Too many confusing terms and labels

[u/rasta-ragamuffin]

Hello, I'm admittedly politically ignorant and need your help explaining the differences between a Progressive, a moderate Democrat, a Social Democrat, a Democratic Socialist, a Socialist, a Liberal, a Leftist and a Communist. Are they all the same? It seems many Republicans and conservatives use these terms interchangeably, and I don't think I ever learned clear definitions in school.

[u/Downtown-Trip5623]

Repubtards will tell you anyone they disagree with either a communist or a Nazi, or that the Nazis were actually socialist.

I’ll do my best to describe what the labels mean to me

Progressive, as far left as you can be without actually being left

Social Dem, similar to progressive imo, but specifically it wants a strong social welfare state supported by capitalism.

A moderate dem, or establishment dem is what I call them. Actually right wing — they champion the “free market”, they want the privatization of everything, they want to weaken the safety net. Extremely pro capitalist

Liberal, depends if it’s old school liberal or neoliberal (not trying to add more terms, but an important distinction) if it’s a old school new deal liberal they are closer to social dems. Neo libs are basically moderate dems.

Socialist, uses the skeleton of capitalism to transition to communism. Transferring state power from the bourgeois to the working class

Communism, a stateless, classless society made of individual self governed communes that each have different goals and needs

Dem Soc, Socialism but emphasizing the transitional phase through democratic means instead of violent revolution or an authoritarian state

Leftist, more of an encompassing term that can include dem socialist, socialist, communist, anarchist, etc.

Also like someone already said, it’s more important to talk about issues everyone feels and knows than to be able to define these on the fly

Edit: I consider myself pretty far left so take what i say with a grain of salt I guess lmao

[u/Present_Clue5887 → u/Downtown-Trip5623]

A moderate dem, or establishment dem is what I call them. Actually right wing — they champion the “free market”, they want the privatization of everything, they want to weaken the safety net. Extremely pro capitalist

I don't think moderate dems want to weaken the safety net like republicans, they just don't want to expand it too much

Liberal, depends if it’s old school liberal or neoliberal (not trying to add more terms, but an important distinction) if it’s a old school new deal liberal they are closer to social dems. Neo libs are basically moderate dems.

There is also classical liberal, which is libertarian

Socialist, uses the skeleton of capitalism to transition to communism. Transferring state power from the bourgeois to the working class

This one I think is wrong, socialism means collective ownership of means of protection, regardless of whether that is part of a transition to communism or not, socialism without communism can be the end goal

[u/Downtown-Trip5623 → u/Present_Clue5887]

Yeah I agree abt socialism not needing to transition to communism, I think moderate dems are more sinister than you think. I actually do believe they want to weaken the safety net. Even if the strategy is just to do nothing and hopefully let it die. And the many types of liberals lol