How is communism a leftist ideology?

Question

from what ive experienced the left have wanted to keep the government out of peoples personal lives and only put a few regulations on the economy to protect the lower and middle class. yet the left always gets associated with communisim which is nothing like the left i know. communists want the government to have control over your personal life and the economy

Answer 1

Your perception of the left-side of the political spectrum is skewed. The left is typically in favor of regulation to protect the lower and middle class. Communism's classification isn't incorrect; you are.

Answer 2

See, here lies the problem with the whole left-right political spectrum.  There is so much more than just left and right!  Think of a graph with 4 quadrants--up-down, left-right.  The up-down scale is a social scale--more authoritarian governments--wanting more say in people's personal life would be up; more libertarian or borderline anarchist governments--wanting the most personal freedom would be down.  Then, the left-right scale is an economic scale--left wanting more taxes and more services; the right wanting less taxes and less services.  

See this site:  www.politicalcompass.org  there's a much better explanation and a quiz to see where you are, and where world leaders are on the gragh.

Answer 3

the right wing would have you believe that. it is a scare tactic, nothing more.

Answer 4

You have 'leftism', which in its extreme sense is communism and is what the modern 'progressives' are steaming towards; confused with 'classical liberalism'.  The modern liberal has nothing to do with the classical liberal, though they use their PR machine to hoodwink the public into believing that they are.  

The Classical Liberal; which it sounds like you are, is mainly concerned with limiting governmental intervention to its absolute minimum.  

Oddly, many Conservatives seem to believe that this is what their side stands for, when it isn't, and has not been for a very, very long time, if ever.

The closest adherents to classical liberalism in todays political field are the Libertarians.  People are seeing the beauty in freedom again, and we are growing faster than ever.  Please, check us out... you might like what you see.

Answer 5

While the left tries to keep the government from controlling your life, they are certainly champions of the government subsidizing your life.

Answer 6

Actually, a communist society would have no governments. In a truly communist society the people would govern themselves and there would be no corruption or oppression thus no need for government.

So, to answer your question, communism is far left because if society was truly communist, there would be no need for government. Something that is too good to be true and that is why it won't work.

Answer 7

you are trying to use the concept of marxist, and liberal (classic liberal, anerican would be more likely Libertarian) interchangably, and they are not

the problem is that classic liberals, and marxists are joined at the hip in modern democratic party,

in my opinion, liberals supplying most of the votes, and marxists (leftists) supplying most of the direction

Answer 8

Think of a circle. Libertarian at the top, Communism at the bottom.  Go too far down the right OR left and you land at communism.