Caroline Orr BuenoAs right-wing extremists are re-platformed everywhere from Twitter to Mar-a-Lago, it’s more important than ever that we hold our journalists, researchers, & others to high standards of accountability when it comes to reporting on extremism and extremists. We need journalists who will tell us the truth, not stake out a position in the middle of two unequal sides. I keep coming back to this quote about reporting on the weather, but it was missing something — so I modified it to make it complete.
Player1@rvawonk I think the right and left wing have had the same platforms for some time… one more than the other, but neither has gained or lost, and both are equally extreme with equal levels of misinformation. The quicker we wrap our heads around that, the better we will all be. Calling out one end of the political spectrum in the US is just adding the the problem.
Ronja A-R (e/em/eir ; hen)There is no left in US mainstream news. The most liberal big papers and channels are at most only slightly left of US centrists, which equals clearly right of EU centrists. The rest of US mainstream media are varyingly blatantly extreme right, wannabe fascists and outright fascists ("[Why] can't we just kill these people?" & Co.).
@ronja @rvawonk I’ve heard this before but not sure it applies. Mainstream media is _extremely_ detached from a U.S. Centrist. True independents generally align more closely with the US right(this does not include Trump conspiracy toting right wing), than they do of the left. I struggle with why I should be comparing this to other countries.
You made a claim about "US left wing" platform(s). My point is that no such thing exists, because actual leftists are such a minuscule group in the US. How do I know? Because in Europe we do have actual socialists and even some communists (who are no more dangerous than any other people, BTW).
@ronja @rvawonk "Actual leftists" in relation to what? Other countries? This is the part I get hung up on. I understand the political spectrum is very different elsewhere, but does that mean we cannot define OUR political spectrum in a way that represents our culture? It's entirely possible I'm missing some fundamental knowledge of the history of left/right, but I genuinely don't understand why it's so important for some to point out 'there is no left in the US'. Not trying to be rude.