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“Left” doesn’t mean socialism. In the long run, it comes out of the enlightenment period, quite literally. Traditionally, the left is associated with small “L”
by scoofy 3mo ago
“Left” doesn’t mean socialism. In the long run, it comes out of the enlightenment period, quite literally.
Traditionally, the left is associated with small “L” liberalism, and the right is associated with small “C” conservatism.
Generally speaking, it has been a historic debate between whether the “natural” way things are is good and prudent (e.g., monarchs, religion, castes, roles, and norms), or if the way things are should be challenged to try something that seems better (e.g., liberté, égalité, fraternité).
When one of these ideas is successfully, it is often adopted by the right, when one fails, it is often abandoned by the left. Whether or not socialism is part of the left depends on whether folks on the left think it’s an idea worth trying. In America, right now, the vast majority are still quite hesitant to include it in their platform.
- WalterBright 3mo ago[flagged]
- scoofy 3mo agoAgain, "the left" is not a homogeneous entity. When talking about "the left" we should look at the left's coalition. We don't really have significant party platforms anymore, but I can assure you "rent control" would not get passed by the Democratic Party coalition in the House of Representatives right now, much less the Senate. Associating a political coalition with their most extreme or noisy members is counterproductive. When looking for what a coalition stands for, it's better to look at the coalition member who are most productive with legislation in places they have control.
- WalterBright 3mo ago[flagged]
- scoofy 3mo agoI don’t know about Washington State, but Oregon’s rent control is capped at 7% increases after inflation per year, which isn’t exactly stopping market forces. Now, I agree with you that rent controls are bad, generally, but a system simply reasonably dampens real price increases, rather than eliminating them altogether is effectively a different kind of law. I don’t support it, but I think it’s reasonable. That from one of the most progressive states in the nation. It’s not socialism.
- WalterBright 3mo ago[flagged]
- scoofy 3mo agoI would disagree with that statement. When I talk about "rent control" I'm talking about it in the form of "general price controls" that keep the price of things from meeting supply on the demand curve. The controls in the party platform have everything to do with already subsidized housing that isn't actually on the demand curve anyway. The distinction is subtle but matters. Similarly, a price-shock dampener that allows the underlying good to return to market rates in a reasonable amount of time is not messing with the demand curve, it's just a generalized safety measure, no different than a circuit breaker on a trading floor. Again, rent controls and restrictive zoning laws both fall on the small-c conservative side of the spectrum, because both see stasis as a kind of natural order. The populists on the left are generally more aligned with small-c conservatives on the political spectrum, but again, the single-pole, right-left spectrum doesn't capture that distinction.
- WalterBright 3mo agoWhen the government tells you what rent you may or may not charge, it's rent control, and will diminish the supply of rental housing.
- idiotsecant 3mo agoThere is a pervasive kind of dork that continuously panics about reasonable policies until they are enacted and everything works out great and they find a new crisis to panic about. I heard all the same stuff when my state legalized weed. There was going to be gang wars in the streets cartels would run the state there would be chaos. Then they legalized it and everything was fine. Complete turbodork material.
- DonaldFisk 3mo agoIt's confusing because different people mean different things when using political terms. The political compass (https://www.politicalcompass.org https://www.politicalcompass.org) has two axes: left-right and libertarian-authoritarian. On it, socialists are definitely left wing (and communists far left), regardless of what the left/right wing meant at the time of the French Revolution.
- scoofy 3mo agoI’m trying to keep things simple in terms of left vs right. Yes, the reality of politics is that they are highly multipolar. The political compass is useful, but maintaining only two axes is wildly simplistic. Moral Foundations Theory suggests there are five axes for political views. I think this theory is one of the best for explanatory power, but is still limited: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moral_foundations_theory Suffices to say, if we look at politics through a two party, first past the post framework, I still think small letter conservatism vs liberalism is the best frame, simply because it is vague enough to be used generally.