92 Left vs. Right

<p style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The traditional political spectrum of Left vs. Right is misleading because it inappropriately gets confused with Liberal vs. Conservative, which isn't even a true dichotomy because there are certainly lots of conservative liberals. There are actually two proper Left vs. Right comparisons: first there is the socialism vs. liberty distinction with most people in-between: Liberals moderate liberty and Progressives are moderate socialists. The goals of Liberals & Progressives often overlap even though their fundamental ideologies completely oppose each other. The second important comparison is change vs. status quo, with the Left having more inclination towards change and the Right being fans of the status quo. Entrenched winners are usual to the Right for this reason, and the economic losers are Left because change would usually be in their best interests.</p> <p>Ironically, the Right often cites "liberty" as their primary goal but, in fact, they often advocate illiberal positions: for example, they're often for religious mandates like prayer, ecclesiastic authority & scripture; and they advocate societal restrictions like family obligations, etiquette & traditions. And the Right is full of imagined patriotism: spouting oaths, claims of loyalty & deification of military service. The Right also admires corporate rules like ethics requirements & class hierarchies. But these things are not ideological so much as a simple desire for things to stay the same.</p> <p>A more insidious concern exists among the ranks of the Left: America is founded on liberty, and socialism is the opposite of liberty, but America's Progressives are socialists, so the dissonance of their position forces them to torture the language and distort definitions so that somehow liberty is socialism in their vernacular. Asking them to read the dictionary is futile because they're all linguists at heart, experts at circular debates. Whatever? A socialist fantasy government would be just as totalitarian as a conservative one.</p>