Here’s a thread on the differences between the populist left and socialist left. Off the top of my head, here’s a summary of each. The populist left opposes high concentrations of wealth, while the social populists want to create a utopian society where…I guess production of goods, services and wealth are shared by everyone. (Sorry if these are bad definitions.) How do you guys feel about these categories? Where do your politics line up, including if they fall outside of these two categories?
1. I’ll be spending a bit more time teasing out different strands of thought on the American left. There are two traditions. Left-populism, a pro-business tradition set against monopoly/finance. And socialism, an anti-business tradition setting workers against business/capital.
— Matt Stoller (@matthewstoller) November 24, 2019
Just want to be sure: social populists = social left? Where does all this terminology come from?
I’m not sure. Maybe the terms are populist left and socialist. Basically, the person is saying there are at least two camps on the left–populist strain and a socialist strain.
I see how these are different, but I don’t see how they’re necessarily exclusive. It sounds like “group A is against capital punishment while group B enjoys pizza” to me. Are people supposed to fall into one or the other but not both groups?
I think the purpose of the threat was to show two groups on the left that often overlap, to the degree that some don’t make a distinction. The author wants to point out this distinction.
What I wonder about is the position(s) on the right. Surely the right can’t be for higher concentrations of wealth. Perhaps, they’re not opposed to it, and what they really oppose is government control. What they are for is freedom or free reign of the individual when it comes to economic matters.
In a way, it’s not clear why some on the right would not embrace the populist left (who are not anti-market, as far as I can tell). would not be