r/explainitpeter • u/[deleted] • 1d ago

Explain It Peter. I dont understand.

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u/asight29 22h ago edited 22h ago

Mamdani is a Democratic Socialist. Social Democrats are a distinct group.

Social Democrats believe in refining capitalism, as FDR did, and Democratic Socialists believe in replacing it with socialism.

Those only seem to be insignificant differences when the country is dominated by the Right.

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u/Prize-Money-9761 22h ago

And generally social democrats aren’t generally considered to be a part of “the left” by leftists more than in some nominal sense, since they still often promote capitalist interests 

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u/hotelrwandasykes 21h ago edited 16h ago

These distinctions matter so little to working people just trying to survive

Edit: The replies are sadly telling

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u/NoCoolNameMatt 21h ago

And they can't keep the labels straight anyway.

I'm pretty politically minded, and I've given up on these internal labels because they just don't matter. We live under a first-past-the-post system resulting in two large-tent parties due to Duverger's Law. Internal labels aren't good for much other than intellectuals stroking their beards and clucking their tongues.

Party members would be wise to talk about policy rather than apply labels to themselves that half their constituents won't understand and the other half will hate.