• vga@sopuli.xyz
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    1 day ago

    From the very beginning of the terms “Left” and “Right” to describe the political spectrum, which originated in pre-revolutionary war France, the Left has always been about freedom from Tyranny and the Right has been pro-government (ruling class) control.

    This got complicated however in early 1900s with political philosophers like Friedrich Hayek and others, after which Right can have meant liberalism and as such also anti-government.

    • Wolf@lemmy.today
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      3 hours ago

      Well, “Liberalism” is further left than say Monarchism or Feudalism, but it believes in “private property” (as opposed to Personal Property) as one of it’s core values- and as such is compatible with Capitalism, especially “Economic Liberalism” and Neoliberalism, which are right wing ideologies. It replaces ‘monarchs’ with ‘wealthy people’ as the ruling class. Anarchists such as myself tend to use “Private Property” as equivalent to the “Means of production”. In my view ‘Personal Property’ need not necessarily be ‘movable’ to count. For example your private domicile could be a permanent structure, but if it’s used to live in and not make things in- it’s Personal Property.

      When Right wingers talk about being ‘anti-government’, they don’t mean it in the literal sense. They mean they don’t want the government telling THEM what to do, but are fine with the government telling everyone else what to do. They want unrestricted capitalism, and the ‘freedom’ to be hateful white supremacist and misogynistic bigots. But they also use the power of ‘The State’ to defend their “private property rights”. If there were no state- they wouldn’t be free to exploit people. Capitalism requires a state.

      When it comes to small/“anti” government Republican politicians, it’s typically a misnomer and used to exploit the ‘anti-government’ sentiment in their base. For example George W. Bush ran as a “Small Government Republican” and then proceeded to grow the government bigger than any president in U.S. History.

      I would put Liberalism and “Small Government” republicans further left than authoritarian “Socialist” regimes.

      I think a rational “Left-Right Spectrum” would look something like (from left to right)

      Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, Social Democracy, “Centrists”, Liberal Democracy, Neo-conservatism, Authoritarian “Socialism”, Monarchism/Feudalism/Imperialism, Fascism.