Sure, I’ll just make up my own political philosophy without the benefit of other’s experience, that’ll go GREAT
sol@thelemmy.club 11 months ago
Left and right are two stupid categories built up by propaganda, get them out of your head and start to think on your own terms
jerkface@lemmy.ca 11 months ago
A2PKXG@feddit.de 11 months ago
Nah, it’s a fairly good way to differentiate between collectivist and individualistic ideas.
dx1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
It’s a whopping two categories (or the gray area between them), which don’t unambiguously refer to “individualism” or “collectivism”, but instead also refer vaguely to associations with dozens of other issues, so it’s actually a worse way of describing those ideas than saying “individualist” or “collectivist”, because you’re no longer even specifically saying that. And “individualist” and “collectivist” is already a terrible way to categorize all political ideas.
A2PKXG@feddit.de 11 months ago
Environmental protection is collectivist. It’s what is best for everyone. (Including future generations).
But abortion is a good exception.
dx1@lemmy.world 11 months ago
But what’s best for every individual is what’s best for everyone…
OCATMBBL@lemmynsfw.com 11 months ago
It’s pretty meaningfully different when one side wants to fix the climate and create social and economic policy that benefits the majority, while the other wants to concentrate wealth into the hands of the few at the expense of everyone else, and the climate, and is creating propaganda aimed at the dehumanization of LGBTQ+ and perceived-non-Americans (even when they’re citizens).
bric@lemm.ee 11 months ago
This. There an infinite number of ideologies that you could have, but our first past the post voting system (in the US) only allows for two candidates, so an infinite spectrum gets funneled into two camps.
yata@sh.itjust.works 11 months ago
Left/right isn’t an exclusively American concept, it is used all over the world regardless of the political system of the country.
sab@lemmy.world 11 months ago
I think that’s what they’re saying: in most of the world it’s used as a gradient/spectrum, just a few countries consider it absolutes (you’re either left or right).
bric@lemm.ee 11 months ago
Yeah, that’s why I specified US, there are plenty of places where it’s more of a gradiant, or where left and right are just two of many options. although unfortunately fptp is the norm in most of the world. The US is unusually polarized even among fptp countries, but countries that have better voting systems that allow for more than two parties are the exception, not the norm.