You know what? Compared to the whole world, I'm a far left pinko commie.

[YouDig]

I mean, I'm on the left side of almost every political argument I have in real life. With Dems, with GOPs, whoever. Then I come here, and I'm some kind of corporate apologist. This place is not the real world. I mean, not at all. It's not even the Democratic world. It's not even the liberal wing of the Democratic world.

I come here and say something like, yeah, fracking is dirty, but natural gas is a cleaner source of energy than coal, and until we build up renewable infrastructure, it's coal or nat gas. This is just a plain fact. And suddenly I'm a right-winger! Unreal.

Literally people want to burn more coal and emit more CO2, not to mention the damage that strip mining does, simply because of the word "fracking". I guess we're supposed to just pretend that we have 100% renewable electricity, even though we obviously don't and won't for a long time. And not living in that fantasy world is selling out to the oligarchs or whatever. Because there are no coal oligarchs, only natural gas oligarchs.

And that's not the only issue, just the one that happened recently. It's eye-opening, and maybe encouraging in a weird way. Now I'm like, OK, there are crazy people on the right, we knew that, all of them are really, but boy there are some on the left too. I'm like the reasonable moderate.

[Trust Buster]

1. We have been besieged by a group of people that are no more tolerant than the Tea Party set.

[YouDig]

3. You're telling me. Like "do you now or have you ever worked for a corporation?"

[Trust Buster]

4. We've tried to reason with them but they have a very selfish agenda. What else can we do ?

[YouDig]

5. I have no idea. Plus I obviously work for David Brock, if you didn't notice.

Or else I work for a natural gas company. Maybe I work for a natural gas company that is owned by David Brock.

[Trust Buster]

6. LOL, They say that I work for Brock as well. If that's the case, when is Brock going to show us

THE MONEY !!!!!!! LOL

[PJMcK]

2. Move over. Got any room on that bench? (n/t)

[socialist_n_TN]

7. The "world" or the United States?..........

As Gore Vidal once said, (paraphrasing) the left in the US is considered the center in the rest of the world and right in the US is considered fascist in the rest of the world. And that quote was a LOOONG time ago.

And for the record I'm a Trotskyist which puts me WAY to the left of Gore Vidal. So it's highly likely that you AREN'T "...a far left pinko commie" compared to the whole world.

[YouDig]

8. Trotskyist, wow, that's pretty rough.

You know he was head of the Red Army during the civil war, presided over the Red Terror, was responsible for god knows how many innocent people murdered.

Not a good guy.

[socialist_n_TN]

21. Yes I knew he was head of the Red Army during the civil war........

Did you know that civil war was instigated by Tsarist military strongmen supported by the western European powers AND the United States, which actually INVADED Russia after the October Revolution? Did you know that the Red Terror was a RESPONSE to the White Terror? God knows HOW many innocent people were murdered by the representatives of the dictatorship of capital and capitalist imperialism. That's not even mentioning all of the murders by the Tsar and his feudal hierarchy.

Whether Trotsky was a "good guy" or not depends on what side of the class war you support. I KNOW which side I'm on. Do you?

[Garrett78]

18. Compared to parts of Europe, perhaps. But certainly not the whole non-US world.

And the US is a much different country (greater population, different demographics, different history, different style of government, different media, etc.) than those more left-friendly European nations, so it's rather a case of apples and oranges.

[bigwillq]

9. It's only a message board

Nothing to take that seriously. You can be whatever you want to be, here or IRL. It will be ok.

[joshcryer]

10. Read my journal, pretty sure I'm far left of most here.

Post-left, even.

[Eric J in MN]

11. It's not the word 'fracking.'

When it's called "hydraulic fracturing" it still endangers drinking water and releases methane which causes global warming.

[YouDig]

12. And despite that, it's got a lower carbon impact than coal. I've seen a lot or Berners complain

about fracking, but none of them seem to have any problem with coal or mountaintop removal or anything of that. It's just weird. Are they purposely ignoring the facts? Maybe they just get caught up in the propaganda and have no idea.

[Eric J in MN]

13. If methane is even worse for global warming than carbon

...then carbon impact isn't the right measure.

[YouDig]

14. Less climate impact including potential methane release. Which can be controlled.

I really don't know why you're such a big proponent of coal, or the rest of the Berners are. It just seems like a case of whatever Hillary says has to be bad.

[aspirant]

15. If you're unhappy, you can go elsewhere

[YouDig]

16. I'm happy! Think I'll stick around. Besides, everyone here loves me.

[aspirant]

19. Do you love us too?

Love avoids "stick"y situations

[Hydra]

20. He's happy- he's busy here "Correcting the record"

As one of his fellows put it the other day.

[hobbit709]

17. You're about as far left pinko commie as Richard Nixon.

[socialist_n_TN]

22. I agree with hobbit709's analysis........

It's hilariously ironic to me how people can self identify as a "far left, pinko commie" in 2016 when their positions on actual ISSUES would have been comparable to Nixon's.

All of this really means that self-identifying political labels are meaningless, which makes self-identifying polls meaningless. The only polls that matter are the ones on where you stand on the issues. Self-identifying polls are merely a means that allow the political class and the apologists of capitalism to say that the US is a "center-right" country.

[libtodeath]

23. This.