That meme is hard to believe when the "center" has to spend every waking minute destroying the left and cozying up to the right.
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EU election
- Thread starter Satinavian
- Start date
The centre does not inherently owe left or right anything. It will triangulate to pick up the softer elements of left and right as it needs to win power. If the left were stronger, it would therefore move leftwards. But in most European countries, the left is weaker. And then there are also all those leftists who show unremitting hostility and contempt for any concessions to the centre: what's the point bothering to appeal to such people?
I mean, you're talking about Macron attacking the left, but Macron's actions in calling the snap election are a direct attempt to stymie the far right. Nevertheless, he's still got to defend his left flank, so there will be criticisms going that way too.
The "concessions" are appeals for genocide and other core planks. And let's not forget the criticism leftward is to directly parrot far right points.
Mass murder in a country 1000+ miles away is not that high on most voters' concerns. A party that prioritises that over domestic issues of jobs, public services, rights and freedoms is a party embracing the electoral wilderness. (Plus of course that where voters can sit on these issues can reflect a whole host of other complications in domestic politics, and that's certainly the case in France.)
And of course, it was this precisely this issue that split the last left alliance in France. They're only reluctantly getting back together again because of the threat that the far right is going to take over the government.
For all the antisemitism of the French far right over the years, modern French antisemitism and in particular the vast surge recently overwhelmingly comes from demographic groups that the French hard left draws heavily from. Against which the reaction of the far left's leaders can be suprisingly ambivalent.
How about threats against and assaults on Jews, damage to synagogues and Jewish cemetaries, and so on?
Most of us don't have any problem describing Israel's killing of ~40,000 Palestinians (and starvation of more) as mass murder, but on the other hand we don't have any problem decribing Hamas's murder of hundreds of Israel civilians as mass murder, either. The latter is not always true of the hard left: and if they are going to leave an open goal, they can expect their opponents to kick balls at it.
I think such sections on the left are troublesome and should be held in contempt. It got to the point that you even had some sections of the left refuse to help prevent a Trump presidency even after they became aware of what such a presidency would bring.
On the other hand I do understand the reflex. The left has been making concessions ever since the Reagan era and it hasn't gotten them anywhere. If anything their embrace of neoliberalism has been the case of long term decline and crisis. The traditional left wing voter base in Europe often felt betrayed after the left wing parties started enacting right wing policies and many haven't returned to the left since.
Not that I'm wanting to compare Trump to Hitler, but that's also actually how Hitler got into power. The far left declared they'd rather the nazis win than have to see the republic continue.
Much like Hitler before you, you've inappropriately blamed communists to serve your own agenda.
The left had been betrayed by the centrists who were ok with them being killed by the right (Freikorps), mind. And IIRC, they didn't state they'd prefer the Nazis won, just that they refused to work with the centrists.
Which, in retrospect allowed the Nazis to win, yes.
Where? I went looking for these instances of leftists attacking Jews in France. I found a synagogue that was damaged by a fire, by an Algerian man who had been denied citizenship in France. Don't think the left is courting his vote. I found a Dutch cemetery that had been defaced, but with absolutely no messages or suspects, so who knows who did it or why, so that can't be called a problem with the left. I found a couple cases of assault, but with details so scant it can't be said who or why the assaults happened.
The lawbreaking that can be absolutely conclusively ascribed to the left has been... protests. Ones police put down by saying they're violent, and I've seen what police call "violent protests", and I'm willing to bet that is not the case. Jewish groups are saying there's a sudden spike in antisemitism since October, but they call "criticizing Israel" an antisemitic hate crime, so I'm not particularly inclined to believe that's anything to think about. I admit to not doing a super deep analysis and that I could have missed something, but looking for genuine instances of leftists committing antisemitic crimes is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and speaks to how much of a non-issue it actually is.
Unless you want to court the far-right and give them political oxygen at a time where they're ascendant.
Hmm, not quite. The KPD and SPD refused to cooperate despite earning a larger combined voteshare than the Nazis, that's true.
But which party actually invited the Nazis into power? Zentrum, the centrist party. Which party formed state-level coalitions with the Nazis? DNVP, the conservative-monarchist party.
You can say the socialists and communists failed to put together an effective opposition to the Nazis. Fine. But it was the conservatives and centrists that actively abetted the Nazis.
They preferred the Nazis, expecting to cause a revolutionary crisis to destroy the republic and allow them to start anew.
Communist Party of Germany - Wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org
Check your facts.
Not really seeing how anything there contradicts me. I recognised the foolishness of their infighting and refusal to work together. The fact remains that it was the Centrist and conservative parties that actively enabled the Nazis to take political power.
That is very much like trying to avoid seeing a wood by looking very hard at individual trees.
Whether leftists have carried out their attacks is a moot point. France as a whole has an increasing antisemitism problem. The response of elements of the French hard left is at best a calculated ambiguity, as it does appear willing to cynically sacrifice criticism of antisemitism in order to scrape votes from elements of the French electorate. Some of these elements do have high levels of antisemitism. If it wishes to cynically dance around condemning attacks on Jews to court votes and downplay the antisemitism that Jews face, it can suck up accusations of antisemitism... and deserve them.
you're going to have to elaborate, since you said very similar things about Labour under Corbyn and that was completely manufactured bullshit.
>Religious zealots and ultra right nationalists attack Jews
>This is the left's fault
I don't see it. I can see why the left isn't out there saying the sky is falling though. The entire point of crying antisemitism at everything is to not talk about what Israel is doing. A blanket "antisemitism isn't alright" along with taking no antisemitic actions seems perfectly fine. Unless the center "left" feels threatened again and cynically weaponizes the far right narrative that total support of Israel is the only path forward. The UK did this and got several years of Tory rule. The left in France seems the most organized, so it'll be fun watching Macron sink it just to win Le Pen.
The hard left has always and still does contain its own cadre of cynical, malignant shits who would sell out a lot of the values they say they believe in for power. If you don't see it then it's because you don't want to.
No, I don't see it because the left speaks out against antisemitism and does not take antisemitic actions, by and large. For sure, it's not the political wing with the antisemitism problem. And you haven't shown any antisemitism problem with the left. Just a vague "Oh it's there, it's visible to EVERYONE", but no proof. Instead you too want to play into the far right, and give them power.
And later you'll act surprised when the far right holds political power when you've spent your energy boosting them.
It does indeed speak out against antisemitism. Yet there's a contingent that will minimise, entertain or excuse it (as well as other forms of bigotry) if the perpetrators align on other political questions.
D'you know who Raed Salah is? He's a hate preacher; claims European Jewish people make bread with the blood of Christian children, claimed that Jewish employees of the World Trade Centre were secretly told to stay home, says homosexuality is a "great crime", the full gamut of despicable shithead far-right rhetoric. Corbyn described him as an "important voice", "representing his people very well", and said he was "well deserving" of some tea on his terrace. When this was reported, Corbyn penned a piece in the Morning Star arguing that criticisms were "hysteria".
Or we have Nisar Malik, a candidate for George Galloway's old party, sharing content from David Duke, former 'grand wizard' of the KKK.
In France, there's been a 300% rise in antisemitic incidents in a few months, culminating in the rape of a 12-year-old just the other day. Yet Melenchon argues France experiences nothing but "vestigial" antisemitism. And recall Diane Abbott writing that Jewish people only experience the same level of prejudice as redheads?
This is minimisation & entertainment of antisemitism. I don't believe for a minute that Corbyn, Abbott or Melenchon are antisemitic: they have long careers of combatting racism. But they have a blind spot for the problematic areas of their own wing. They seemingly cannot comprehend that a significant race issue exists that isn't limited to the capitalist right.
(Galloway, who proudly describes himself as "social conservative", I wouldn't be surprised if he was just a bigot-- he's also a homophobe).