and allows you to have local variables of the same name within the method
I've always found it hilarious how Pythonistas claim that Python is the opposite of TMTOWTDI. They point to the enforced whitespace as an example.
But wait, self doesn't have to be named self! Call it thingy if you want! Wait, you don't need to worry about those so-called private variables! Just access them with _classname__variable! Oh, and everything else is public, lollers! You don't need accessor methods, just change the variable directly! Oh, shit, did you just fuck up your refactoring by exposing internal implementation details?! QUICK, we'll hack on properties for ya! AHAHAHAHAHA!
Python is full of stupid shit and completely arbitrary crap like this. The syntax is full of fail, starting with __ and """, but it goes way deeper than that. It's almost as bad as Perl, except that the Python bunch and their faggot "Pythonic way" (how many fucking times have I heard "This is the pythonic way to do things", or "This code isn't very pythonic"?) are too conceited to realise their language sucks ass.
Python is the Java of the scripting world: fast, verbose, trying to be corporate (lol zope), and full of fags and dumb shit. hi2u pythonic