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This topic is anemic without going back to the historical foundations of "left" and "right" wings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_sp

This topic is anemic without going back to the historical foundations of "left" and "right" wings. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_spectrum#Origins_in_the_French_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left%E2%80%93right_political_s...

ianai 5y ago
From there: The terms "left" and "right" appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left. One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: "We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp".
- beebeepka 5y ago
  From the same wiki article: Beginning in the early twentieth century, the terms "left" and "right" came to be associated with specific political ideologies and were used to describe citizens' political beliefs, gradually replacing the terms "reds" and "the reaction". The words Left and Right were at first used by their opponents as slurs.
vinceguidry 5y ago
The most salient split in politics these days is between leftism and liberalism. Leftism is about a direction, liberalism is about a philosophy. The split is similarly old and international. What we call liberalism nowadays is probably better called progressivism.
- beebeepka 5y ago
  What's the difference between "direction" and "philosophy" in this context?
  - vinceguidry 5y ago
    A philosophy is a set of beliefs. In the case of liberalism, though specific liberals may be all over the map in terms of what they consider the most important of these, they all share a common belief in liberty, consent of the governed, and equality under the law. Liberals, by and large, are happy with slow progress towards a better world. They get very suspicious when people start advocating plans of action that don't fit with the platform. Leftists are interested in an ideal society, according to leftist political thought that's generally thought to have originated with Marx. Though individuals may have different ideals, they're all organized around certain lines. The ideal communist society and the ideal anarchist society both lie in a direction we call 'left', and the same sets of political tactics move in that direction. Leftists are more interested in the direction than in the philosophy. The big political divide in the 17-1800s was monarchy over republic. Republics won that fight, now we're in the tail end of the fight between conservatism and progressivism. Now the left has to decide just what sort of course to chart to get to a better world.
    - soco 5y ago
      Good points. Why is this a division though? You said it yourself, they're "all over the map". We don't have people x vs y, we have lots of ideas and lots of resultant personal directions. The real problem is having only two parties to act on those directions, shoehorning anything different into their two main discourses.
      - vinceguidry 5y ago
        The two-party division in the US isn't as big of a hindrance as is commonly thought. Both major parties are big tent parties that play the role that coalitions do in parliamentary systems. Third parties play the role of feeding ideas into the political system and serving as a barometer for where the winds are shifting.

ianai 5y ago

From there: The terms "left" and "right" appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president's right and supporters of the revolution to his left. One deputy, the Baron de Gauville, explained: "We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp".

beebeepka 5y ago
From the same wiki article: Beginning in the early twentieth century, the terms "left" and "right" came to be associated with specific political ideologies and were used to describe citizens' political beliefs, gradually replacing the terms "reds" and "the reaction". The words Left and Right were at first used by their opponents as slurs.

vinceguidry 5y ago

The most salient split in politics these days is between leftism and liberalism. Leftism is about a direction, liberalism is about a philosophy. The split is similarly old and international. What we call liberalism nowadays is probably better called progressivism.

beebeepka 5y ago
What's the difference between "direction" and "philosophy" in this context?
- vinceguidry 5y ago
  A philosophy is a set of beliefs. In the case of liberalism, though specific liberals may be all over the map in terms of what they consider the most important of these, they all share a common belief in liberty, consent of the governed, and equality under the law. Liberals, by and large, are happy with slow progress towards a better world. They get very suspicious when people start advocating plans of action that don't fit with the platform. Leftists are interested in an ideal society, according to leftist political thought that's generally thought to have originated with Marx. Though individuals may have different ideals, they're all organized around certain lines. The ideal communist society and the ideal anarchist society both lie in a direction we call 'left', and the same sets of political tactics move in that direction. Leftists are more interested in the direction than in the philosophy. The big political divide in the 17-1800s was monarchy over republic. Republics won that fight, now we're in the tail end of the fight between conservatism and progressivism. Now the left has to decide just what sort of course to chart to get to a better world.
  - soco 5y ago
    Good points. Why is this a division though? You said it yourself, they're "all over the map". We don't have people x vs y, we have lots of ideas and lots of resultant personal directions. The real problem is having only two parties to act on those directions, shoehorning anything different into their two main discourses.
    - vinceguidry 5y ago
      The two-party division in the US isn't as big of a hindrance as is commonly thought. Both major parties are big tent parties that play the role that coalitions do in parliamentary systems. Third parties play the role of feeding ideas into the political system and serving as a barometer for where the winds are shifting.