The right wing to left wing ratio on this site seems to be pretty skewed and it'd be nice if it wasnt

submitted by TheSeventhSense from self.whatever

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[–]TheBeefBenson 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Left wing is anything which is government by the people rather than an elite.

The age old utopian delusion of the left. If they govern you they will make themselves an elite. The only thing you can do to ensure the liberty of the people is to limit the power the government wields.

And this dichotomy you're creating is the absolute opposite of reality. Left wing societies are always governed by this ivory tower, champagne socialist elite, because that's what the left wing is. The naive masses who huddle round the authority of the state and the sociopathic opportunists who are all too happy to have authority over them. Libertarianism and anarchism are right wing positions, buddy.

[–]jet199Instigatrix 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Anarchist, ultra liberal and new age traveler hippies are all branch of the left and always have been. You can't go round changing the meanings of words then complain when the woke do the same. Size of government isn't really a left/right policy split outside the US. Even within the US the right often want more police and defence spending, not less.

Someone like Marx was reacting to a century of left wing thinking and failure, he didn't create the left. Socialism is not the only branch.

Many far left wing governments have been anti-intellectual, killed all their liberal elite and have indeed put some farmer in charge of the whole country to try to be more egalitarian, with predictable results.

No society does well with only left or right wing power structures. Most people would want to be able to elect their local mayor but you'd have to be crazy to want your surgeon selected by popular vote. Also minorities tend to be hurt by government by the people as they get trampled by the majority. There is a balance to be struck.