What is your definition of left or right?

Please forgive my political ignorance but what makes someone politically left or right? These terms seem to be thrown around a lot lately and it seems to me that people who view themselves to be on one side of the political line make it their objective to oppose individuals proclaiming themselves to be on the opposing side regardless of the merits of an issue.

For those that view themselves as politically left or right what in specific makes you fall into such a category in your opinion?

Fascism is all the way right, Communism is all the way left.

Right = power to government
Left = power to people

In America, both parties are actually right of center, but republicans are more right than liberals. Canada is left of center by a little, most people blow it way out of proportions and really just regurgitate FOX or CNN.

reply to post by ANoNyMiKE

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Again please forgive my ignorance but in order for communism to work doesn't it require a string central government? If that is the case left wouldn't be power to the people.

Also I don't think that those who view themselves as left or right view themselves as pro communism or pro fascism. I wonder how they view themselves?

I think you have this totally backwards.

The right wants to shrink government power and control and put power in the people's hands. The left wants the government to solve everybody's problems.

The right wants lower taxes in the hands of the government and more money in the hands of the people.

Please don't confuse the current administration with "right."

You're confusing government ideologies with social ideologies.

ex: Canada is a Social Democracy, whereas America follows neoconservatism which is a combination of social and government policies.

reply to post by jamie83

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If this is true then why are so called pro choicer and those accepting of gay marriage often referred to as leftist views? I am just trying to understand what makes views on certain so called issues politically right or left.



[edit on 8-9-2008 by harvib]

A "right" leaning person believes abortion is killing a baby, and feels that this is a case in which the government has the moral obligation to save the life of the baby.

On the other hand, many "right" leaning people believe the government should keep out of the abortion issue. It's not a black and white issue for either side. Many Democrats who are otherwise liberal are not pro choice.

As far as gay issues, I have no idea how a "right" leaning person can justify getting into the business of a gay couple. I think that's just self-righteous bigots using their religion as an excuse to rag on other people.

K.. There are two sides to the coin. Social ideologies and political ideologies, both can be either left or right and you can also combine them.

If you want to get really correct about it, it actually goes like a compass. N S E W.

West = Left (political)
East = Right (political)
North = Progressive (social)
South = Conservative (social)

Canada is NW
America is SE

Left ideologies are things like socialized medicine, social security, public schooling, paid university, generally higher taxes, more government

Right ideologies are things like privatized schooling, privatized health care, less government programs, less government in general, lower taxes, keeping the status quo

North aka progressive social ideologies are things like pro-choice, gay marriage, green initiatives, separation of church and state, encouragement of things like social workers, labor laws

South aka conservatism ideologies are about keeping things the same, anti-gay, anti-abortion, people first environment second, capital punishment, anti-immigration, anti-welfare.

I wrote this fast, if one thing is in social that should be in political, oh well You get the point though.

Isn't this counter-productive to a smaller Government making it a leftist view according to your definition?

my definition of left and right and this whole charade everyone is so wrapped up in is social manipulation at its finest.

A dichotomy put in place to divide people from realizing whats going on behind the curtains.

Its the classic divide and conquer tactic being used against all who will buy into it, which is mostly everyone.

we need a new system under the same constitution.

I am sometimes classified as left because of my yearnings for freedom for the people...

but Im also a capitalist.

A person classifying me automatically as left wouldn't assume this because the word left itself has so many different connotations that their mind decides the truth in those few seconds because of anchoring and popular dogma.

the only thing that is going to save this country from a despotic society is everybody becoming united and decentralized at the same time.

All citizens need to learn that there are two sides to every coin and that by polarizing yourself to one side or the other helps divide people further and further, and in turn, pushes us closer and closer to destruction

Here is a test, it isn't perfect but it was generally accurate with me.

www.politicalcompass.org...

reply to post by wutone

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According to that site the left is defined as communism and the right as libertarianism. It seems many issues are being mislabeled and even more don't even warrant being identified as a left or right issue?

Very interesting test, although I am not sure I agree with their definitions of left and right, below is a link to where I stand.

I would say that we are forgetting two other positions, one of which I consider myself.

I believe I am a conservative democrat. While I know many liberal republicans. I don't think everything is as black and white as most try to make it out to be.

If you notice on ATS the most outspoken "rightwingers" have only just signed up within the last few months. And like another long time member stated, these people will come in, shout at the top of their lungs about their particular candidate; all the way up to election day, once it's over, they vanish and leave us other members left to pick up the pieces of the mess they left on our forum.

Link to my test results:

www.politicalcompass.org...

Just in case you wanted to know

as far as i have been able to see in my studies, the left are the people most concerned about humanity, those who pushed for human rights, for equal rights for blacks, for women, for fair labor regulation, etc. They are also most often the ones who lead the charge for economic care, and for shared responsibility for basic care for human condition, the ones who push for social healthcare and education, not to be confused with communist dictatorships. The left are generally the larger poor masses, and those trying to protect them, populist uprisings and such.

The right, on the other hand, are those who believe in personal striving for superiority, more of the might makes right group, those that believe that if you work hard enough you should be able to amass enough money to allow you to be free from laws. This is the group that seems to support corporatism and nationalism, that protects rights for corporate groups and is willing to sacrifice freedoms in interest of national security. Though the right CLAIMS to be for small government, history has shown that the majority of right, republican presidents have the highest rates of government and tax growth compared to democratic pres.(weve never had leftist pres.). Generally the right has been the fundamentalist religious, and the wealthy landowners and corporate leaders, and have stood against all the great "american" achievements such as, again, freedom and equality of all peoples, minimum work standards and living conditions, sufferage, etc. It seems to be the right/neocon movement now who are regularly tearing down our freedoms, right to privacy, bill of rights, etc. Generally the rich and powerful elite, passing laws to protect their wealth from the poor, and to keep the poors money flowing up to the rich.
Often leftists tend to be more of "the world should be different, and we can work hard to make it so" what are called bleeding hearts, who see what it is possible for us to provide, and work towards that end for everyone.... they may tend to go overboard on issues like animal rights and such, and sometimes on environment as well. They often vilify the right as cold, greedy, uncaring, and selfish.
The rightists often see themselves as "living in the real world" and try to go along with our greed based society, they often it seems are willing to sacrifice the security of others so long as they and their family are ok, they tend to criticize the left as dreamers and whacks.
Many "leftist" governments are taken over by small groups of powerful people as the setup for socialism seems to lend itsself to easy coups where all the situations are in place for powerful control of many by the few. Many "rightist" capitalist dictatorships are excused as greed is simply another name for good business, and these dictatorships often support corporate wealth by offering cheap use of their natural resources in exchange for military and monetary support. That about sums it up as far as i see

I think a more accurate political spectrum would be like this:

On the far left you would have government having 100% power,while on the far right government having 0% power,and close to the middle you have government thats ruled by the people.

Extreme Left: Fascism, Socialism, Nazism, Monarchy,etc(Total Government)

Moderate: Republic(Limited Government)

Extreme Right: Anarchy(No Government)

[edit on 8-9-2008 by Alien Infiltrator]

interesting because to me i see the far right as being corporate power, and it seems our government and our corporations nowadays are one and the same, which is fascism, so i associate the right with fascism. Now the left i associate more with socialism, not communism, and there are many socialisms out there that give the people much more power than our american democracy. I see people posting on here that the far left is all power with government and none with people, and calling it communism, but in communism and socialism, the people ARE the government. In the origin of the soviet union, the land was divided up into soviets, which were communal groups where the people made the laws. Much the same as Hugo Chavez has done in venezuela lately, where there are communal groups of local citizens in each area, where everyone is welcome to come and debate what the laws will be. So i would say the left is MORE power to the people, whereas the right, is power completely seperate from the people, and totally in the hands of corporations, bankers, and land/business owners.

I would imagine that Alien is more of a rightist as he just seems to drop all the "bad" forms in the left, but nazism, dictatorships, and other authoritarian regimes i think more often fall in the right....being that we have a lot more rightist and capitalist dictatorships in the world than leftist. At any rate, anarchy, the much maligned and misrepresented is actually a leftist ideology, and it is not "no government" but rather no elitist ruling body. Again, an=without, archy=ruling body, so it is not a system lacking laws, merely a system whereby no single elite group has more power and authority than any other....which isnt to say you cant have a democratic anarchy whereby the majority of people VOTE a system such as the police into power, and then vote them authoritative powers under strict guidelines for certain situations. Its not, as many seem to believe, chaos.

I don't understand your far right definition at all? Far right, like our current administration is for more government. FISA Bill, Patriot Act, two wars. Not anarchy. This administration is making sure with every bill passed that there will never be a chance in hell of anarchy. Maybe you can explain it better to me. It's late/early and I am just not getting what you are saying at all.

[edit on 8-9-2008 by Cowgirlstraitup7]

not surprisingly, on that "political compass" test i showed up right between nelson mandela and the Dalai llama

reply to post by pexx421

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me too, although I was a bit closer to ghandi than mandela.