#intolerant left

[victusinveritas]

If you don't follow @neolithicsheep on here, change that pronto.

[scramratz]

I'm absolutely 100% for telling bigots to kill themselves. It's never not ok to tell a bigot to kill themselves.

[longlivetv]

Taking a photo with someone is not endorsing their political beliefs. Taking to someone is not endorsing their political beliefs. Unless the person in question is actually a politician, normal not chronically online people do not fucking know their politics.

Quickly, how did you know this person you’re pissed off at Taylor for taking a photo with is someone she should supposedly know better than to take a pic with? If you found out on social media (twitter/tumblr/reddit) then the average person in this country does not possess this information and therefore cannot be expected to act upon it. And Taylor, who is famously offline, for sure did not see the 200 note post you’re basing your flogging of her around. “Everyone knows this” and the everyone in question is 100 mutuals all reposting each other.

This includes Taylor and any other celebrity you can think of. Unless the person is actively wearing a fucking specific red hat or attending a rally, you can safely assume Taylor took a pic with them because like 99% of people on the planet she does not know the politics of another random person she has encountered in the world and did not conduct a full background search before taking three seconds to take a photo.

You do know her belief system, she’s been a democrat since 2008, y’all are just so chronically online and brainwashed that you’ve decided that who she takes a photo with for three seconds speaks louder than her actual politically motivated words and actions for almost 20 years. That’s a you problem, not a her problem.

[sawbuckplus]

[geezerwench]

The Paradox of Tolerance

[lunasun1verse]

Witches for Justice: Collective Spellcasting Event

Originally on TikTok to get the word out

This is a mustering call to arms or…. Wands…. beginning on February 27th (26th for followers of Hecate), for all witches of all paths to either send energy to the collective or begin spell work that focuses on protection, uncovering truth, Justice, vengeance and for evil to be broke down and brought low. From beginner witchlings to the more advanced crones, I’m personally asking that you join me in the spiritual as our comrades in arms also take to the streets to dissent and protest against the tyranny of the current regime.

Beginner witchlings, this would be your chance to try out some basic protection magick and strength spells

Light and rootworkers would do best in sweetening and softening hearts, protection magick and the like.

Grey witches, left handed witches and rootworkers…… y’all already know wtf time it is. Grab them lemons and rusty nails, we do the dirty work

If you are not a witch but still wanna participate, just send your energy and well wishes.

The spell will reach its climax on the full moon, March 14th, to which I ask that you add this spell to whatever work you’re doing between 9pm and 12am that night.

While the aim isn’t specifically to hurt these cowards, if the Universe decides that they have a karmic debt to pay… well…. 🤷🏽‍♀️

I hereby make it known that I do not recognize the authority of the current administration of the United States and do not trust it to uphold their oaths to the constitution.

Together we are stronger. They are not like us, and we need to remind them of that.

Tonight’s song is very obviously Kendrick Lamar’s Not Like Us.

The revolution is here and it is us.

[laineystein]

Somehow instagram recommended a reel that was essentially “I’m a white girl learning Arabic”. The comments were full of people insinuating that this girl is not white (she has olive skin) and clearly is a person of color, etc. So to make it clear - I, an Ashki Jew, with skin far darker than this girls - is a white colonizer but this girl that identifies as white, isn’t? It’s almost like you assign “white” to anything you deem bad and it really doesn’t have anything to do with identity.

[rockcandysupreme]

sopping wet cat of a man

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Steve Stewart-Williams

Published: Apr 9, 2025

It’s a truth rarely acknowledged that the political spectrum doesn’t always resemble a straight line. Sometimes it curls back in on itself like a horseshoe, with the hard left and hard right ending up closer to each other than to the moderates in their midst.

This idea has always had a whiff of pub logic about it. It turns out, however, that psychological science backs it up.

A recent paper by Jan-Willem van Prooijen and André Krouwel explores the psychology of political extremists on both ends of the spectrum. It identifies four key traits that both tend to have in common, and which distinguish them from moderates:

Psychological distress

Cognitive simplicity

Overconfidence

Intolerance

So while the radical left and radical right might disagree on just about everything - immigration, inequality, pineapple on pizza - they still resemble each other in some deep and rather unflattering ways.

Let’s take a tour.

1. Psychological Distress

First up: psychological distress - a gnawing sense of meaninglessness born of anxious uncertainty.

The idea here is that when people feel lost, small, or insignificant, they often go searching for something that will make them feel found, big, and important. Enter ideology - and the more extreme, the better. Extremist ideologies turn a complicated, chaotic world into a battle between good and evil, right and wrong, us and them.

Recent research supports this proposal: People experiencing psychological distress are more likely to gravitate toward radical ideologies, whether on the left or on the right. This clashes with traditional thinking in social psychology, according to which distress, uncertainty, and threat tend only to push people rightward. Apparently, any port will do in a psychological storm, as long as it offers a sense of purpose and clarity.

2. Cognitive Simplicity

Next, we have cognitive simplicity: the tendency to view the world in stark black-and-white terms.

Life is complex. Immigration policy is complex. Climate change is complex. Even choosing what to watch on Netflix is complex if you think too hard about it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, nuance starts to feel less like insight and more like a burden. That’s where extremist ideologies come in. They offer a comforting alternative: simple answers to the complex questions of life.

In one study, both far-left and far-right respondents believed that the EU refugee crisis had a simple solution - they just disagreed on what it was. Moderates, in contrast, were more likely to recognize that the issue was, in fact, horrendously complicated.

The quest for cognitive simplicity can also be seen in conspiracy thinking. Whether it’s chemtrails or the Koch brothers, the far-left and far-right are both prone to conspiracy theories. The theories each side holds differ wildly, but the appeal is the same: a straightforward (if sinister) explanation for a messy world.

3. Overconfidence

This one follows logically from the last: If you see the world in simple terms, you're more likely to think that you’re right about it. This opens the door to an unwelcome guest: overconfidence.

Political extremists - whether waving red flags or wearing red caps - tend to think their views are not just correct, but obviously correct. They’re also more prone to “belief superiority”: the conviction that their views aren’t just true, but also morally and intellectually superior to everyone else’s.

Unfortunately for the extremists, belief superiority isn’t a great predictor of actual knowledge. In fact, one study spanning 45 nations and more than 63,000 participants, found that political extremists are less knowledgeable than moderates - particularly the slightly left and slightly right. In short, those who shout the loudest may understand the least.

4. Intolerance

Finally, we come to intolerance - perhaps the most obvious and most worrying of all four traits.

Extremists on both sides tend to view people with opposing views not just as wrong, but as morally deficient. And when you believe you’re defending the one true path to salvation - whether that’s socialism or nationalism - it becomes easier to justify shutting out, shouting down, or even punishing those who disagree.

Traditionally, intolerance was seen as a uniquely right-wing pathology. And true enough, conservatives are more likely to be biased against certain groups. But leftists aren’t immune to bias. They have their own collection of prejudices, often aimed at groups they associate with right-wing thinking - Christians, businesspeople, and the like.

The main takeaway? Political orientation is a fuzzy predictor of intolerance. Political extremism, on the other hand, is a much stronger one.

Final Thoughts: Horseshoe Theory, Revisited

What does it all mean?

It means that although left-wing and right-wing extremists might seem like polar opposites, they’re more like estranged siblings. They’re shaped by similar psychological forces, just channeled in different ideological directions.

None of this is to say that all radicals are bad, or all moderates wise. History is full of moderate cowards and radical heroes. But if you’re ever tempted to paint your political opponents as uniquely irrational, intolerant, or deluded… well, take a look in the horseshoe-shaped mirror first.

-

Abstract

In this article, we examine psychological features of extreme political ideologies. In what ways are political left- and right-wing extremists similar to one another and different from moderates? We propose and review four interrelated propositions that explain adherence to extreme political ideologies from a psychological perspective. We argue that (a) psychological distress stimulates adopting an extreme ideological outlook; (b) extreme ideologies are characterized by a relatively simplistic, black-and-white perception of the social world; (c) because of such mental simplicity, political extremists are overconfident in their judgments; and (d) political extremists are less tolerant of different groups and opinions than political moderates. In closing, we discuss how these psychological features of political extremists increase the likelihood of conflict among groups in society.

[..]

Discussion

The four psychological features discussed here suggest that political extremism is fueled by feelings of distress and is reflected in cognitive simplicity, overconfidence, and intolerance. These insights are important to understanding how political polarization increases political instability and the likelihood of conflict between groups in society. Excessive confidence in the moral superiority of one’s own ideological beliefs impedes meaningful interaction and cooperation with different ideological groups and structures political decision making as a zero-sum game with winners and losers. Strong moral convictions consistently decrease people’s ability to compromise and even increase a willingness to use violence to reach ideological goals (Skitka, 2010). These processes are exacerbated by people’s tendency to selectively expose themselves to people and ideas that validate their own convictions. For instance, both information and misinformation selectively spread in online echo chambers of like-minded people (Del Vicario et al., 2016).

This article extends current insights in at least three ways. First, the features proposed here help to explain why throughout the past century not only extreme-right but also extreme-left movements (e.g., socialism, communism) have thrived in times of crisis (Midlarsky, 2011). Second, understanding the mind-set of extremists in all corners of the political spectrum is important in times of polarization and populist rhetoric. The current propositions provide insights into why traditionally moderate parties in the EU have suffered substantial electoral losses. In particular, the support for well-established parties on the moderate left (e.g., social democrats) and moderate right (e.g., Christian democrats) has dropped in recent years, whereas the support for left- and right-wing populist parties has increased (Krouwel, 2012). Third, the present arguments are based on evidence from multiple countries with different political systems (van Prooijen & Krouwel, 2017), which suggests that they apply to both two-party systems (e.g., the United States) and multiparty systems (e.g., many European countries).

Of importance, the features presented here can have both negative and positive societal implications. Many movements that were once considered radical have been responsible for important social change (e.g., human-rights movements). For instance, in the study by Tetlock and colleagues (1994), not only extreme slavery advocates but also extreme abolitionists showed decreased integrative complexity compared with people considered moderate at the time; however, few people nowadays would dispute that the abolitionists were morally right (it indeed requires little cognitive complexity to conclude that slavery is wrong). People can endorse both harmful oversimplifications and simple moral truths with high confidence; moreover, intolerance of hate-driven ideological movements (e.g., White supremacism) can be compatible with moral progress.

To conclude, although there are important psychological differences between people with left-wing and people with right-wing ideologies, there are also substantial similarities between left- and right-wing extremists that differentiate them from political moderates. The features presented here provide a psychological perspective on political extremism and contribute to a more complete understanding of how political ideology predicts human cognition, emotion, and behavior.

[shadelorde]

okay so I saw someone say celiac disease isn’t a disability because ‘all you have to do is avoid gluten’ and I. I’m about to lose my shit.

are you not fucking aware of how much gluten is present in everyday life? Are you not aware how mild cross-contamination can KILL people with celiac? Are you not aware how some kids are raised EATING GLUTEN, IRREVERSIBLY destroying their immune system and the lining of their stomach because their parents didn’t know or didn’t bother to find out what was wrong?

You can help mitigate the effects of some disabilities by doing certain things, but that doesn’t make them NOT disabilities.

Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder. It is not the same as a mild intolerance. It can and will destroy your stomach and intestines.

Jesus fucking Christ.

[sawbuckplus]

[apfelhalm]

i hate having to justify my response time to messages. like! if you're not my elderly father or my partner and it isn't anything urgent, you can damn well wait one business day for a reply! it's not the end of the world!

[sl8bqqa8]

Good mood ruined. Nothing irks me more than people who deal with their insecurities/social anxieties not by reasoning with themselves, but by turning their unreasonable expectations for themselves into a virtue and then holding others to that standard, so that their fears can be recontextualised as "good" and therefore no longer something to worry about.

No, someone not noticing that their shopping cart is in the way for a second is not a bad person deserving of shame.

No, someone accidentally talking a little too loud when they're excited doesn't deserve the silent treatment from you for "embarrassing you in public."

No, someone politely asking for condiments, straws, or otherwise perfectly acceptable services from a fast food worker isn't an embarrassing Karen moment that they should feel regretful for.

Neither is asking an employee a question.

People existing in ways that are slightly "in the way" or take up some kind of societal space is not as bad as you think it is, and enforcing that on yourself is completely useless. And if you enforce those beliefs on other people, disrespectfully, go join the circus or something where your tomfoolery will serve a purpose.

The people in public you inconvenience for ⅛ of a second aren't going to remember you in 10 minutes from now when they go home. But your family and friends will remember how you wouldn't get off your high horse about being better citizens than them based on arbitrary and self-destructive/minimising actions. You do not need to offer up yourself and other people around you for ritual seppuku to gain their favour when you or someone from your party accidentally bumps into a stranger. You're just an asshole. Your virtues are not mine.

[captainrufflebanger]

I ate half a mango as part of my dinner. What're y'all bringing to my funeral?

[lifblogs]

Whumpee is so exhausted that they don’t even show any sign of pain as the torture continues.

[wheretheeternalare]

when you get on the pennsylvania turnpike there's a sign that says "Welcome to the Pennsylvania Turnpike: America's First Superhighway" and you're like huh what does that mean bc this two-lane highway doesn't seem very impressive and then you're on it for a couple hours and you realize that it being the first means they didn't know how to fucking build highways yet