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icantfindaname posted:bite me commies. leftist revolution was never a real danger in US or in Western Europe, so ascribing any reforms to fear of it makes no sense e: a less sarcastic/more clear reply: There was a whole Thing that happened after the industrial revolutions in Europe and the US involving trade unionism, anarchism, democratic socialism and revolutionary socialism in reaction to the intolerable conditions of those times; those efforts serve as the basis for a lot of the protections we have now. This is often glossed over in basic US history textbooks, and someone who relies too heavily on only the basic history laid out for them in primary school without supplementing it with other readings of history will miss that. You come off as that kind of person here and I think I've said something to you before in regard to making assertions that sound too boldly confident when paired with what you actually know about economic history. Politicians of those times were often clear in their intentions that they viewed those leftist blocs as the reason to enact reforms, not the right wing - mostly because the populist nationalism as a galvanizing force which acted as an existential threat to the state that you speak of started springing up with WWI, which was partly a result of nation-states trying to counter class consciousness with patriotic/nationalist consciousness. The progressive Milwaukee Journal summed up pretty well that conservatives "fight socialism blindly, while the Progressives fight it intelligently and seek to remedy the abuses and conditions upon which it thrives." And Theodore Roosevelt said in regard to progressive era legislation: "I think [railroad lobbyists] are very shortsighted not to understand that to beat [antitrust acts] means to increase the movement for government ownership of the railroads." Or expressing concern that workers compensation laws being ruled unconstitutional will serve "immensely to the strength of the Socialist Party." tl;dr: various strains of leftism were very strong for a while there (during a good stretch of modern history which is mostly left out of standard US history books). The modern situation is much different, with stronger organized right wing elements and an almost non-existent organized left. It's not helpful to assume current conditions for all of history. Rodatose fucked around with this message at 12:07 on Nov 21, 2015 |
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Nov 21, 2015 10:45
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 12:28 |
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