3 ms·

Also worth mentioning that the window doesn't have a set direction in the short term. It can move back and forth, expand, and shrink fairly arbitrarily. It also

by kodah 4y ago

Also worth mentioning that the window doesn't have a set direction in the short term. It can move back and forth, expand, and shrink fairly arbitrarily. It also largely depends on the spectrum parameters specified. I don't believe in it as a concrete, measureable thing; I do believe in it as a signal for disposition over time.

sillysaurusx 4y ago
Over the long term, though, it moves left. Opinions in 1800 were far further right than far-right of today. It’s one reason the old tend to be conservative. They were born at a fixed slice of the Overton window, which moved left, carrying them right.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  > Over the long term, though, it moves left. Opinions in 1800 were far further right than far-right of today. 1800 is a weird baseline to pick, but even so I’m skeptical.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    1900 works too. I was omitting an explicit mention of slavery, but a woman’s right to vote might be a better base.
    - eyelidlessness 4y ago
      1900 is even weirder to be honest. The shorter your time scale the more debatable the shift. Since 1800, despite abolition of chattel slavery, slavery has been constitutionally protected as punishment for crimes and along with it came the carceral state. Since 1900 there have been many voting rights expansions, and a continuous program not just to curtail voting rights but to undermine the concept of the validity of elections themselves. On a short enough scale, the trend line is probably what we’d call “leftward” today. But on a longer scale I don’t think that’s the case. Not that Marx would approve of this appropriation of his analysis (because it wouldn’t support his theory of progress either), but it was a “primitive communism” which came before feudalism and eventually capitalism.

3 ms·

Also worth mentioning that the window doesn't have a set direction in the short term. It can move back and forth, expand, and shrink fairly arbitrarily. It also

by kodah 4y ago

sillysaurusx 4y ago
Over the long term, though, it moves left. Opinions in 1800 were far further right than far-right of today. It’s one reason the old tend to be conservative. They were born at a fixed slice of the Overton window, which moved left, carrying them right.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  > Over the long term, though, it moves left. Opinions in 1800 were far further right than far-right of today. 1800 is a weird baseline to pick, but even so I’m skeptical.
  - sillysaurusx 4y ago
    1900 works too. I was omitting an explicit mention of slavery, but a woman’s right to vote might be a better base.
    - eyelidlessness 4y ago
      1900 is even weirder to be honest. The shorter your time scale the more debatable the shift. Since 1800, despite abolition of chattel slavery, slavery has been constitutionally protected as punishment for crimes and along with it came the carceral state. Since 1900 there have been many voting rights expansions, and a continuous program not just to curtail voting rights but to undermine the concept of the validity of elections themselves. On a short enough scale, the trend line is probably what we’d call “leftward” today. But on a longer scale I don’t think that’s the case. Not that Marx would approve of this appropriation of his analysis (because it wouldn’t support his theory of progress either), but it was a “primitive communism” which came before feudalism and eventually capitalism.