Leftsplaining
By Leo Gura - May 29, 2025
I’m coining a new term: Leftsplaining
Leftsplaining is like mansplaining, but by a leftist.
Leftsplaining is the annoying phenomena when a relatively educated, cocky leftist hits you with a barrage of trite arguments, facts, citations, and history which you already know and have taken into account, in order to distract from the larger point being made about the leftist view being limited, incomplete, skewed, unrealistic, and paradigm-locked. To leftsplain is to say whatever needs to be said to avoid ever admitting or even noticing that the leftist view on a given issue is limited, incomplete, biased, paradigm-locked, and not the highest, deepest, realest, or most holistic understanding possible.
Lily Rothman of The Atlantic defined mansplaining as “explaining without regard to the fact that the explainee knows more than the explainer”, which transfers beautifully to our definition of leftsplaining. The most annoying aspect of leftsplaining is that it assumes it is a higher perspective than the one it’s being presented with. This assumption is usually based in a sense of moral superiority because the leftist is an impassioned champion of social justice — the most important value, according to the leftist.
Leftsplaining especially occurs when trying to show a staunch leftist an Integral Tier 2 perspective which is more nuanced and explanatory than leftism but which the leftist must deny as it runs counter to leftist group-think and ideological commitments. Leftsplaining is an unconscious defense mechanism that keeps leftists locked in Stage Green, from evolving beyond leftism into a more serious and realistic Tier 2 understanding of political reality. Leftsplaining is often done by the leftist in a smug, arrogant, judgmental, closedminded, self-righteous manner which assumes his view is morally superior to the more realistic and complex one you are presenting, framing your Tier 2 view as centrist, neoliberal, “3rd way”, or crypto right-wing. Leftsplaining loves to frame any point that challenges the leftist paradigm as a dangerous capitulation to the right that we cannot afford.
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Example 1: When a leftist leftsplains the history of Israeli occupation and colonization in the Palestine-Israeli issue — which your view already takes into account — while ignoring the larger point being made to him about the limits, distortions, and inadequacies of the leftist view on this issue.
Example 2: When a leftist leftsplains Marxist theory to you as you point out the legitimate virtues of capitalism and legitimate problems of socialism. Any higher, Tier 2 point you make is quickly smothered over with more trite Stage Green leftsplaining while accusing you of being a dreaded neoliberal.
Example 3: When a leftist leftsplains how evil the West has been in their imperial, colonial exploitation of the 3rd world when you point out the underdevelopment of the Middle East. No matter how much you try to show that the Middle East is underdeveloped for organic home-grown reasons, the leftist will leftsplain it away by blaming the West and may even accuse you of being racist or Islamophobic, because hey, all cultures and people are supposed to be equal.
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Examples of usage in a sentence:
“I’ve had enough of your leftsplaining.”
“Hasan Piker is a professional leftsplainer.”
“He proceeded to leftsplain to us how corporate profits are exploitation of labor according to Karl Marx.”
“She indignantly leftsplained how anyone on the left who opposes trans women in girls sports is not a real leftist but a closeted right-wing transphobe.”
“It was impossible to explain Integral Theory to that group of socialists because they could not stop leftsplaining.”
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Video example:
Skip to timestamp: 15:20
Warning: Be careful not to overuse this leftsplaining concept, as it can easily become a thought-terminating cliche. Sometimes a leftist explanation is valid or insightful. No one has a monopoly on ‘splaining.
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