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JustKay

(39 posts)
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 10:36 AM 4 hrs ago

I'm so tried of this "radical left boogeyman" narrative!

Who are the Trumpers talking about? Me? I think it's me....

I AM the radical left. I am antifa. I am opposed to fascism in all its forms, including the current brand Trump is selling.

Universal healthcare, decent living wages, free school lunches, and limits on how many people can get their hands on automatic weapons. I'm all about that.

I vote, go to church, pay my taxes, volunteer in my community, have never broken the law or hurt another being, and some would say, I'm a decent person.

So what are the Trumpers so afraid of? What's my crime? What makes me so scary?

I think for myself. Very scary indeed!

24 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
I'm so tried of this "radical left boogeyman" narrative! (Original Post) JustKay 4 hrs ago OP
There hasnt been a radical left in this johnnyfins 4 hrs ago #1
I'd say 1940s ... although the Panthers and Weathermen TBF 2 hrs ago #14
who can we think they are building these prisons for? rampartd 4 hrs ago #2
The "radical left" is everyone who is not MAGA. The radical left are judges and prosecutors Gaugamela 4 hrs ago #3
thank you, thank you jaymac 3 hrs ago #4
The Radical Left BOSSHOG 3 hrs ago #5
I'm with you in that club Farmer-Rick 3 hrs ago #6
Welcome to our DU family. You think for yourself, therefore, you are niyad 3 hrs ago #7
As I taught in my history classes for 23 years, tyrants need a nebulous boogeyman to keep people afraid AZLD4Candidate 3 hrs ago #8
They are deathly afraid of our "trans for all" stance...which would mean Ol Janx Spirit 3 hrs ago #9
Girls will be Boys and Boys will be Girls Martin Eden 48 min ago #21
:D Ol Janx Spirit 31 min ago #22
They're so afraid of a white minority rule... ananda 3 hrs ago #10
Because democrats and or press has not pushed back. oldmanlynn 3 hrs ago #11
THAT'S the problem. Right there. calimary 2 hrs ago #18
A human's default position is selfishness--not selflessness. The Republicans have an easier time... Ol Janx Spirit 4 min ago #23
Demonized for being a Democrat BeneteauBum 3 hrs ago #12
Sadly, demonizing and dehumanizing still works as a political strategy surfered 3 hrs ago #13
I wouldn't care about MAGA narrative. It's the Nanjeanne 2 hrs ago #15
Welcome to DU, by the way! surfered 2 hrs ago #16
Just as much a bogeyman outside of MAGAland, but the label is usually "progressive" LT Barclay 2 hrs ago #17
The right wing and the reich-wing in the US markodochartaigh 1 hr ago #19
We could start calling them Neo-Liberal Publicans. multigraincracker 1 hr ago #20
It's funny that the right wing calls us the "radical" ones. Initech 1 min ago #24

johnnyfins

(3,406 posts)
1. There hasnt been a radical left in this
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 10:40 AM
4 hrs ago

Country since the 1970s. That doesnt stop the rw boogeyman factory from using the term, though. Always have to make people afraid. You would think people would see through it by now.

TBF

(35,572 posts)
14. I'd say 1940s ... although the Panthers and Weathermen
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 12:38 PM
2 hrs ago

did try. And it didn't take long for the authorities to act out (ie Kent State).

rampartd

(3,727 posts)
2. who can we think they are building these prisons for?
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 10:46 AM
4 hrs ago

after the immigrants are gone and the blacks are assigned to their new masters, they will still have the prisons to fill.

their version of Manicheism was articulated by gw bush

"if ya ain't with us. yer agin us."

Gaugamela

(3,192 posts)
3. The "radical left" is everyone who is not MAGA. The radical left are judges and prosecutors
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 10:49 AM
4 hrs ago

who apply the law equally without fear or favor. It’s common sense pragmatism that seeks to address social problems with real world solutions instead of constantly trying to pound a square peg into the round hole of white supremacist ideology. The radical left are people working together cooperatively for the common good instead of fraudsters trying to dismantle society to sell for parts. The radical left are people who enjoy art and scholarship and creativity and appreciate the benefits of modern science and medicine and know a better world is possible.

BOSSHOG

(44,678 posts)
5. The Radical Left
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 11:49 AM
3 hrs ago

Have fund raisers for children in the hospital, check on the elderly, volunteer at the local library and food pantry. The radical left prays for peace and doesn’t spend every waking moment figuring out what’s in “it” for me. The radical left doesn’t lie about the current President. The radical left tells the truth about the current president. The radical left doesn’t dump Jack Smiths report chock full of the truth on the American people on New Years. The radical left is a conglomeration of Americana. We are a mystery to those who don’t understand liberty and Justice for all. Who don’t understand why the Constitution really is a big deal. And yet here we are.

Farmer-Rick

(12,428 posts)
6. I'm with you in that club
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 11:54 AM
3 hrs ago

Except for the going to church part. I'm a member of the bogeyman club of atheists.

And I think capitalism is at the root of all evil and belong to the bogeyman club of socialists.

And yeah, I also belong to the bogeyman club of Anti Fascists, Antifa. Because if you are Profa (Profascist) you are against democracy, the US Constitution and the rule of law.

But I think I may be the far left that white Christian Nationalists are so afraid of. In my life I had a full career as an officer in the Navy, supported and raised 2 very capable adults and run a farm to sell wholesome healthy food to my neighbors and give a lot to the food banks.

So, people like me are what Trump humpers, Nazis, Christian Nationalists and Profa are afraid of. Be afraid, be very afraid....

AZLD4Candidate

(6,730 posts)
8. As I taught in my history classes for 23 years, tyrants need a nebulous boogeyman to keep people afraid
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 11:57 AM
3 hrs ago

Xi Jinping used "capitalist reactionaries" when I lived in China.
Mao used "capitalist roaders"
During the cold war, it was "Communists."

There doesn't need to be any defnition. . .it just needs to be an idea of someone who is opposed to what the standing order wants to do, even if what the enemy wants benefits you.

Orwell was wrong. The use of Emmanuel Goldstein as the enemy is wrong because Emmanuel Goldstein can do something a vague, hard to define idea can't do. . .Goldstein can die. Once the enemy (a person) dies, there is no enemy. WW2 proved that. The enemy was Hitler. Once he was gone, the ones that need enemies to cash checks had to find something else.

And an idea is must more frightening than a person. Keep the rubes terrified and you can run to the bank and subjugate them as they will only be concerned with remaining safe.

That's what radical left means. It's an easy thing to say but asked to define it, you'll get a thousand different answers.

Ol Janx Spirit

(664 posts)
9. They are deathly afraid of our "trans for all" stance...which would mean
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 12:00 PM
3 hrs ago

all the girls become boys and all the boys become girls...so pretty much just like it was before?



Oh that, and that someone (read: not rich white people) would get anything (read: things we all need like food, healthcare, childcare, a living wage) that they don't deserve (read: because they aren't rich white people.)

Yep. Terrifying....

Martin Eden

(15,340 posts)
21. Girls will be Boys and Boys will be Girls
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 02:45 PM
48 min ago

It's a mixed-up, muddled-up, shook-up world
Except for Lola

(Sorry, couldn't resist)

oldmanlynn

(777 posts)
11. Because democrats and or press has not pushed back.
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 12:02 PM
3 hrs ago

This narrative of radical left democrats has stuck.

GOP propaganda machine is louder than Dems truth propaganda machine.

calimary

(88,975 posts)
18. THAT'S the problem. Right there.
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 01:18 PM
2 hrs ago

Dems don’t speak up, or hit back - VERBALLY, that is.

And while I’m griping, I’d like these reactionary jerks to tell me what’s so wrong about being a Democrat?
- Cuz they don’t think everybody is created equal? Including women?
- Cuz they don’t think our bodies belong to OURSELVES and NOT the government?
- Cuz they think women should never speak for OURSELVES or Heaven forbid, have our own informed opinions? Like we can’t read or something?
- Cuz our priorities have already been cancelled and dismissed before we even get to weigh in?

Ol Janx Spirit

(664 posts)
23. A human's default position is selfishness--not selflessness. The Republicans have an easier time...
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 03:29 PM
4 min ago

...selling their message that greed is good than do the Democrats selling their message of rejecting greed for the good of all.

This has also been the historical norm.

Two thousand years ago there was a guy fighting for very similar things. And around 1100 years before that was the first recorded labor strike in human history.

Greed and selfishness has built empires and kingdoms and moved mountains and built monuments. Much of our history is shaped more by it than anything else.

Democrats are actually working against human nature, and that is always going to be harder. We have to be okay with that and continue to fight for everyone knowing that Republicans will be fighting for the interest of the people that have always found an easier path to getting what they want--because if we don't...then what?

BeneteauBum

(311 posts)
12. Demonized for being a Democrat
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 12:19 PM
3 hrs ago

JustKay, excepting that I believe that religion is organized fraud fraught with hypocrisy, I’m just like you. I’ve paid my dues and raised a wonderful family. My major mantra raising my daughters is that violence is not an option.

I have hard core MAGA friends and acquaintances that say I’m a good person…..cheerful and giving. They call me an exception to the ‘normal’ Democrat. I’ve confronted them about me being the enemy. When they refute that, I ask them if they are disagreeing with the orange POS. That question makes them evasive and uneasy. What can you say? To me these people’s core values are dictated by Fox Spews and are unable to formulate a defendable debate. Things will get better……

Peace ☮️

Nanjeanne

(6,502 posts)
15. I wouldn't care about MAGA narrative. It's the
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 12:41 PM
2 hrs ago

mainstream media’s use of far left that gets my goat. They use that as the way to describe simple progressive policies and in fact even calling these policies is strange when healthcare, family leave, sick days, raising min wage, etc are pretty mainstream too.

markodochartaigh

(4,973 posts)
19. The right wing and the reich-wing in the US
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 01:37 PM
1 hr ago

have shifted the Overton Window so far to authoritarianism (candy coated with a few libertarian platitudes) since WWII that Eisenhower, the Republican president, would be on the left side of the Democratic party.
And the Overton Window has been shifted to the right on economic and political issues (which our oiligarchs care about) while being shifted left on several social issues (which are important to everyday people). This allows the boogeyman of racial and sexual minority rights to be dangled as a distraction while economic and political issues are shifted ever rightward in the background.

As to your question, why are you so scary? You are exactly what authoritarian leaders hate. You have strong ties to your community, therefore some influence, and you think for yourself outside the manufactured authoritarian zeitgeist. Our oiligarchs pay a lot of money to construct that bubble. The authoritarian state can strip immigrant babies from their parents' arms and bomb random boats off foreign shores with scarcely a ripple of protest, but when well-connected community leaders start being locked up that is likely to generate more resistance and wake up people who previously didn't know and didn't care what was going on.


Edit: Welcome to DU!

multigraincracker

(36,907 posts)
20. We could start calling them Neo-Liberal Publicans.
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 01:50 PM
1 hr ago

Thanks to the Chicago School of Economics, that changed the original capitalism, or should I say corrupted it.
They went against Adam Smiths view of Libertarian Capitalism, that thought, markets need to be regulated to prevent monopolies. Now power is corrupted by monopolies and have the power to destroy free markets.
Just saying.

Initech

(107,322 posts)
24. It's funny that the right wing calls us the "radical" ones.
Fri Jan 2, 2026, 03:32 PM
1 min ago

When they spew the most violent, hateful, anti-American and anti-democracy shit they possibly can.

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