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How can this question be reasonably answered? Maybe places with high numbers of academics and articulate people can be measured but that's about it. There's m
by kristopolous 9y ago
How can this question be reasonably answered?
Maybe places with high numbers of academics and articulate people can be measured but that's about it.
There's multiple dimensions when it comes to ideology and multiple approaches to each dimension. There's even fundamentally different interpretations of the categorical differences on how to subdivide the classifications of these systems. And each of these facets have wide diversity at every nuanced level.
For instance, many San Francisco "lefties" are anarcho-capitalists who want to do away with market oversight along with having drug legalization, amnesty for all immigrants, gay rights, and unlimited gun rights for all. They want to privatize all public services and call that process "progressivism".
Some of them call themselves libertarians, others "classical liberals" and yet others will tell you long stories about how they aren't either of those... It's really quite complicated and throwing them all in a "liberal" column with people who believe entirely different things for entirely different reasons (such as, for instance, those who believe "money"(another debated term) is a fundamentally corrupting influence and the state needs to tame the market through strict oversight), is pretty incorrect. In fact, some socialists I've spoken with consider the entire libertarian project as a form of tyrannical autocracy by the ruling class - so they view those lefties as actually far-righties.
But let's pretend you can map all those out and ignore that perspective matters. Do you need population size? Representation in governments? Places of discussion?
I really can't see how to even approach this question.
- guelo 9y ago"anarchist capitalists" are just libertarians. And libertarians are just conservatives that smoke weed.
- nickik 9y agoIts always very satisfying when people who attempted to be clever, just reveal their deep seeded ignorance.
- Spooky23 9y agoLook for places with competitive elections.
- kristopolous 9y agoThat could be more an indicator of a lack of political consensus or a fractured political power then of ideological diversity. As a concrete analogy, let's pretend there's a monarchy and the king, with identical twins, dies. There can be a highly competitive power struggle in between the two heirs but not over anything ideologically different. This happens in sports all the time. There's many highly competitive sports games, but the two teams are still playing the same game by the same rules; they don't represent different ideologies.
- Spooky23 9y agoThe "animal spirits" associated with a functional democratic process foster a culture where diversity of thought is at least possible. I live in city recovering from an extreme -- a long era of domination by an all-powerful, mafia-like political machine. 40 years ago, even uttering an idea not in line with the machine would result in retaliation. Talk to someone identified as an enemy, and your street doesn't get plowed. Do anything more, and your relatives will be blackballed from employment.
- nickik 9y ago> For instance, many San Francisco "lefties" are anarcho-capitalists That seems a bit strange. I know quite a bit about anarcho-capitalism, but I have never, never ever heard anybody claim they were 'left'. In fact generally 'leftism' is associated with socialism and the exact opposite of what AnCaps want.
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- kristopolous 9y agoIf you use a non-technical approximation of the term as the placeholder for the true bearers of liberty and freedom, then sure. As far as others considering them "lefties", to some people, a few checkboxes put you in a generalized "leftist/liberal/fascist/democrat/communist" category, which these people consider to all be the same thing. For instance: pro-immigrant, gay rights, and weed-legalization would be the end of the discussion for them. Their analysis is over and they don't care to discuss it any further. There's a lot of people like that. I meet them frequently.
- LyndsySimon 9y agoI'm an ancap, and live in rural Arkansas. I wouldn't describe myself as "leftist"... but many of the people around me probably would. When I was in Charlottesville, VA, many of the people around me there would have described me as "right wing" or even "alt-right". In our binary political system, people have a hard time describing people who oppose them without assuming they are members of the "others".