United States | News & Politics

Leftist has existed for a lot longer than that, this is absurd. There have been communists and anarchists in the US for centuries, there's nothing intrinsically European about the term.

it was commonly understood as a European word meaning something similar to liberal but more extreme and more locally focused within their respective countries.

uh what? Also, all the western trots in shambles right now 😆

"Leftist" in 2000s Italy meant either a) communist or socialist party outside the established Communist parties, also mostly excluded from parliamentary politics...or b) lifestyle progressive in the extended network of 'a', also understood as "lite center-left". There is no way to quantify the "amount of Left" since these two meanings of the word are in opposite directions.

Understanding this in terms of US politics is a lost cause. This is the only correct response so far:

As for the US, it actually uses the term "liberal" correctly, the US just has thoroughly shut out the left to the point that liberal is the farthest "left" mainstream discourse is traditionally allowed to go.

Different culture, different meaning. But if I had to, I would say that "b" above is the one introduced by the American far-right into the political discourse.

I've identified as a Leftist since ~2007. Well before Trump entered the American Zeitgeist..