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Destroying is a bit of an overstatement. Unfortunately we live in a political climate, not only in Poland, that whenever left-wing candidates lose an election,

Destroying is a bit of an overstatement. Unfortunately we live in a political climate, not only in Poland, that whenever left-wing candidates lose an election, it's populism and backsliding on democracy. But if the candidate that was supposed to win, wins, companies are all foreign owned and NGOs control all spheres of life, then it's freedom and democracy.

trasz 5y ago
Except there were no left-wing candidates here. Poland has effectively two-party system, with both parties being somewhat right-wing.
- p_l 5y ago
  Even worse, majority of politicians in two biggest party come from fracturing of previous right-wing party...
- orloffm 5y ago
  And another view on that is that they are both left-wing socialists who want to regulate and tax everything and who vote the same on all major issues, from tax increases to immigration. The recent example being the increase of traffic fines.
  - trasz 5y ago
    Ah, a Konfederacja fan! (For context: in Poland people who demonstrate the kind of political illiteracy displayed in the comment above generally vote for Konfederacja party, which can't be easily described in traditional categories due to how illiterate it is.)
lkrubner 5y ago
The political competition in Poland is between the center-right and the far-right. If you look at someone like Donald Tusk, the stuff he promotes is all right-wing stuff: free markets, foreign investment, free movement of capital, minimal government oversight of the economy. It's pretty much the standard right-wing agenda of the last 100 years. He's simply moderate compared to someone like Kaczyński.
hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
In the case of Poland, traditional denominations left-right are meaningless. In economic terms, the current government is very leftist: it seeks the votes of the poorest citizens, increases the tax burden of those who earn above average and so on. In many aspects, they are very similar to past socialist governments before 1989. Paradoxically, the officially leftist party that actually ruled Poland for some time was quite progressive in economic terms. So, regarding Poland, instead of using terms like 'left-right', it makes more sense to use something like the Nolan Chart. This would make the current government of Poland closer to the area of "authoritarian," that is, restricting both economic and personal freedom.
- max002 5y ago
  Cuerrent gov is left? Omg. They support and pay money for ultra right organisation and racist movements! Populism is not "left"!
  - hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
    I'm not sure you understood my comment. What I mean is that traditional denominations like left-right are completely inadequate. It's like arguing that the NSDAP was a leftist party since they had "sozialistische" in the name - trying to cast multi-dminensional phenomena onto one dimension results not just in inadequacy but completely obscures the actual situation. In the case of the current ruling party, they certainly brand themselves as right-wing and they want to occupy the whole spectrum from the center to the right. However, their way of thinking in economic terms, their dislike of private business, their understanding of the function of the government and local government, of centralization, public vs private property etc. - all this is very much related to their experience of the past socialist regime. The reforms they are doing right now basically mean taking money from individual people running their own businesses and transferring them to the rest, creating one of the most weird taxation schemes Poland saw so far.

trasz 5y ago

Except there were no left-wing candidates here. Poland has effectively two-party system, with both parties being somewhat right-wing.

p_l 5y ago
Even worse, majority of politicians in two biggest party come from fracturing of previous right-wing party...
orloffm 5y ago
And another view on that is that they are both left-wing socialists who want to regulate and tax everything and who vote the same on all major issues, from tax increases to immigration. The recent example being the increase of traffic fines.
- trasz 5y ago
  Ah, a Konfederacja fan! (For context: in Poland people who demonstrate the kind of political illiteracy displayed in the comment above generally vote for Konfederacja party, which can't be easily described in traditional categories due to how illiterate it is.)

lkrubner 5y ago

The political competition in Poland is between the center-right and the far-right. If you look at someone like Donald Tusk, the stuff he promotes is all right-wing stuff: free markets, foreign investment, free movement of capital, minimal government oversight of the economy. It's pretty much the standard right-wing agenda of the last 100 years. He's simply moderate compared to someone like Kaczyński.

hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago

In the case of Poland, traditional denominations left-right are meaningless. In economic terms, the current government is very leftist: it seeks the votes of the poorest citizens, increases the tax burden of those who earn above average and so on. In many aspects, they are very similar to past socialist governments before 1989. Paradoxically, the officially leftist party that actually ruled Poland for some time was quite progressive in economic terms. So, regarding Poland, instead of using terms like 'left-right', it makes more sense to use something like the Nolan Chart. This would make the current government of Poland closer to the area of "authoritarian," that is, restricting both economic and personal freedom.

max002 5y ago
Cuerrent gov is left? Omg. They support and pay money for ultra right organisation and racist movements! Populism is not "left"!
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y ago
  I'm not sure you understood my comment. What I mean is that traditional denominations like left-right are completely inadequate. It's like arguing that the NSDAP was a leftist party since they had "sozialistische" in the name - trying to cast multi-dminensional phenomena onto one dimension results not just in inadequacy but completely obscures the actual situation. In the case of the current ruling party, they certainly brand themselves as right-wing and they want to occupy the whole spectrum from the center to the right. However, their way of thinking in economic terms, their dislike of private business, their understanding of the function of the government and local government, of centralization, public vs private property etc. - all this is very much related to their experience of the past socialist regime. The reforms they are doing right now basically mean taking money from individual people running their own businesses and transferring them to the rest, creating one of the most weird taxation schemes Poland saw so far.