"Progressive opposition to the current status quo," compare to reactionaries, who are also often opposed to the current status quo, but who want to retract the gains that have been made by the progressives - while the progressives want to take more gains. Centrists, I would say, are those who fight on behalf of the current status quo, believing that any sort of change is bad.
The major difference between the anti-capitalists and the capitalists is that the anti-capitalists generally feel that any advocacy for capitalism is centrist opposition to change, while the capitalist progressives feel that they can take more gains within the capitalist system. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Stalin's opinion on the social democrats, but within their own self-perception they are a progressive, and therefore leftist, force.
And then for thoroughness I would define progressivism as flattening hierarchies, and reaction as creating and reinforcing them - and importantly I would say that intent trumps result here. In the 18th and 19th centuries, liberals certainly believed that they were flattening hierarchies by eliminating Divine Right and replacing it with the market, and it wasn't until the socialists came along with their critiques of capitalism that it became clear that the market the liberals thought would liberate everyone was actually making an all-new even-more-unequal hierarchy instead.
"Progressive opposition to the current status quo," compare to reactionaries, who are also often opposed to the current status quo, but who want to retract the gains that have been made by the progressives - while the progressives want to take more gains. Centrists, I would say, are those who fight on behalf of the current status quo, believing that any sort of change is bad.
The major difference between the anti-capitalists and the capitalists is that the anti-capitalists generally feel that any advocacy for capitalism is centrist opposition to change, while the capitalist progressives feel that they can take more gains within the capitalist system. I'm sure everyone here is familiar with Stalin's opinion on the social democrats, but within their own self-perception they are a progressive, and therefore leftist, force.
And then for thoroughness I would define progressivism as flattening hierarchies, and reaction as creating and reinforcing them - and importantly I would say that intent trumps result here. In the 18th and 19th centuries, liberals certainly believed that they were flattening hierarchies by eliminating Divine Right and replacing it with the market, and it wasn't until the socialists came along with their critiques of capitalism that it became clear that the market the liberals thought would liberate everyone was actually making an all-new even-more-unequal hierarchy instead.