• JohnDClay
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    2 days ago

    What does he mean by reactionary? I’ve usually heard it used in the context of referring to everyone who isn’t as thoroughly your flavor of communist as you’d like. Does it have a meaning predating that? Does he mean Nazi but doesn’t want to say it?

    Fundamentally, every movement is a response in some way to a prior one, so the literal meaning doesn’t really work.

    • Takapapatapaka@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      From what I know and what Wikipedia tells, reactionary means ‘who wants to return to a previous social/political situation’. I’ve also seen it used a lot in anarchist and communist discussions, mainly as a word to describe people that want to bring back the system a revolution changed, or something that changed in society.

      I see it as the other side of the ‘conservative’ coin : you are conservative until the society changes, then you are a reactionary if you want it to be ‘like it was before’

      In my experience in France, the word mostly describes right wingers who fight against social progress : inclusivity, diversity, etc.

      • JohnDClay
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        2 days ago

        Thanks, I wonder why that’s different from regressive.

        • Capsicones@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          2 hours ago

          I don’t see a fundamental difference, only that “reactionary” is favored more by leftists, and “regressive” more so by liberals. I myself would use the two interchangeably, depending on the preference of the person I’m talking to.

    • FundMECFSResearch@lemmy.blahaj.zoneOP
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      2 days ago

      Réactionnaire in French is someone who wants to uphold the current or traditional social order and opposes all social and economic changes towards inclusivity.

    • Optional@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Same thing as we mean by republiQan. Backwards-ass faux-holier-than-thou dipshits with money and power or the mistaken belief they will soon have such.