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Ummm, leftism has a long history of invasive mass surveillance and questionable social engineering practices, so I don’t really see the contradiction here...

coldtea 8y ago
Well, most of the fighting against "invasive mass surveillance and questionable social engineering practices" has also been done by leftists, so there's that... Centrist average Joes usually don't care about such things, and right wingers applaud them to help the police and such. As for libertarians they are against them when it's by the government, but fine with them when a private company (even one the size of a small nation) does it as part of a "voluntary" employment contract.
- aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
  True. There’s the hippie leftist archetype, and the commissar leftist archetype. It’s a spectrum, so they say!
  - andrewingram 8y ago
    To me spectrum implies a single dimension, i.e. the spectrum of light is just based on wavelength. But this metaphor doesn't really fit with politics, which at best can be reduced to two dimensions (in my opinion), and realistically is a lot more.
- roenxi 8y ago
  Realistically the left/right spectrum is orthogonal to the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum. Classic liberalism is, I think, more aligned with the right but also profoundly anti-authoritarian. Similarly, the left has a proud tradition of supporting individual liberty but also a strong tradition of suppressing it in favour of collective power. Corporations of all stripes tend towards authoritarianism though, in my view. It is a natural structure when you have agents using someone else's capital.
  - cambrico 8y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
    - Dylan16807 8y ago
      No. The claim is that all corporations tend toward authoritarianism. Left and middle and right. Not at all horseshoe theory.
rootoor 8y ago
You are conflating leftism with authorarisam

coldtea 8y ago

Well, most of the fighting against "invasive mass surveillance and questionable social engineering practices" has also been done by leftists, so there's that... Centrist average Joes usually don't care about such things, and right wingers applaud them to help the police and such. As for libertarians they are against them when it's by the government, but fine with them when a private company (even one the size of a small nation) does it as part of a "voluntary" employment contract.

aaaaaaaaaab 8y ago
True. There’s the hippie leftist archetype, and the commissar leftist archetype. It’s a spectrum, so they say!
- andrewingram 8y ago
  To me spectrum implies a single dimension, i.e. the spectrum of light is just based on wavelength. But this metaphor doesn't really fit with politics, which at best can be reduced to two dimensions (in my opinion), and realistically is a lot more.
roenxi 8y ago
Realistically the left/right spectrum is orthogonal to the authoritarian/libertarian spectrum. Classic liberalism is, I think, more aligned with the right but also profoundly anti-authoritarian. Similarly, the left has a proud tradition of supporting individual liberty but also a strong tradition of suppressing it in favour of collective power. Corporations of all stripes tend towards authoritarianism though, in my view. It is a natural structure when you have agents using someone else's capital.
- cambrico 8y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
  - Dylan16807 8y ago
    No. The claim is that all corporations tend toward authoritarianism. Left and middle and right. Not at all horseshoe theory.

rootoor 8y ago

You are conflating leftism with authorarisam