Can we also point out that right-wing authoritarian is an oxymoron...
Right = small government + individualism.
People say fascism is on the right because Hitler was nationalistic while completely mind-holing the left-wing ultra-nationalistic China.
People say white nationalism is on the right because...I don't know...White people? It's on the left. The right believes in freedom of association.
Libertarians are the most anti-authoritarian group there is yet they share several beliefs with democrats like legalizing drugs, permissiveness towards sexual deviance and abortion, being non-religious, freedom for all kinds of obscenity, anti-militarism etc. The left-right paradigm is a deceptive snipe hunt for understanding politics because it can't be plotted out neatly on a chart as it's extremely subjective. It's better to leave the left-right categorization alone and only judge issues on their own merits, because the left-right paradigm does have some influence on people to accept or reject ideas based on where they believe they fall on the political spectrum; not the ideas alone.
"accept or deny beliefs based on where they believe they fall on the political spectrum"
Probably the biggest problem with democracy and esp 2 party system is the need to align all of society's issues into either left OR right. Not only does it reduce critical thinking on a per-issue basis it also strips each issue of nuance as the division comes down to unreconcilable regurgitation of the same conservative and liberal talking points.
Very few can really debate the actual issues when all they know is how to parrot what they heard on fox or cnn or breitbart or huffpost. And at that level of idiocy the two sides are not even debating the same points.
"Not only does it reduce critical thinking on a per-issue basis it also strips each issue of nuance as the division comes down to unreconcilable regurgitation of the same conservative and liberal talking points."
I wonder if the two party system was designed partially for that purpose.
One thing Norm MacDonald said that has always stuck with me is, he was asked whether he was a Democrat or a Republican and he said neither. IIRC, his reasoning was that he thought it was ridiculous for someone to be expected to subscribe to the entire "basket of beliefs" of either party, because surely there must be at least one issue that a person disagrees with the party on.
Can we also point out that right-wing authoritarian is an oxymoron...
Right = small government + individualism. People say fascism is on the right because Hitler was nationalistic while completely mind-holing the left-wing ultra-nationalistic China. People say white nationalism is on the right because...I don't know...White people? It's on the left. The right believes in freedom of association.
Libertarians are the most anti-authoritarian group there is yet they share several beliefs with democrats like legalizing drugs, permissiveness towards sexual deviance and abortion, being non-religious, freedom for all kinds of obscenity, anti-militarism etc. The left-right paradigm is a deceptive snipe hunt for understanding politics because it can't be plotted out neatly on a chart as it's extremely subjective. It's better to leave the left-right categorization alone and only judge issues on their own merits, because the left-right paradigm does have some influence on people to accept or reject ideas based on where they believe they fall on the political spectrum; not the ideas alone.
"accept or deny beliefs based on where they believe they fall on the political spectrum"
Probably the biggest problem with democracy and esp 2 party system is the need to align all of society's issues into either left OR right. Not only does it reduce critical thinking on a per-issue basis it also strips each issue of nuance as the division comes down to unreconcilable regurgitation of the same conservative and liberal talking points.
Very few can really debate the actual issues when all they know is how to parrot what they heard on fox or cnn or breitbart or huffpost. And at that level of idiocy the two sides are not even debating the same points.
Very good comment.
"Not only does it reduce critical thinking on a per-issue basis it also strips each issue of nuance as the division comes down to unreconcilable regurgitation of the same conservative and liberal talking points."
I wonder if the two party system was designed partially for that purpose.
One thing Norm MacDonald said that has always stuck with me is, he was asked whether he was a Democrat or a Republican and he said neither. IIRC, his reasoning was that he thought it was ridiculous for someone to be expected to subscribe to the entire "basket of beliefs" of either party, because surely there must be at least one issue that a person disagrees with the party on.