Ignoring the absurdity of this claim, the american left doesn't radicalize anywhere because it's a fractured mess of wannabe communists that never read karl marx in their life and centrists who think not hating black people is the peak of leftism tearing each other apart on twitter.
You do realize that you don't have to be a card carrying communist to be radical, right? While we usually think of politics as a spectrum, there is no universal law that says "you cannot be authoritarian and leftist until you start nationalizing farms". The left absolutely can radicalize while not instituting literal Communism. Many conservatives feel that the left's obsession with gender and identity politics is radical, pushed by a small minority and elevated in national conversation because that's the nature of national politics. Hell, Beto O'Rourke is a radical if you take his statement about coming to your door to take your guns. That is a radical statement, both in Texas and across the nation as a whole. Being on the left wing of American politics does not make you magically immune to being radical or authoritarian.
If your only defense of the Republican party is "well they're not technically Nazis, even though they believe the same things as the Nazis, push the same kinds of propaganda that the Nazis pushed, want the same kinds of policies that the Nazis wanted, demonize minorities the same way the Nazis did so, openly promote fascism, and attempt to overthrow democratically elected representatives", you should probably take a good hard look on exactly where you stand socially. I'm apparently not allowed to call an obvious cryptofascist a cryptofascist here, but it's super suspect when someone runs defense for a party that seeks to deny minorities human rights (unless that minority is billionaires) and not say a god damn word when said party tries to erode the humanity of groups they see themselves opposed to. So-called "centrists" are, in reality, ratchets in favor of the Republican party and a big part of the reason why we find ourselves in the political quagmire we're in today.
This is the back and forth right here. People on the left say "The GOP are Nazis and fascists." Conservatives say "There are no Nazis currently in our government, there are maybe several thousand nazis in the U.S. on a good day, and your definition of fascism essentially boils down to anyone you don't like". You say "well look at these policies the republican party supports. They're kind of like the Nazi party". I say, "The Nazis had lots of policies. They had laws against Jews, they had laws about corporations, and they had ones against animal abuse." Please be more specific. Which laws do you think the Republican party advocates for that make them Nazis? Which ones move this country closer to fascism. And then, I guarantee you, for every point you make that shows why the GOP are fascists, I can make a counterpoint that shows how the Democrats are fascists. There are plenty of things that the Democrats do that I think are authoritarian and I don't like. But you know what I don't do? I don't think everyone who supports the Democrats are fascists. I don't call them Nazis. I think both political parties have authoritarian elements and libertarian elements. And I think screeching "Nazis" at each other is imbecilic. Even in your post, you call them "cryptofascists". What's the definition of cryptofascist? Someone who you don't like, who isn't actually a Nazi, but who you want to call a Nazi because it makes you feel better about your side.
This is doubly true if you're going to push Fox News-tier propaganda about how "the left" is pro-authoritarian despite having seemingly no fucking idea what the left actually is. It boggles my mind when conservatives (which you are; or at least you buy into conservative propaganda wholesale) accuse "the left" of being communists in one breath and pro-corporate in the next. You people don't even seem to know who you're opposing. The American left encompasses everything from left-leaning neoliberals (who are sometimes authoritarian) to Marxist-Leninists and various derivatives (who are almost always authoritarian) to most varieties of anarchism (which literally isn't compatible with authoritarianism by definition), and yet conservatives are convinced it's some homogenous hivemind with unified, agreed upon goals.
I don't watch Fox news, and I genuinely believe that the left has authoritarian tendencies in the same way you think the right does. I haven't accused anyone of being Communist for one, so please dont project that onto me. One can be both "communist" and pro-corporate, China is doing an excellent job of that right now. Anarchists and Communists are not significant portions of the left. They are political minorities that do not have a place in the national discussion, in the same way that nobody cares about monarchists. They do not make up a significant block of voters or politicians, and are entirely irrelevant to the national political discussion, except as a scare tactic by the right. So yeah, when I say the left is authoritarian I mean the neoliberals and self proclaimed social democrats are authoritarian.
and yet conservatives are convinced it's some homogenous hivemind with unified, agreed upon goals.
I could say the same about the left's views on conservatives. I don't think its really useful to split hairs like this when we are talking about broad strokes trends in a political party. Unlike y'all, I don't think you guys are all fascists for supporting an authoritarian party, I just think we have different views.
This is what happens when "enlightened centrists" allow conservatives to drag the Overton window so far to the right; you end up with so many positions that are "on the left" that the term is pretty much meaningless. I'm an anarcho-syndicalist; I have almost nothing in common with your average slightly left-of-center neoliberal, and yet I find myself lumped in with them simply by virtue of the fact that we don't hate minorities, aren't super on board with Laissez-Faire capitalism, and don't want a theocratic dictatorship. That's the level of discourse we find ourselves having here in the supposed greatest country on Earth.
What a coincidence, I think the Overton window is very far to the Left right now. Seems like you have a strawman understanding of the right. Conservatives do not want to live in a theocracy and they don't hate minorities. Its cool that you don't support laissez-faire capitalism, but conservatives certainly do, as do "enlightened centrists". If you think supporting laissez-faire capitalism is a radical position in American politics than you should read a history book.
Let’s take the most radical leftists— Bernie and AoC.
What are their government policy prescriptions that suppress free speech?
What are their government or voting management policies that concentrate more political or economic power into fewer people’s hands?
(Authoritarian policies definitionally do this— they have to give some despotic individuals more authority. Stalin had many such policies for instance— what are Bernie’s?)
Why take the most radical politicians? Let's take the mainstream. Both the Trump and the Biden government colluded with Twitter to suppress persons and opinions they did not like. Throughout the later stages of COVID, Democrat lawmakers routinely extended mask mandates and kept schools shut down despite (in my opinion) a lack of real need for this, and opposed to a real need to open up society again. Joe Biden has pushed forth student loan forgiveness using a COVID relief bill, despite being told beforehand that this was unconstitutional. Democrats criticized the Great Barrington delegation despite continually saying "follow the science". And the state I live in, Hawaii, instituted a "vaccine passport" to enter businesses (which was not illegal, but was highly authoritarian in my opinion).
The Republican party has issues. Trump and his supporters seriously eroded government norms needed in a free country. He should be impeached for his actions around the riots at the Capitol. And the Republicans in office who still support him should be ashamed. I'm not going to say there are no authoritarian trends in the GOP. If you believe that the GOP as a whole is the authoritarian party, and the Democrats are the party of freedom, fine! I don't agree but I could see a case for it.
But bringing out the F word is hyperbolic and untrue. Saying "well y'know the Republicans have some policies that the Nazis had" is a silly thing to say. It's a way to denigrate people you don't agree with, and always have a way out when they point out flaws in your reasoning. You can always say "well what about the shitty things this politician said/did, and what about this policy?" But fascism isn't when you can point out several politicians who do things you disagree with. If it was, then I would be calling the Democrats fascists. But I'm not, because I have the intellectual humility to acknowledge that people have different views, and I can disagree with policies or trends or things the Democrats say without labeling the whole party as fascist
No it’s not. It’s just a makeable claim in free speech.
I gave my opinion about Sinema (which you’re also mischaracterizing) in a free speech democracy—
Yeah I'm not saying you can't say whatever you want.
It’s very easy to understand: She’s fucking the people over.
The longer better answer: From a standard Democratic/Left perspective the Republican Party is a fascist party threatening the country, and Joe Biden/Democrats having a more successful agenda/administration/democratic reforms are necessary to step away from the edge— anything that dampens that is objectively evil and worthy of genuine hatred; including Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
This is what you said. Its an us or them attitude. To rephrase what you are saying here "My opponents are fascists. My side is good and right. If you oppose anything that my side supports (and lets remember, we are talking about a government spending bill here), then you are evil and I hate you." These are your words not mine. If I were a democrat who supported the BBB Bill, I would not consider Sinema to be an evil person merely for opposing legislation I like. I would call her a shitty Democrat. I would say she's an opportunist trying to court conservative voters and its gonna end badly for her career. In fact, I agree with you on those things! But calling her evil and smearing her character is just tribalism. Its "If you're not with me, you're against me, and I hate you as a person".
That's sad. I can't imagine actually hating a person I've never met, when the only thing they ever did to me was block a government spending bill.