What is left & right wing?????

[ComplicatedSimplicity]

Hi,

So ive been hearing the left/right wing word usage loads lately. And my minds pickled trying to figure out what people mean when they talk about it. e.g. hes far left wing or a little right wing.

So can somebody explain what it means??

Thanx

Rob

[James81]

Well, left and right wing are American concepts. On the world scale, they are both like dead center and almost exactly the same thing.

But in America if you tell people that, they will scoff at you and tell you that you are crazy.

In all seriousness, here's the difference:

Left wing: What is termed "liberal" (or more like ultra liberal in terms of American politics). It centers around the heavy use of social programs (such as welfare, social security, national healthcare) for things that people view as basic human rights (i.e. the right for each human being to have basic living conditions whether they "contribute" or not). They tend to believe in bigger government (i.e. have these programs spearheaded by government run agencies and funding), that spending money primes economic growth, and that more social issues (i.e. abortion, capital punishment, etc.) are the individual's right to choose and not the government.

Right wing: Extreme conservatism (again, based on American politics). They believe in LESS government (as little governing as possible) when it comes to fiscal issues. Lower taxes, less government spending, etc. are all the types of fiscal issues that right wing peeps believe in. When it comes to social/moral issues, they believe that MORE is actually better in terms of laws surrounding these issues. They believe that the government has a duty to set laws that govern ethical/moral behavior (i.e. anti-abortion and pro-capital punishment). There's a lot of ideas surrounding being FAIR and keeping things balanced.

So, in essence, I believe, it comes down to two core issues: fiscal and social issues. A left winger will be fiscally liberal (i.e. spend more money) and socially conservative (i.e. LESS laws on social issues). Whereas a right winger will be more fiscally conservative (i.e. spend LESS money) and socially liberal (i.e. create MORE laws to guide people's behavior).

[180]

I've written some research papers about it, but basically you can find it on this site.

Left?right politics - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There aren't really any clear distinctions on how it's used, mostly modern media seems to merge certain ideals with what is left and right wing. For example, people cognate right wing to mean conservative, but they apply the term conservative to all facets of the word, not just the isolated political term.

On a deeper inspection, they mostly represent a set of ideology that is either collectivist or individualistic, but there are also other things that thrown in. Such as you'll see abortion under the scope of right-left lens, with right being more against abortion and left being more for abortion. Which seems antithetical with left technically being more "collectivist".

[AlmostGodess]

Rob, may I ask how old are you?

[Brutha]

Well, left and right wing are American concepts.

Not really European countries also make a distinction between left and right political ideas.

Historically the term right and left come from the way people were seated in the parliament.
From the direction of the speaker socialist parties sat on the left while conservative parties sat on the right.

Either the parties on the right or those on the left will have a majority that they can use to create laws. The fact that they want to create laws together means that they have to articulate a consensus.

As a result you have two political sides of the debate.
Political parties aren't the only actor in the political debate. Various other organisations and intellectuals choose two support either political side.

Both the left and right group try to convince the general public of their ideas. Either of those sides is supposed to win.
Ideas that aren't backed by either camp are supposed to have no chance of succeeding. They lack institutional backing. All "serious" people who want to effect the political discourse know that they are supposed to pick a side.

Conforming to some group opinion is important when you want that the group helps you with your political goals.

As a result it's hard to understand political ideas without knowing were they came from.

Whereas a right winger will be more fiscally conservative (i.e. spend LESS money) and socially liberal (i.e. create MORE laws to guide people's behavior).

The classic meaning of the word liberal is to avoid laws that reduce people liberty.
Left economic positions get called liberal in the US because they were favored by people who wanted to get rid of laws that reduce people's liberty.

On a deeper inspection, they mostly represent a set of ideology that is either collectivist or individualistic, but there are also other things that thrown in

The military is a pretty collectivist organisation.
Increased military spending is still more popular in right circles than in left circles.

[aelle]

Complicated Simplicity, I invite you to read the analysis (and take the test if you want to ) at The Political Compass
It's a very well thought-out clarification of our political map.

To shorten it, the old left-right scale shows roughly where you stand on capitalism. The more you believe in collectivizing a society's money to spread it back fairly among its members, the more to the left you are. The more you believe about letting the free market decide who gets money and who doesn't, the more to the right you are.

But there are many other dimensions that taint the words "left/right" today, mostly where one stands on social issues. This division is highly dependent on the country.

The perfect example is that in most places the extreme right isn't economically to the right at all - in fact, they often support very socialist support systems for the right people (ie white, christian, male and straight). In fact, in many European countries, the voters for extreme right parties are former communist voters. But extreme right parties tend to be very socially conservative (against gay rights, against immigration, for women breeding blond babies in the kitchen rather than staying in the workforce) and authoritarian, which makes them closer to today's "right wing" parties.

[NoJobRob]

There's far right, right, center, left, and far left. Unfortunately today there's more people migrating to the far sides (no pun intended), and those of us in the middle are chastised by both sides. Too liberal for the conservatives, and too conservative for the liberals. I take that as meaning that we're actually rational and make sense. Unfortunately too many people blindly follow their political party just for the sake of following their political party. There's still a good chunk of the population in the middle, but I've been seeing the trend over time that the middle is shrinking. I really don't know why people have such a tendency to think in such extremes and absolutes. It's like a tanker on the ocean carrying oil (or whatever), but without the compartmentalized holding tank, so the oil sloshes back and forth and rocks the tanker so much that it risks capsizing it. People are the same way. From one extreme to the other with no logic or thinking for themselves...

Non-pun explained

[ar81]

Originally Posted by James81

Right wing: Extreme conservatism (again, based on American politics). They believe in LESS government (as little governing as possible)

Somalia and Haiti are the ideal. Very, very little government with no intervention at all.

[ComplicatedSimplicity]

OK

1st off thanks to all for your posts

So I think ive got the jist. Its alot to get my head around, but Ive more an idea than before!

So thanks,

Rob

[ComplicatedSimplicity]

Originally Posted by almostgodess

rob, may i ask how old are you?

27

[ComplicatedSimplicity]

Originally Posted by aelle

Complicated Simplicity, I invite you to read the analysis (and take the test if you want to ) at The Political Compass
It's a very well thought-out clarification of our political map.

To shorten it, the old left-right scale shows roughly where you stand on capitalism. The more you believe in collectivizing a society's money to spread it back fairly among its members, the more to the left you are. The more you believe about letting the free market decide who gets money and who doesn't, the more to the right you are.

But there are many other dimensions that taint the words "left/right" today, mostly where one stands on social issues. This division is highly dependent on the country.

The perfect example is that in most places the extreme right isn't economically to the right at all - in fact, they often support very socialist support systems for the right people (ie white, christian, male and straight). In fact, in many European countries, the voters for extreme right parties are former communist voters. But extreme right parties tend to be very socially conservative (against gay rights, against immigration, for women breeding blond babies in the kitchen rather than staying in the workforce) and authoritarian, which makes them closer to today's "right wing" parties.

Thankyou for the link

I took the test, and im in the middle of left and center, in the libertarian lower half.

Very interesting link and enjoyable! in fact my mums having a go at the minute. lol

Would send a piccie of result, but dont know how.......

Rob

[AlmostGodess]

Originally Posted by ComplicatedSimplicity

27

Thumb up for having escaped the political debate