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> No idea what this is doing on HN. Most likely because people found it interesting. Not everyone finds the same things interesting. > which is biased underst

> No idea what this is doing on HN. Most likely because people found it interesting. Not everyone finds the same things interesting. > which is biased understatement Funny thing regarding biases in political leaning is that it's all based around context. The US, being very right-leaning, would describe one person as left-leaning while in many European countries that same person would be center or even slightly right. So it all depends. It's useful to outline where you're coming from before laying out your perspective, as it's also biased (just like mine).

keiferski 7y ago
> Funny thing regarding biases in political leaning is that it's all based around context Or it just highlights the complete uselessness of the right-left dichotomy.
- aaron-lebo 7y ago
  They use right-left in political science departments, so I'm not sure it's "useless". It just requires context. We don't look at US and EU politics on the same scale, or at the very least, EU politics are just further to the left on the universal scale. But you know that...
  - keiferski 7y ago
    > EU politics are just further to the left on the universal scale. But I don't think this is actually true or a useful statement. Many aspects of American politics are more left-wing than their European counterparts; anarchism or libertarianism, for example, roughly defined as antipathy toward the state, is often considered left-wing and is far more prevalent in the US. Left-wing politics in contemporary Europe seems to almost always include a strong state role. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_anarchism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_anarchism As I said, I don't think any sort of universal right-left dichotomy is useful. It also doesn't factor in non-traditional political thinkers, like say, Nietzsche, who could not be accurately described as right, left, or anywhere in between.
rumanator 7y ago
> Funny thing regarding biases in political leaning is that it's all based around context. There is no context on which the Republican side was not comprised of communist and socialist groups supported by Stalin's Soviet Union.

keiferski 7y ago

> Funny thing regarding biases in political leaning is that it's all based around context Or it just highlights the complete uselessness of the right-left dichotomy.

aaron-lebo 7y ago
They use right-left in political science departments, so I'm not sure it's "useless". It just requires context. We don't look at US and EU politics on the same scale, or at the very least, EU politics are just further to the left on the universal scale. But you know that...
- keiferski 7y ago
  > EU politics are just further to the left on the universal scale. But I don't think this is actually true or a useful statement. Many aspects of American politics are more left-wing than their European counterparts; anarchism or libertarianism, for example, roughly defined as antipathy toward the state, is often considered left-wing and is far more prevalent in the US. Left-wing politics in contemporary Europe seems to almost always include a strong state role. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_anarchism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_anarchism As I said, I don't think any sort of universal right-left dichotomy is useful. It also doesn't factor in non-traditional political thinkers, like say, Nietzsche, who could not be accurately described as right, left, or anywhere in between.

rumanator 7y ago

> Funny thing regarding biases in political leaning is that it's all based around context. There is no context on which the Republican side was not comprised of communist and socialist groups supported by Stalin's Soviet Union.