When did "leftism" become a real word? Not a year ago, it was floated by "rightists" to denigrate liberals, since then I've seen it used as a sort of a dog whistle. It couldn't possibly be that the general public is so dense that the most acceptable political divisions nowadays are "leftist" and "rightist?"

Will it devolve into full idiocracy of "redist" and "bluist" by the next elections?

I along with other "leftists" use it as a short-hand for left-wing politics, generally those who believe in politics usually placed on the left of the left-right spectrum, including but not limited to the abolition of what we believe are systematic unjustified inequalities within society.

I was lazy; I meant socially liberal, neo-progressive above but it was easier to use "left" because it's a quick short hand. The NYT seems to be very socially liberal but on issues that are often trivial while steadfastly being a big business/pro globalist mouthpiece, also backs US Govt with little push back.

That was my mistake on "left". I was lazy. I don't believe in a political spectrum but enough people understand that simply saying "left" meant everything in this paragraph mostly

"Liberal" as used in America usually means leftist. The original meaning of the word is largely forgotten.

> "Liberal" as used in America usually means leftist. The original meaning of the word is largely forgotten.

"Liberal/conservative" and "left/right" both, in their original political definitions, describe essentially the same divide (the former comes from England, the latter from revolutionary France.)

They've diverged in modern usage somewhat because debate over the desirability of the movement of the locus of government power from personal prerogative of hereditary elites based on class right to the public at large based on individual rights is no longer the primary meaningful divide in the developed world, and rather debate over the precise nature of individual rights and the manner in which they should shape governance, most of which fits within the original liberal/left space (and the rest outside the classic right/left or liberal/conservative divide), is now current.

Absolutely not true. This is a self-fulfilling prophecy, usually regurgitated by people who don't discuss politics much.