There is a lot of recurring debate in the comments repeatedly about who is a leftist, especially pertaining to subcontinental politics.
Rather than aim this post at a specific country or an individual, I would like to give some general thoughts regarding this.
Firstly, what is a leftist? This is the Wikipedia definition.
Left-wing politics or leftism is the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole
So you can say that democracy is a very leftist idea as it achieves a semblance of “social equality”. No matter how rich or poor you are, no matter your gender/race/caste/creed, you get one vote which counts the same as everyone else’s.
Similarly equal rights for all is also a very leftist idea as it aims for “social equality”. Of course, in real life it is not so clear cut because certain groups do have advantages over other groups due to historical reasons. But having equal rights “on paper” is at least a start towards leftist utopia. If you don’t have that at all, then equality is a non starter.
Continue reading You cannot be a leftist if you support fundamentally illiberal positions
