this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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I generally laugh at horshoe theory but this mf out here trying to singlehandedly prove it.
Unfortunately in my experience this is not an isolated case. It's fairly common amongst people who consider themselves "leftist". Most are just better at masking it and aren't so outright blatant about it. Horseshoe theory keeps being proven again and again.
My point is that left-right is way too simplistic and the left-right auth-lib chart is a bit more descriptive. Republicans and tankies heavily overlap in terms of authoritarianism (which is why they attack that word so much) which makes them ideologically closer to each other than to lib-left. They still have some lefty ideals which is why I say it's not a horseshoe.
However, if people are somehow going so far left that they somehow arrive at transphobia, maybe there's something to it after all.
Sure. None of the models are perfect (even the 2d chart might be too simplistic: maybe a it's a 3-dimensional saddle), but if reduced to a particular dimension (like authoritarianism as you mention, or even other aspects like their disdain for the rights of minorities) the horseshoe is blindingly obvious.
And even if it's a "not-all-leftists" thing, I think the general response of the non-problematic leftists is to deny this branch of their movement even exists and instead flippantly dismiss the voices of concerned minorities by saying "class reductionists aren't real and it's all in your head" and often followed up with (after being shown evidence) "even if they are real, there will be no issues after we solve the class problem, so shut your mouth class traitor", which is wishful thinking at best and has no basis in any historical evidence.