Left wing civil war

[nomadjack]

[David]

As is the right. I think the only mistake is claiming some clear binary split as opposed to, as you say, a range of faultlines. It's a testament to the diversity of intellectual thought in the human species that such a range of views can exist, and all but the totalitarian-minded would welcome that.

[Wokko]

The right is fractured between the libertarians who also fracture further amongst the issues such as immigration, drug legalization and gun ownership and the 'authoritarian' or conservative Right who wants to furiously maintain conservative social values. As an overarching principle the Right wing stands for small, non interfering government, low taxation and self reliance. Either side can frame the other negatively and itself positively as there is a value focus of both sides.

While this graphic is simple, and from the USA it simply and easily defines each side as it sees itself. All too easy to fling mud at each other over politics but neither Right or Left wing adherents are 'brainwashed' or 'evil'.

[stui magpie]

Ta for that Wokka, that's actually a quite good guide. After reading Tannins explanation I was thinking i should be running out of the house and dry humping the leg of the first full blown Leftie I found, goddamns superheroes that they are.

[pietillidie]

^LOL.

Now, Stui, take Wokko's diagram and imagine how it traces back to a greater inherent attraction to novel stimuli (more progressive), or a greater inherent repulsion to novel stimuli (more conservative).

The problem is, we now live on a highly compressed, extremely interrelated and dynamic planet, hence most conservative positions are deemed ridiculous a few years later (rapid change requires fast adaptation), while aggressive conservative warfare and chest beating no longer works (interconnectedness results in immediate, costly blow back).

And this is why that diagram, while being very well done at a surface level, misleads: Many on the Left are actually socially conservative, but they also have a bit of indignation at power which drives them to protect their incomes, and thus they vote Left. And that, in turn, shuts out essential socio-economic change by forcing the ALP to kowtow to order-preserving, conservative social policy to keep their vote.

Waste a decade or two doing that under conditions of international competition, and you slip while other countries opening up to new ideas seize the initiative.

The idea that conservatism and liberality are both equally adaptive in all environments is wrong, hence the various biases of the brain did not co-evolve, but arose in extremely different environmental contexts. Thus, quite literally, conservatism is out of date, clinging to periods of imagined familial and societal bliss on the one hand, and unbound cultural and imperial dominance on the other.