I just think all these terms get thrown around haphazardly by most people. Right wing politicians would love to blur the lines between Leftist and left-ish. So even though you might be using it in a more technical way, I just don’t think that’s how it’s always perceived, especially for those who aren’t actually that involved in politics, and don’t really know the difference. You can take this advice or leave it, but I think you’d get less pushback if you subbed “leftist” for “left extremist” or something like that.