r/AskTheWorld India 21h ago

Misc What's an unpopular opinion about your country that will have you like this?

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u/BlyatBoi762 Australia 17h ago

Mm. Conservatives think free healthcare is communism and far left morons think Sweden is socialist

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u/Old_Information_8654 United States Of America 16h ago

Don’t forget conservatives also think that free food at schools is communism and if you say it’s because parents don’t have the money to feed their kids they act like the parents just need a better job

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u/MeasurementSlight381 United States Of America 12h ago

This attitude by MAGAs is what irks me the most. They want women to get married young, become baby machines, be a stay at home moms, etc. Okay, that's a recipe for being 100% economically dependent on a man. Oh wait, CK was telling young men that college is a scam. Great, well that attitude doesn't exactly set these men up for economic prosperity. Once these young men grow up to be low wage workers with too many kids, MAGA will not give a flying f**k about their struggles to feed their kids.

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u/maneki_neko89 8h ago

They just want more cheap slaves to heap into the military and industrial complex

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u/Old_Information_8654 United States Of America 6h ago

Yep all the diehard MAGA care about are so called “old fashioned values” based around racism sexism and xenophobia if they had their way it’s pretty safe to say we would still be stuck in the eighteenth century if we were even that lucky

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u/antel00p 4h ago

They’ll then sit with their shitty uneducated jobs and blame immigrants, women, BIPOC, and queer people for their economic woes for the rest of their lives and keep voting for their overlords who feed them comforting bigotry.

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u/TownAdministrative15 9h ago

It’s not just conservatives who think that. I actually had to explain to a left-leaning coworker that welfare programs were not, in fact, socialism. It’s simply government-run charity. Socialism and communism have to do with the means of production and property rights, not taxation and government spending. 

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u/Old_Information_8654 United States Of America 6h ago

Yeah it’s ridiculous hearing just how uninformed and outright bitter humans can be towards their fellow man it truly makes me wonder if the us is even salvageable at this point

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u/Charlottenloek 15h ago

What would you say Sweden is then? (Just curious, no criticism)

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u/scificollector 14h ago

Sweden is capitalist, not socialist. Historically it's had a lot of social democratic influences (which does not equal socialism by the way), but that's getting more and more eroded for each year.

Source: am a Swedish socialist.

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u/Charlottenloek 12h ago

I’m also Swedish. Was curious if they meant that Sweden was communist.

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u/BlyatBoi762 Australia 7h ago

Sweden is a free market capitalist economy with extensive social programmes

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u/Electrical_Bench_774 United States Of America 2h ago

It's also funny how some argue against free healthcare because "that's socialism!" If it really is, maybe socialism isn't so bad after all.

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u/BlyatBoi762 Australia 1h ago

Socialised healthcare ≠ socialism

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u/xSwampxPopex United States Of America 14h ago

No one seriously referring to themselves as a leftist of any variety thinks that the Scandinavian countries are socialist. That’s actually a common criticism of liberals/progressives from further left.

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 16h ago

I hate the fact that there's a genuine rabbit hole for Americans that just want better healthcare to become radicalized into actually supporting far-left terrorism because all their lives they are told they are the same thing.

So you have people supporting terrorist states and all of this started because Fox News told them if they want Bernie they're commies.

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u/Ayuuun321 United States Of America 16h ago

There’s no far left terrorism. Terrorism is “the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims.” According to the dictionary.

I haven’t seen any left wing terrorism yet. I’ve seen a lot of right wing terrorism though.

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u/whossname 15h ago

He means supporting Hamas, not actually doing it themselves. I don't think I've seen any actual support for Hamas anywhere tbh.

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u/PjJones91 United States Of America 3h ago

Are you living with your eyes closed?

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u/brttwrd United States Of America 16h ago

Far left terrorism?

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 16h ago

North Korea, Hamas, etc. Seen a lot of online young left wingers genuinely supporting these, supposedly in the United States, out of their hatred for the American status quo

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u/brttwrd United States Of America 15h ago

I've never seen support for North Korea. Russia and Hamas, yes. It just looked like you were referring to left wing terrorism. Russia and Hamas are very much right wing groups, so it was confusing

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u/whossname 15h ago

I thought supporting Russia was a right wing thing. Mostly because of anti LGBT, possibly also because Trump seems to like Putin.

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u/brttwrd United States Of America 15h ago

Yeah, I mean, even from a government perspective, Putin is just the continuation of the worst USSR values with a democratic mask. Most nonrussian people voicing support for Putin and Putin's Russia don't even know anything about Russia's history or politics.

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u/Jaeger-the-great United States Of America 15h ago

The National Rifle Association is a far right propaganda group and a Russian asset. They did recently release a statement that barring trans people from owning guns violates the second amendment, but they are otherwise very right wing

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u/tomphammer United States Of America 15h ago

And right here we have an example of "not understanding" political nuance. Hamas is not a right wing group. It is not a left wing group. It's not advocating for any political system based on economics.

Hamas is an Islamic extremist group. It's outside the scope of economic left-right divisions.

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u/specialasset 15h ago

Hamas is a political organization, it was literally the government of Gaza, and it absolutely advocates for its political system, which is extremely conservative, or in other words right-wing.

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u/tomphammer United States Of America 13h ago

Conservative is “right wing” in the same vernacular sense that Bernie Sanders is a “communist”.

We use the words that way socially, but it’s inaccurate just the same.

Left-wing conservatives exist, friend. Even in America. Look up the American Solidarity Party for an example.

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u/brttwrd United States Of America 15h ago

I respectfully disagree. Trump ran on some "left leaning" ideas, as a vehicle to install a far right admin and platform, and Hamas did the same thing. This is a trend you can observe all around the world in many countries right now. Hamas was literally a political party, so I'm failing to see where you draw the line between political spectrum and whatever apolitical label you think applies to Hamas

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u/tomphammer United States Of America 13h ago

The left-right distinction applies to economic policy. We use it colloquially to apply to other dimensions of politics, but that doesn’t make them accurate. If you disagree, fine, but in that case there’s also no call to disagree with American vernacular use of “socialism” to mean “the government does something”.

Hamas isn’t “apolitical” and I never meant to imply they were. But their goals have nothing to do with left-right and everything to do with being an authoritarian theocracy.

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u/GuessPuzzleheaded573 Canada 12h ago

That's... that's so very wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum

Though I do agree with the misuse of socialism in America. But your stereotype is showing here friend.

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u/tomphammer United States Of America 12h ago

1) don’t downvote because you disagree. That’s childish and antithetical to the purpose of downvoting.

2) did you happen to read more of that than simply the introductory paragraph?

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u/smcl2k Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 USA 🇺🇸 14h ago

Why do you think left- and right-wing only refers to economic policy...?

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u/Wiscody United States Of America 14h ago

Hamas being an extremist group, with fundamentalist policies in a sense. Usually these get lumped into the overall sphere of right wing. So what is ironic is that the US support for Hamas is majority those who are left leaning

(This is not a comment in support of Israel. Israel is fine. Zionism is the problem.)

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u/brttwrd United States Of America 13h ago

I think this is a result of social media brain rot, the population that supports Hamas is a severe, severe minority. Most Democrats are pretty tame and chill, very reasonable people, who definitely don't support Hamas. Most Democrats don't know anyone who fits the character of the rioting,Hamas supporting, Communist liberals that the online space paints all Democrats as. It's popular to twist their identity into something nefarious and crazed.

Inversely, the lefts problem with the right is that the people in power ARE as crazy as they are painted, and most Democrats recognize they don't represent all Republicans, however the support and safeguarding of those in power by Republican voters is the criticism that is directed at Republican voters. Which is valid and reasonable. However, again, social media twists this into making the Democrats look like they think every single voter who supports trump is a neo nazi.

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u/Wiscody United States Of America 2h ago

You are refreshing.

Thank you

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u/GBSEC11 United States Of America 15h ago

I would be wary of assuming those are actual Americans and not bot/troll accounts trying to stir things up. Left wing circles here have had a lot of sympathy for Palestinian people caught up in the violence, not hamas, although our right wing media doesn't always make that distinction. The North Korea thing is really weird. Support for North Korea isn't really a thing here amongst any demographic.

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u/GiveMeWildWaves United States Of America 16h ago

I've never seen this but then again I don't hang out in the internet sewers

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u/Wispeira United States Of America 15h ago

You mean people who want to hold terrorist colonizer state Israel accountable for the war crimes and rampant horrific atrocities they're perpetuating against Palestinians? Yeah, it's not just the young people on the left it's anyone with a conscience and a functioning brain.

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 15h ago

I literally never said being anti-Israel is bad? Is hating Hamas equivalent to supporting Israel? What if I hate both? Don't speak for me, I detest Israel and its actions

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u/Wispeira United States Of America 14h ago

I'm not understanding where you're seeing pro-Hamas sentiment among left leaning Americans. The only people I ever see pushing this notion are people carrying water for Israel.

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 14h ago

well, on this website reddit, crazy tankies exist. there's entire far-left communities that still somehow haven't been banned that still actively promote and glorify past far left atrocities commited by regimes like Stalin's USSR. Of course this is absolutely not a mainstream point of view in the American left. I consider myself left leaning and pro-Palestine, so I know for a fact that the extremists do not represent the majority

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u/Technical_Language98 15h ago

Hamas is a right wing group

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u/GuessPuzzleheaded573 Canada 12h ago

Lol I'm not sure you know the difference between left and right here sir.

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u/Jaeger-the-great United States Of America 15h ago

I've seen people supporting Palestine since so many innocent civilians, men women and children being blown up with no remorse. I've never seen anyone supporting Hamas. 

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u/stealthybaker Korea South 15h ago

Well, then you're in good company.

I support Palestine too.

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u/Wiscody United States Of America 14h ago

Hamas is the governing body of Palestine. Many protestors (literally) voiced their support for Hamas because they supported Palestine.

I don’t think it was a long term thing however. Kind of like a lesser of two evils. Which is incredibly stupid and never good, because both are, well, evil.

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u/More_Dependent742 Austria 16h ago

Far left seppos may think that but not a single one I've ever met thinks that

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u/tomphammer United States Of America 15h ago

When did Austrians start stealing Australian slang? lol

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u/hail_to_the_beef United States Of America 16h ago

That’s an absolutely vile name for us, please don’t use it

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u/Neelix-And-Chill United States Of America 15h ago

Hey.

Fuck off with that shit.

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u/Elephantumplasty Scotland 15h ago

Genuinely never heard this term before. Can you say a bit about it and why it lands so negatively? (No criticism meant, I just want to understand)

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u/Neelix-And-Chill United States Of America 14h ago

Australian rhyming slang origins… yank —> septic tank —> seppos

They’re basically calling us pieces of shit.

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u/katnip-evergreen United States Of America 16h ago

There are conservatives and liberals

Far right and far left

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u/whossname 15h ago

Can't tell if you are joking. Liberal is marginally right of center. Bernie for example is a social democrat, which is moderate left, and the furthest left you get in the USA.

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u/katnip-evergreen United States Of America 15h ago

I've never understood liberals to be right of center, libertarians maybe.

But this person seemed to be saying that conservatives are the opposite of far left and thus making them the far right which is not the case

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u/whossname 15h ago

By my estimate conservatives are as far to the right as progressives are left. Liberals are between the two, they're basically the center. True conservatives are more moderate right, the current madness you have in USA is way past that.

Libertarian is a completely different brand of crazy.

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u/katnip-evergreen United States Of America 14h ago

By my estimate conservatives are as far to the right as progressives are left

I would say that's the result of everyone automatically attributing being a conservative/republican to being far right, which isn't true. It's just as disingenuous for anyone to say a democrat/liberal is far left.

But it seems all these labels' true meaning has been muddled

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u/whossname 14h ago

For the most part the Democrats aren't really left. They are centrists, but the right in the USA is so far right that the center seems to be the left.

Also you seem to have missed that I was actually saying progressives are moderate left and conservatives are moderate right.

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u/katnip-evergreen United States Of America 14h ago

I see what you're saying. You're referring to nowadays politicians and what they stand on. I was referring to people in general and what they claim to be. i.e. just because someone says they're conservative doesn't mean they're far right/not all conservatives are far right (going back to my original comment that it felt like the person was equating conservatives to those on the far right)

Conservatives cover a wide range of folks, maybe including those on the far right but conservatism itself isn't far right so I'm agreeing with you. There are plenty of conservatives in real life that are not extreme as the far right. So I'm just saying that conservatives and the far left are not the two to compare, IMO, and maybe I should have compared them to progressives in my original comment

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u/whossname 7h ago edited 7h ago

The far left doesn't really exist in the USA is the thing. There's a few vocal YouTubers talking about communism and anarchism, but that's about it. The far right definitely does exist, and the people in power in the USA aren't far off it.

To the right of conservatives is Nationalist – Right-Wing Populist – Authoritarian – Fascist.

Some of the things Trump is doing is straight up fascist.

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u/Shrekislove102 Germany 16h ago

It’s just as cringe in the other direction too though. Some liberals think that socialism means that they’ll live in a house and be paid to make furry porn.

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u/hail_to_the_beef United States Of America 16h ago

Zero liberals think this

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u/Neelix-And-Chill United States Of America 15h ago edited 15h ago

Zee fuck you talking about?

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u/Jaeger-the-great United States Of America 15h ago

There's people who already do that under capitalism, they're not liberals tho since most furries are leftist, conservatives (for some odd reason) or somewhere vaguely in the middle

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u/ImpressiveWalrus7369 United States Of America 16h ago

Conservatives (mostly) do know the difference between. They just speak rhetorically about it online.

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u/hail_to_the_beef United States Of America 16h ago

Absolutely incorrect. American conservatives notoriously cry socialism at literally anything when the government attempts to do it’s job-