Comment on [deleted]
thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 2 weeks agothis is why left vs. right isn’t nuanced enough for real political discussion outside of a two party system
Comment on [deleted]
thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world 2 weeks agothis is why left vs. right isn’t nuanced enough for real political discussion outside of a two party system
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
It’s why we can’t jist go around believing everybody who claims to be a leftist. We need to evaluate the actual effects of their actions. If they are oppressong the workers, they are not left wing.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
They were saying that there are more axes than left/right, and that the left/right axis is typically not one of authoritarianism.
See: libertarians and anarchocapitalists are absolutely right wing but are radically anti-authoritarian.
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Well, if we’re interested in the ideals of the people, then yes the political compass is a thing that you can use. The problem is that when you drill down into right wing “libertarianism” you find landlords and bosses. They are in fact about the freedom of coporations to own and control human beings. They are pro-slavery and neo-feudalist. That is not actually libertarian, that is pro-slavery. Right-wingers always are. So in practice, it’s just a lie.
Murray Rothbard himself said that “those who call us anarchists are not on sound etymological footing”. That’s a wanker way to say it, said by a wanker, but it’s clear he understood that words mean things.
PeriodicallyPedantic@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
That still doesn’t matter.
Sure people misrepresent (by accident or intention) what their actual political beliefs are.
But the single axis (or even two axis) political compass doesn’t really capture the nuance and especially the authoritarian aspect.
I get the feeling that by your measure, nearly everything but collectivist anarchy would be “right wing” by virtue of some axis. At which point I don’t think it’s a useful way to frame things.
naught101@lemmy.world 2 weeks ago
Labels never more useful than just as a shortcut to understanding someone’s whole nuanced belief…
Excrubulent@slrpnk.net 2 weeks ago
Yeah, bit that’s what I’m doing. I am evaluating the beliefs of authoritarians of all kinds and concluding that they are right wing.
I’m not throwing out the labels, I’m saying this left-right-auth-lib pair of dichotomies is not useful.