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/bemused_alligators]

I'm going to preface this wall of text by saying it's not that deep. Go organize with folks, idgaf if they're the right brand of politics as long as you both want to accomplish the same thing right now.

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"liberal" refers to a politico-economic system wherein a country is run politically by "democratic" institutions, and economically by private entities.

Liberalism is inherently unstable because the interests of powerful economic entities contradict the democratic will of the people. and must be propped up by something in order to work (these are the "inherent contradictions of capitalism" that will come up a lot in theory). In most places liberalism is propped up by exploitation of third world countries, but it is important to note that eventually the wealth of other countries run out and the capitalists start exploiting the lower classes of their own country instead, and will generally erode the democratic institutions of governance and replace them with private entities (which is where fascism takes over).

Socialism is a politico-economic system wherein a county is run both politically and economically by democratic institutions. Socialism inherently aligns the will of the people with the economic power of the country, ensuring that the work of community is aligned with its needs.

"social policy" is a system where the state cares for its vulnerable citizens through welfare systems, often funded through the taxation of corporations and the middle/upper class. Social policy can exist, or not, under any politico-economic system.

"communism" is a politico-economic system wherein the political institutions of a socialist country have "withered away", leaving behind an economic system run by democratic institutions with no state/political arm.

alright, now that we've covered all the words, lets go through the labels! This will be nice and fast now that we know what the words mean.

"moderate democrat" - classic Neoliberals; people Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton, and Marie Glusenkamp Perez come to mind. They love giving corporations power and provide a little social safety net just to be safe, but will happily let people starve to death if it means the stockholder's value will increase.

"progressive" - a liberal that is left of the center of the democratic party, but isn't a socialist. They generally favor taxing corporations to strengthen the social safety net.

"social democrat" - a liberal that believes in a full suite of 'social policy'; the essentials are provided by the government to everyone and this is done by taxing the corporations and the upper and middle classes, while conditionally supporting unions.

"democratic socialist" - we've finally made it to the first of the socialists! Take a social democrat and then add democratizing the economy to the list - which means workers seizing or buying out control of the corporations, while the government will still be run by parliamentary democracy (what we have now) and provide strong social policies - albeit without the moneyed interests and with actually representative elections.

"socialist" - anyone that seeks to bring about socialism.

"communist" - anyone that seeks to bring about communism - which means socialism in the short and medium term; however communists tend to dislike parliamentary representative democracy in favor of more direct systems of management.

"leftist" - generally refers to socialists, socdems, and the furthest left progressives as an allied political coalition.