Sarah Wagenknecht is basically a Tankie and quite popular with the right.
Her leaving the left party (“Die Linke”), potentially siphoning votes from the right and causing fragmentation there is a good thing.
Also remember: Wanting to appeal to the left AND the right is just a third-positionist, which just ends up being another flavor of Fascism.
I would not trust her, but I recommend reading further into the matter to get an accurate picture.
Wanting to appeal to the left AND the right is just a third-positionist, which just ends up being another flavor of Fascism.
What do you base your claim that third positionism is fascism? Also what do you mean by fascism in this context?
I think that is way to broad a claim to actually be accurate and useful in real life. At least in the context of US politics where left and right as usually used are both actually more right economically but differ socially.
IMO the confusion people have is often from trying to conflate economic and social / political views. I see some third positionists as somewhat left on economic views and somewhat right on social views. Fascism on the other hand is usually right on the economy and right on social views along with being authoritarian.
Are you concern-trolling? Because it feels like it.
Third-Positionists claim to be centrist, arguing “bOtH sIdEs hAvE a fAiR pOIIInT”. You cant just genocide “a tiny bit” or being “a little bit racist”, but in giving credit to the rights ideas, you enable them. Its even on wikipedia and is accuratly mentioning the “Fascism on the left” thing.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Position
She is supporting Putin, a fascist dictator and is spreading missinformation on the matter. Google search: “Sarah Wagenknecht on Putin”. I tried it just know and boy there is a lot.
The other point: This article mentions she calls herself a “left-conservative”, which is an oxymoron, and also just regular moron. Or in her case, dishonesty. Because that would be social, but also national, fusing into national-social(ism). Also anti-climate regulation, calling it “blind planless Eco-Activism, costing people money, but actually doing nothing for the climate”. Literal denial of the efforts we make to safe the world. Another very Fascist talking point. Fascist cant defeat the Climate Crisis, because you cant it by being racist and unfuckable, some of the only things they actually do well.
(Source is in German, sorry for that)
Also: Economic Policies ARE Social Policies. If you are right on them, you are just on the right. The idea that both are separated is naive at best and active malice at worst.
First of all, since you never defined what you mean by fascism, I’m going to assume you are using as an insult as that is how it is commonly used.
No, I’m not concern trolling, just looking to have a discussion on how reductionist calling wanting to appeal to both sides of a political aisle as being third positionism or ‘fascist’ is. I never mentioned or disputed your points on Sarah Wagenknecht since I am not informed on that.
I guess, I take issue with the implied idea that everyone that says “both sides bad” or “both sides have a good point” is a third positionist and therefore a ‘fascist’. Appealing to both sides can be a way of consensus building and needs to be encouraged IMO. Real world issues are rarely black and white and assuming they are is why people are so divided.
You can acknowledge that certain groups get one idea or policy right without agreeing with them on everything or ‘enabling them’. It is called compromise. Just because some of the groups in history that used the term were authoritarian fascists does not mean every group that claims ‘there is a third position between capitalism and communism’ are authoritarian fascists(Wikipedia source for third positionist’s claim).
The third positionist’s claim is a true claim as evidenced by the fact that the most successful economies are mixed economies with both public(socialist) and private (capitalistic) enterprises. It is just a claim that has historically been used by bad actors(authoritarians) to gain power.
In rhetorical terms, you implying all third positionists bad or ‘fascist’ is an example of Genetic fallacy – a conclusion based solely on something or someone’s origin rather than its current meaning or context.
Maybe in this case, Sarah Wagenknecht is fascist. Maybe not. I am not familiar enough to make a judgement call.
But calling all populists or third positionist’s ‘fascists’ is as misleading as calling all US democrats ‘communists’. It is judging someone before you actually know what they stand for.
The other point: This article mentions she calls herself a “left-conservative”, which is an oxymoron
Left-conservative makes sense to me if you interpret it as left of economic issues while conservative on social issues.
Economic Policies ARE Social Policies
I tend to disagree with that thinking. Economic policies are concerned with the allocation of scarce resources in a society, while social policies are concerned with the distribution of welfare(basic resources or needs). They are interrelated, but they are not identical. Economic policies focus on productivity and growth while Social policies focus on health and inequality.
I can easily envision a society that is left economically while also being right socially. It would encourage worker coops and state run enterprises but on the other hand tacitly endorse traditional social values like racism and sexism via restrictive immigration and endorsing women as homemakers instead of in the workplace. I’m not saying that is ideal, but I am simply saying it could easily exist.
Note: Populism is IMO a very correct way of looking at the world. According to wikipedia, it “presents ‘the people’ as a morally good force and contrasts them against ‘the elite’, who are portrayed as corrupt and self-serving.”
In my experience, When regular people act immorally they are held accountable. When powerful people act immorally, they are much less likely to be held accountable.
Sorry, if I went too in depth here. It’s kinda hard to keep it succinct when discussing broad ideas.
First of all, since you never defined what you mean by fascism, I’m going to assume you are using as an insult as that is how it is commonly used.
Oh stop it. You’re projecting your own ignorance onto the poster you’re arguing with in a desperate attempt to avoid admitting you waded in while knowing absolutely nothing.
Learn something and back down gracefully.
I know what facism is. I also know that it is also commonly used as an insult and has therefore lost meaning for a lot of people. Call me ignorant if you want. I was simply making a point.
That excuse does not wash given what you were responding to. Quit digging.
Populism is so popular right now.
Weird headline. What are post-communists?
And is Wagenknecht really far-left? A lot of her positions suggest otherwise.
The party ‘die Linke’ used to be ‘die Linkspartei’. Die Linkspartei was a Union of the West German party WSAG and the PDS. The PDS is the direct successor of the SED, which was THE communist party in the GDR. Since the successor parties no longer explicitly described themselves as communist, the article probably calls them post-communist
Still a bad attempt at framing this party as something the average German shouldn’t vote for.
This is at the moment the only party that actually tries to enact some „left“ policies. And yes, there are some crazy people there… but which party hasn’t?
Germans definitly shouldn’t vote for a party that wants to disband NATO and form an alliance with Russia.
I just answered their question
Wikipedia seems to imply that post-communist = capitalist
Post communist refers to the party succession. Die Linke is the successor of the PDS (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus), which fused with the WASG (Arbeit & soziale Gerechtigkeit – Die Wahlalternative) to form Die Linke. And the PDS itself was the successor of the SED (Partei des Demokratischen Sozialismus), which in turn was formed in East Germany by fusing the local SPD & KPD (Kommunistische Partei Deutschlands).
But yes, Wagenknecht is an odd one, because she also holds a lot of the far right positions, very similar to the AfD. But to show more of her character, one has to also realize her party name: BSW - Bündnis Sahra Wagenknecht
She literally uses her own name for it, which I find highly narcissistic.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BERLIN, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The star of Germany’s left-most parliamentary party has quit to set up her own populist formation, based on scepticism on both green issues and on support for Ukraine, that polls suggest could capture up to 20% of the vote.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who grew up in East Germany as the daughter of a German mother and an absent Iranian father, told reporters on Monday she would aim to win over disgruntled voters of left and right.
Otherwise we probably won’t recognise our own country in ten years’ time."
With Germany’s economy battered by high energy prices and inflation, low support for the parties of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition is undermining the conservative Christian Democrats, creating opportunities for populists.
That fragmentation has let the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party come second in several recent elections - drawing on a pool of voters the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance could also tap.
A Civey poll for T-Online found some 20% of voters could imagine voting for her new party.
The original article contains 326 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 48%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
You saved 48% but printed it twice… you’ve paid an extra 4%!
Sorry about that, hopefully I’ve managed to fix the issue with double posts today.
No worries!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
BERLIN, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The star of Germany’s left-most parliamentary party has quit to set up her own populist formation, based on scepticism on both green issues and on support for Ukraine, that polls suggest could capture up to 20% of the vote.
Sahra Wagenknecht, who grew up in East Germany as the daughter of a German mother and an absent Iranian father, told reporters on Monday she would aim to win over disgruntled voters of left and right.
Otherwise we probably won’t recognise our own country in ten years’ time."
With Germany’s economy battered by high energy prices and inflation, low support for the parties of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition is undermining the conservative Christian Democrats, creating opportunities for populists.
That fragmentation has let the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party come second in several recent elections - drawing on a pool of voters the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance could also tap.
A Civey poll for T-Online found some 20% of voters could imagine voting for her new party.
The original article contains 326 words, the summary contains 171 words. Saved 48%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
