• axont [she/her, comrade/them]
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      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Broadly it refers to any sort of position that claims to escape or transcend both liberalism and socialism. More specifically it refers to a kind of watered down legislative version of fascism, using a punitive regulatory state to push a reactionary social agenda and specific economic aims. There are a bunch of third positionists in eastern europe.

      • anaesidemus [he/him]
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        3 years ago

        is it like Bonapartism? I reccently watched that Second Thought video

        • RedDawn [he/him]
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          edit-2
          3 years ago

          I want to say Bonapartism refers more to when a military figure does a coup and subverts a revolution, “third positionists” tend to want to take power electorally by presenting themselves as a shiny new alternative, but in both cases revolutionary sentiment is co-opted to support something closer to the status quo and in both cases the appeal to the masses is that the governing party is perceived to be above or outside of the class struggle as opposed to directly siding with either of the two major classes … but I’m also no expert. The president of El Salvador for example throws off big third positionist vibes in my opinion.

          • anaesidemus [he/him]
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            3 years ago

            the Second Thought guy said that Macron and Le Pen were Bonapartists, maybe it's synonymous. Either way it's bad.