than their actual actions in determining the moral acceptability of what they do, to such an extreme level that even mass murdering of children becomes acceptable if one is a Jew.
So calling Die Linke far-left is pretty much an admission that, at least for these people, in Germany NOT holding the same views of the value of human life and the importance of race as the NAZIs held, is an “extremist” position.
Are leftists humanitarian?
I like to think that the basic principle of being Leftwing is “the greater good for the greatest number” and you will notice that there’s no qualifications there about some deserving more good things than others.
You will also observe that Equality is invariably a concern of Leftwing political ideologies, even if they diverge in for example thinking that we should aim for Equality Of Outcomes vs thinking we should aim for Equality Of Opportunity instead because the former isn’t actually possible.
IMHO, being a Humanitarian naturally follows from wanting to maximize the wellness of everybody in an equal way.
In summary, people who are genuinelly leftwing out of principle (so, those who reached their leftwing political views from their own personal principles, not tose who are tribalist followers of leftwing parties or ideologies that merelly parrot “their” team’s slogans) are Humanists in practice - in what they desire and what they do - even when not explicitly identifying as Humanists.
I can never not read this as “My Little Pony Deutschland”.
Better than the Major/Minor League Police Department that my brain came up with