#rightism

[bymeraki]

Can ya’ll please start learning the difference between these political and ideological terms instead of using them all interchangeably. 🙏

Right-wing. Conservative. Republican. MAGA. They are not the same thing.

Left-wing. Leftist. Democrat. Liberal. Also not the same thing.

Right-wing and left-wing? These are broad ideological categories.

Republican and Democrat? These are political party affiliations, organizations with shifting platforms and internal divisions. They are not static; they evolve, fracture, realign.

Liberal and leftist? Two entirely different breeds of progressivism. Liberals seek incremental progress and reform within the system. Leftists push for systemic change and demand structural upheaval. One is mainstream, the other often at odds with it.

And yet, we throw these terms around carelessly, flattening them into caricatures, erasing distinctions that matter. Understanding the difference isn’t just semantics—it’s the foundation of meaningful discourse.

So, let’s break it down properly.

Right-Wing vs Republican vs MAGA vs Conservatism

• Right-Wing → An ideological category that favors tradition, limited government, free markets, national sovereignty, and law-and-order policies. It ranges from moderate conservatism to far-right nationalism or authoritarian beliefs.

• Republican → A political party in the U.S. Historically supports lower taxes, deregulation, strong national defense, and conservative social values. While most Republicans lean right-wing, the party includes a mix of moderates, establishment conservatives, and hardline factions.

• MAGA (Make America Great Again) → A political movement associated with Donald Trump. While aligned with the Republican Party, MAGA is distinct in its focus on nationalism, populism, strict immigration policies, and “America First” economics. It prioritizes anti-globalism, anti-establishment politics, and opposition to progressive social movements. Not all Republicans are MAGA, and not all MAGA are republicans—some libertarians and independents also support Trump.

• Conservatism → A broad philosophy that generally promotes traditional values, free-market capitalism, personal responsibility, and skepticism of government overreach. In the U.S., conservatism aligns with the Republican Party but also isn’t limited to it—some libertarians and independents hold conservative beliefs. Conservatism can encompass a range of views, from moderate to more traditional stances. It’s important to note that while some people within these groups may express close-minded views, many others hold conservative beliefs without resorting to prejudice or hatred. They advocate for respecting others’ rights and emphasize values such as individual responsibility and freedom.

Left-Wing vs Leftist vs Democrat vs Liberalism vs Wokeness/Wokeism

• Left-Wing → An ideological category that advocates for social equality, government intervention in the economy, progressive taxation, and civil rights. The left wing spans moderate liberals, social democrats, democratic socialists, and far-left movements like Marxism or anarchism.

• Leftist → A term for more radical progressives who advocate for major structural changes beyond what mainstream Democrats support. This includes democratic socialists, Marxists, anti-capitalists, and anarchists.

• Democrat → A political party in the U.S. Historically supports labor rights, social welfare programs, progressive taxation, and civil rights protections. The party includes centrists, moderates, liberals, and progressives, meaning not all Democrats are leftist, and not all leftists are Democrats. Many leftists criticize the Democratic Party for being too moderate, corporate-friendly, or reformist instead of revolutionary.

• Liberalism → In the U.S., “liberal” refers to center-left beliefs that emphasize personal freedoms, civil rights, and government intervention to promote social welfare. However, in a global context, classical liberalism refers to a philosophy that favors free markets, individual rights, and limited government—which in the U.S. would be closer to libertarianism. Again, not all liberals are Democrats, and not all Democrats are liberal.

• Wokeness/Wokeism → A term that originally referred to social awareness, particularly regarding issues of racial and social justice. It comes from the idea of being “awake” or aware of systemic inequalities, discrimination, and oppression. Initially used in Black activist circles to mean being alert to racial injustices and civil rights issues. Later expanded to include awareness of gender, LGBTQ+ rights, economic inequality, and other social justice causes. In recent years, “woke” has been used as a pejorative, especially by conservatives and right-wing critics, to describe what they see as overreach, performative activism, or extreme political correctness.

[potatojerboa]

I’m sharing this random picture of a baby possum I found on Pinterest, but I’ve added a bunch of political tags so that people can put their political opinions aside and unite over this possum.

[caitlinclarkdimpleslover22]

Caitlin Clark is the most polarizing figure in sports without being problematic. It's so weird and sad😟

[curiositysavesthecat]

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[odiabonecessario]

Whenever I'm among leftists I sound like a right-wind extremist

Whenever I'm among rightists I sound like a left-wind extremist

Seriously, wtf

[thesillygoosecompany1]

Crazy how far right guys are like “OMFG UR ALL STUCK IN YOUR OWN ECHO CHAMBER OF LIES AND GAYNESS” but like, so are you? That’s how social media works???

[punksforchrist]

Liberal coward. Imagine leaving a hate message and having your messages turned off, lol. This is what the libs are about, folks! Calling people they disagree with slurs with no repercussions for their actions. If I did this, I'd be canceled within seconds. But when they do it, it's "justice." I have never once used foal language in any posts. Let alone any slurs towards people. But libs love to call Republicans slurs and curse words 24/7. This is what the Liberal Party stands for. Hate and slurs.

[grassam]

So, we do we go from here?

[cullenssweatyballsakk]

People make mistakes and say unsavory things. It happens. Its part of life. If you expect everyone to be absolutely perfect, everyone will fall short.

Cancelling someone who has one distasteful video or take is counterproductive at best and just downright stupid at worst.

It gets even worse when reasonable people are cancelled over small things, when they would have taken criticism/correction very well and actually learned from that moment.

Since some of you niggas continue to be intentionally dense, let me spell this shit out.

A child points out that someone's teeth are very yellow.

Their parents beat the shit out of them for the small offense, and do not explain why they beat the shit out of the child.

The child is confused, as they point out the colors of things they see during their day with their parents all the time. That person's teeth just happened to be yellow and they pointed out what they saw, not understanding that it may hurt the other person's feelings.

Instead of pulling the child aside, explaining as to why what they said was not appropriate, and moving on, the situation was blown out of proportion over something small and/or harmless.

Children are naturally very intuitive, and most children would learn from that and not do it again.

Now replace children with one singular person and the parents with the general public.

When you explain things and communicate, things go a lot better. But if you crucify someone for saying something considered insensitive or unkind without giving them the chance to learn and grow, it becomes unproductive to the larger movement in question.

If I'm fighting for the right to be as I am, I don't give a fuck if the guy who's protesting next to me once said something somewhat right-leaning. If he's in my side, and genuinely has my back at that moment I DON'T CARE.

I can talk to him about that shit later. Persecuting him for it is actively taking away from the cause in question, and if anything, I've done more of a disservice to myself and the other of the cause.

Y'all got too used to screaming and wailing when someone did some shit you don't like. Some shit you have to let roll off of your back and you have to LET. IT. GO.

Stop compromising our fights over some people not being perfect. I'm not perfect. I'm a hypocrite. We all are in our own ways. Some shit you just have to get over and push on.

I've met some reasonable, easy to talk to, and even pleasant right wing people. I've met absolutely UNBEARABLE left wing people. I've also met unbearable conservatives and pleasant liberals.

Some of the most thought-provoking, eye opening and deep conversations I've ever had were in my own house with my uncle who is conservative leaning, and my mother who is more left-leaning but hates to be categorized by the left/right. I would consider myself to be quite radically on the left.

There were times when it was my uncle who was the most reasonable person out of all of us, and talking with them made me realize that everyone has their own set of valuable opinions which need to be considered. My uncle has said some things I wholeheartedly agree with, and my mother has said things I thought were absolutely bogus.

Both of them taught me that listening solely to your own views in an echo chamber is unproductive.

Please learn to keep focus on the actual issues instead of stupid non-issues that can be resolved at a later time.

[exxos-von-steamboldt]

(via WTF is the Left Even Doing? - YouTube)

It’s a bit of a scattershot and he’s too young to know better (a lot of these trends started in the 70′s and 80′s, not 2010) and the language falls into a rightest blind spot at times, but there are enough viable points made to consider in the rest of the mess.

[marthacrijns]

26 26 26

[curiositysavesthecat]

*This poll was submitted to us and we simply posted it so people could vote and discuss their opinions on the matter. If you’d like for us to ask the internet a question for you, feel free to drop the poll of your choice in our inbox and we’ll post them anonymously (for more info, please check our pinned post).

[some-douchey-techbro]

As much as I despise the Trump regime’s censorship, I’m loving this I-told-you-so moment against the Left. Social media platforms created policies against this kind of speech years ago after pressure from Leftists, but the policies were selectively enforced against the Right. Now the Left is getting a taste of its own medicine and equality feels like oppression. This is exactly what centrists and classical liberals like me were warning would happen back in 2014 when cancel culture originated - if you give authoritarians the power to suppress your enemy’s speech, they’ll later use it to suppress yours.

[odiabonecessario]

To me, it's both hilarious and depressing to see how the left seems to lack any awareness of what people actually think besides its own discourse

It's no surprise the right keeps getting more and more space despite not putting that much effort in propaganda, the left already do their part in claiming everyone who disagrees with any of its ideals and views as The Big Bad no matter if they'd be seen as part of an vulnerable group. People keep saying their reasons to not voting or supporting left and/or social movements, yet you don't take it seriously and still think you are the right ones while the whole rest is a bunch of bigoted privileged illiterate or even worse by claiming any individual from any minority group who don't support you is just "trying to fit". I don't even know what to say anymore to you

[furryrash]

The story of the art that was stolen by Christy Kitsune

An artist friend of mine (his account has now been deleted) wrote several years ago (this picture now become CC-00):

"I want to talk about an unpleasant situation related to my work. I recently created an image for Christy Kitsune (Christykitsune) and shared it in our community. Soon after, she decided to use the image as her profile picture, but refused to credit me when I asked. At first I thought it was a simple misunderstanding and asked her again. However, instead of correcting the situation, she openly stated that she would not credit me as the author because of my left-wing political views. I was shocked by this answer. The situation worsened when Christy began to actively discredit me in the community. She encouraged other members to not only ignore my requests, but also to openly attack me. As a result, I became the target of harassment and criticism from her supporters. For me, it was a bitter lesson about how some people can use their popularity and influence to manipulate and bully."

I think he would like his picture to be used by someone with socialist views. But not right-wing radicals like Christy.