Hmmm. Let's be real, no one really likes talking politics. So, allow me to lift the dark cloud of Kildoo's wordy-and-perhaps-at-points-correct socio-political peroration by not talking politics.
Particularly, don't let me talk about how naive and anally-violated we Americans are, so much so that we think that freedom is the ability to take sides on pointless, overpublicized issues constantly used by the media to sell papers and boost ratings.
No, wait. I think I want to lay some things down...I might as well.
To tell the truth, most of America doesn't care. The rest of America thinks it's enough of a big deal that we need to talk about it, and take warring sides, as if people with an opposing viewpoint are suddenly going to lick nuts and change their mind.
I've got some real and pointful rules to follow.
Worry about abortion if you're a pregnant mother or a fetus.
Worry about feminism if you're a woman who feels some level of inequality in the system and truly wants equality, or at least more comparable harmony with the opposite gender. And that means that you have to like men to be a feminist, I believe. Cause men like women, and a lot of them are masculinists.
Worry about gay rights if, you're gay. If you're not gay, don't make a fuss either way, cause it shouldn't matter. It's not like the gay community is suddenly going to convert everybody in your neighborhood like they're Mormons, or some kind of vampires of sexual orientation. But if they do, it'll solve the problem of overpopulation.

That having been said, I agree with Kildoo on many points, many many points, including the most important, that "feminism" is pretty ridiculous. And I make my declaration now, I still consider myself leftist even though I don't defend feminism, gay rights, or abortion, the totems of the stereotypical liberal.

Let's think outside the box, rather than fretting myself over the welfare of the affluent west, assure me that people around the world are getting fed, clothed, and recieving some amount of basic health care, and that people have some semblance of a future without a big cancerous hole in the ozone layer. This is the only thing I consider myself leftist for. But if these are things that plague your conscience, I take your side too.
Rather than seeing myself at ideological war with every side, I more consider myself a man worried about one thing: the overall well-being of the human race, which primarily means that when it comes to politics, what's best for the children is the most important thing. For the kids, man. For the future.