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Because the people who read this site generally lean leftward.
by gozur88 10y ago
Because the people who read this site generally lean leftward.
- flukus 10y agoDo they? If I had to characterize the political leanings of the majority of software devs it would be libertarian.
- astazangasta 10y agoYou can be a left-libertarian or a right-libertarian. Left vs. Right is about whether you favor the interests of the people or of the elites; a libertarian is usually someone who doesn't particularly care for a strong government. Says nothing about whether they are generally opposed to elite power.
- tnones 10y agoA better model is that "left" opposes oppression and favors care, empathy and equity, while "right" opposes barbarism and favors loyalty, family and just rewards. Most right wingers would e.g. see the dominance of left-wing thought in academia and entertainment as its own form of elite power, an unearned and unwarranted influence not based on merit, which only pays lips service to its own ideals of rationality and impartiality.
- gozur88 10y agoI would have said at the lowest level the left tends to prioritize equality while the right prioritizes freedom to the extent the values come into conflict.
- flukus 10y agoAnd then you have the regressive left lately that seems to hate the idea of equality.
- astazangasta 10y agoOriginally (in the French Revolution) "left" vs. "right" was about "the people" vs. "the aristocracy & the church". At the time this put a neat division between "power" and "powerless". Then we had a century or two of democratic power being used to pillory the rich; the boundaries have become confused. I think the useful distinction is still the same - one should always fight against power, wherever it is strongest. Sometimes, in the modern day, this means supporting government. But most often it means opposing the conjunction of state and private power, which still, as in the early days before the French Revolution, continue to travel together.
- jnordwick 10y agoNo way. Most of the tech crowd definitely tends to be technocratic socialists: they have this unflinching belief that things can be planned if you just put the smartest people in the room on it (no surprise -- people that tend to have the ideas as them). It is no surprise that socialism is often favored by the elites and when the everyman rejects it, the elites stick their noses up and pout, "They're just too stupid to know what is in their own best interest - we should be in charge. If only they knew that!"
- s_kilk 10y agoNot even remotely, especially if you zoom out from the Valley Bubble.