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I keep hearing this. Especially from Canadians.


Why do non Americans think this?

There is a left in America, but from a global perspective the mainstream political discourse is further right and what would be considered normal in Europe. The phenomenon of where accepted political opinions fall is called the Overton Windows, btw). So from a European perspective the most left that people may see are people like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who appear more or less like Social Democrats, and wouldn't fall on the far left of the political spectrum there. In the US however they get labeled as fringe fanatics by a large number of the media and politicians (and therefore also by the population to a degree). I think that's mainly why this disconnect exists.

Originally posted by Artol
There is a left in America, but from a global perspective the mainstream political discourse is further right and what would be considered normal in Europe. The phenomenon of where accepted political opinions fall is called the Overton Windows, btw). So from a European perspective the most left that people may see are people like Bernie Sanders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who appear more or less like Social Democrats, and wouldn't fall on the far left of the political spectrum there. In the US however they get labeled as fringe fanatics by a large number of the media and politicians (and therefore also by the population to a degree). I think that's mainly why this disconnect exists.

Originally posted by cdtm
I keep hearing this. Especially from Canadians.


Why do non Americans think this?


Because they're just plain ignorant, perhaps? I'm sure not all non-americans are so stupid as to think that. Have they not seen any of the videos of crazy sjw's throwing fits/temper tantrums in the streets?

Have they not seen the videos of Antifa thugs with stinkin' communist flags acting like a bunch of thugs? What, they think those are all right-wingers? LMAO.

Originally posted by eThneoLgrRnae
Because they're just plain ignorant, perhaps? I'm sure not all non-americans are so stupid as to think that. Have they not seen any of the videos of crazy sjw's throwing fits/temper tantrums in the streets?

Have they not seen the videos of Antifa thugs with stinkin' communist flags acting like a bunch of thugs? What, they think those are all right-wingers? LMAO. dur

Originally posted by eThneoLgrRnae
Because they're just plain ignorant, perhaps? I'm sure not all non-americans are so stupid as to think that. Have they not seen any of the videos of crazy sjw's throwing fits/temper tantrums in the streets?

Have they not seen the videos of Antifa thugs with stinkin' communist flags acting like a bunch of thugs? What, they think those are all right-wingers? LMAO.

There's a couple aspects to this. I think the number of Antifa members in the US seems negligible, I doubt that is what the Canadians that cdtm is talking to are referring to. What you call SJW, or just generally people that value social justice aspects in their politics, are a bigger number, however that is probably not the kind of left that the Canadian's are referring to either.

I would posit that you considering "SJWs" (as you call it) left-wing, is actually more a product of the unique political landscape in the United States. When most other countries think of left wing politics, they may go hand in hand with social justice proposals, but the defining factor of them is a left leaning economic policy, ranging from social democracy all the way to communism or anarchism.

I am not as familiar with the Canadian system, but they too have multiple parties. So for example in their leadership election in 2019 there were a bunch of parties, 3 of the big ones were the conservatives, the liberals and the new democratic party. Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party is perhaps roughly equivalent to Obama, but left of him there was Jagmeet Singh of the New Democrats. A left leaning party that just doesn't have a visible equivalent in the United States.

The same is true for British politics. The Democrats are more or less equivalent to the Liberal Democrats of the UK, and the Republicans are a perhaps slightly more right wing version of the UK Conservatives. There is no equivalent party like Labour, and certainly not like the left leaning wing of Labour.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was right to say that in any other country of the world, her and Joe Biden would not be in the same party. Because on the Overton window of the western nations, the Democrats are a center-right party.

So, I think that is what non-Americans are trying to express, when they say there is no left in the United States.

They are wrong though, there is a history of left leaning politics, at least going back to Eugene Debs and really much further. The Industrial Workers of the World were founded in the US, people like John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie wrote in the US. Noam Chomsky is one of the foremost leftists in the world. Martin Luther King Jr. was an outspoken Socialist. It just isn't as visible in party politics, as it is in most other countries.

Originally posted by Artol
There's a couple aspects to this. I think the number of Antifa members in the US seems negligible, I doubt that is what the Canadians that cdtm is talking to are referring to. What you call SJW, or just generally people that value social justice aspects in their politics, are a bigger number, however that is probably not the kind of left that the Canadian's are referring to either.

I would posit that you considering "SJWs" (as you call it) left-wing, is actually more a product of the unique political landscape in the United States. When most other countries think of left wing politics, they may go hand in hand with social justice proposals, but the defining factor of them is a left leaning economic policy, ranging from social democracy all the way to communism or anarchism.

I am not as familiar with the Canadian system, but they too have multiple parties. So for example in their leadership election in 2019 there were a bunch of parties, 3 of the big ones were the conservatives, the liberals and the new democratic party. Justin Trudeau of the Liberal party is perhaps roughly equivalent to Obama, but left of him there was Jagmeet Singh of the New Democrats. A left leaning party that just doesn't have a visible equivalent in the United States.

The same is true for British politics. The Democrats are more or less equivalent to the Liberal Democrats of the UK, and the Republicans are a perhaps slightly more right wing version of the UK Conservatives. There is no equivalent party like Labour, and certainly not like the left leaning wing of Labour.

Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was right to say that in any other country of the world, her and Joe Biden would not be in the same party. Because on the Overton window of the western nations, the Democrats are a center-right party.

So, I think that is what non-Americans are trying to express, when they say there is no left in the United States.

They are wrong though, there is a history of left leaning politics, at least going back to Eugene Debs and really much further. The Industrial Workers of the World were founded in the US, people like John Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie wrote in the US. Noam Chomsky is one of the foremost leftists in the world. Martin Luther King Jr. was an outspoken Socialist. It just isn't as visible in party politics, as it is in most other countries. Good post.

Originally posted by cdtm
I keep hearing this. Especially from Canadians.


Why do non Americans think this?

it refers to the political parties in america both counting as right wing parties by international standards; sure you have the Democrats that are to the left of the GOP, but the GOP is easily considered a far-right around the globe and the democrats tend to place somewhere in the middle-just left of the GOP but still right-wing


the reason you hear this from Canadians so much is because our government has a multitude of parties ranging across the spectrum.



it's not to say that left wing people or ideologies don't exist, but that the political party called "the left" is very right wing by many G20 standards

Originally posted by Artol
I think the number of Antifa members in the US seems negligible

Considering that we have over 300 million people in this country this is true of pretty much any group of extremists in the USA.

On Quora some supposedly neutral Euro posters actually called US Cons "crazy", and had VERY strong opinions against "gun nuts" or Bush.


I want to give people the benefit of the doubt, but sometimes wonder whether I'm looking at political debate, or 4chan style button pushing.


Lord knows I've met plenty of people here in the US with fairly polarized stances.

I think to many people in Europe the politics of the Repubilicans are not in line with their values (including European conservatives). But Europe is a big place, you can find people of all stripes, and there's Trump supporters in Europe as well.