this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2025
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The phrase "purity test" was popularized by establishment Democrats only recently, as a thought-terminating cliché to shut down criticism of the party's drift towards the Right. (lemmy.ca)
submitted 16 hours ago by skisnow@lemmy.ca to c/progressivepolitics@lemmy.world
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A9

As the party fielded more and more candidates who championed economic-right policies in order to attract corporate donations, the idea of "purity testing" was turned into a stock phrase to attack critics using labels, instead of justifying it on its own terms.

Phrases like "moral purity" now serve two functions: firstly, to dismiss criticisms from the Left wholesale without having to discuss them directly, and secondly, to blame them for the rise of fascism.

In theory it was also supposed to serve a third function of bullying the Left into voting Democrat, but that didn't work.

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[–] makyo@lemmy.world 11 points 11 hours ago (4 children)

The Dems absolutely do use the phrase to manipulate conversation. But it's also a real problem on the left - it's one of the ways we divide ourselves into smaller and smaller groups leaving us powerless to actually drive policy. I see it happen online every single day.

[–] MonkRome@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Yeah I'm pretty far left and I've used the phrase unironically when frustrated by dialog. There are people, even in this thread that I've encountered before, that act like the exact version of leftism they believe in is the only kind that is correct and every other version makes you evil. I could agree with them on 95% of policy, but if that other 5% doesn't align I am literally Satan and so are all the candidates I support. There are people on lemmy that will act like AOC, Bernie, Mamdani, and Warren are right wing simply because they understand politics involved consensus building.

[–] kadup@lemmy.world 3 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

That's because "the dems" aren't leftists. It doesn't matter if we subdivide or not, your "leftist" party is a moderate center party drifting right year after year.

Of course you're going to have trouble gathering leftist support.

[–] MonkRome@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

You still need a majority to create policy, everyone 50% +1 is your ally, or you're not part of the conversation. You don't have to like them, but until we can get a majority of support for true leftist ideas, you have to work with people you disagree with, or you don't actually believe in democracy.

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Unfortunately, this "working with" is always a one-way street. Never do centrists say, "well, we just have to support the progressive cause to maintain party loyalty."

[–] ruuster13@lemmy.zip 1 points 4 hours ago

Case in point: the entire post.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The Dems absolutely do use the phrase to manipulate conversation.

Would be nice if they would quit capitulating to every purity test the right throws their way.

[–] makyo@lemmy.world 3 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

They are more afraid of the right than the left and we need to change that

[–] duckythescientist@sh.itjust.works 21 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Do you have any better evidence of this other than your opinion and your interpretation of a Google trend?

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 9 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago) (1 children)

I don't have a brown envelope marked "Top Secret Evil Plans" that I swiped from the DNC offices if that's what you're after. What I do have is literally every single news piece from the last decade where the phrase came up. Every article containing the phrase invariably relates to one of a right/centrist policy, a centrist candidate, or, attempts to secure funding from billionaire donors.

I could paste a long list of URLs here but it'd basically be the same as the results page for https://duckduckgo.com/?q=democrat+purity+test+news

[–] WoodScientist@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Exactly. No one ever accused Manchin or Lieberman of "purity testing" for refusing to support non-conservative positions. When a centrist digs in their heels and refuses to compromise, they're just "being pragmatic." When a progressive does it, they're "purity testing." "Vote blue no matter who" is a farce.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 0 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

If you've never encountered the phenomenon, introspect.

[–] duckythescientist@sh.itjust.works 2 points 3 hours ago

Oh I have. I just wanted to see more evidence for the claim that it was establishment Dems pushing it. I always felt it was more an issue of the terminally online leftists who treat political alignment as a social group and an identity instead of a consistent worldview. It's a big claim, and big claims require big evidence. What was provided was not persuasive, and I'd like to be persuaded if it's actually the case.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 11 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Honestly, anyone who uses "purity test" is just letting you know that they have no standards and expect you to abandon any you have.

[–] skisnow@lemmy.ca 2 points 14 hours ago

Yeah. Generally speaking if you're using a positive value as a pejorative, you're probably on the wrong side of history.

The Right did it with "political correctness", "Woke", "inclusion" and "equality", and now they're in the DNC doing it with "moral purity".

[–] muzzle@lemmy.zip 4 points 12 hours ago

The only purity test I'm willing to take: https://salsa.debian.org/debian/purity

[–] barkingspiders@infosec.pub -3 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

It's a term I've used. All 320 million of us Americans have to get along on some terms. We're a big country with a lot of subcultures and variance in needs, experience and standards of living. Defeating fascism will take a majority of those 320 million people agreeing on a complex set of values that aren't fascistic.

We need to be focusing more on finding allies that share anti-fascist beliefs than subdividing into smaller and less powerful factions. The crime of American politics is that we can't more closely align our beliefs with our representation. We are vastly under-represented for our size and technological prowess.

Look for allies, not enemies. It's always easy to find enemies, it's what the Republican messaging system excels at. Find the people who agree that fascism is wrong and grow a big enough tent to defeat it.

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 8 points 10 hours ago

Find the people who agree that fascism is wrong and grow a big enough tent to defeat it.

Maybe democrats should start agreeing that fascism is wrong instead of enabling it every chance they get.

[–] marsza@lemmy.cafe -1 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Sounds like MAGA or ML nonsense

[–] Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world 3 points 8 hours ago

Yes, yes, everyone to your left is maga.