Topic: Can someone please explain "right", "left", "far-left", "far-right" etc whatnot? - page 2. (Read 226 times)

This probably suggests you are a 'centre' politics supporter. Like the majority of people
if its available in your country.

The centre is where a political party will appeal to most people because most people
are not extremist, a centre party will have policies which are taken from left and right
without the extreme elements.


Peoples views are very diverse, there has to be some form of political leadership otherwise
there would be chaos and because we are diverse in our outlooks and ideals there will be
political groups willing to feed these for better or worse


you have a view about racism, discrimination etc. which is very much like most of us around here
and in the majority but as about some people dont share those views and truth is one thing to
us and something different to others.

I think sometimes publications, journalists & media channels think it’s easy to discredit other people, whose views differ to theirs by branding them far-right/left. To be extreme left or extreme right is fairly rare & I think as a supposed insult or slur to target those who have a differing political stance is quite common. Most people lean slightly one way or the other. Left political views generally advocate for social equality, government intervention & progressive policies. Right political views often prioritise individual freedom, limited government intervention & traditional values. These ideological differences shape the approaches to various issues such as economic policies, social justice & the role of government in society.

But that definition of "extreme" doesn't tell you what you need to do.

And as far as that definition goes, I'll plug in one of my "extreme" beliefs: that we should punish stealing.

a) I'm not open to discuss this. If we let thieves go unpunished, we'll have rampant crime, and I don't want that.

b) If the majority of Americans suddenly thought stealing was okay, then I would do everything I could to stop that, so..

c) Yes, I call people who think stealing is okay... all kinds of mean things  .

Obviously I'm inventing a simplified example here, but I think you get the idea.

So for me, "extreme" doesn't actually tell you anything useful, except to point out where somebody sits in the current political spectrum within their political party.

You can also try to point at "extreme" policies, which wouldn't be defined on any kind of spectrum, but rather as a measurement of the aggregate change to all Americans (in our case). For instance, Obamacare was "extreme" because it changed pretty much everybody's health care insurance in the US, and just about all Americans have heath care--and the change to people's lives was significant in many cases. On the other side are the Republican crackdowns on abortion, which is a very big change to people's lifestyles and health. You can call both of these policies "extreme" in that sense.

With that definition you can grade the two political parties, overall, by the amount of change they each will make to the country, and you can call the one that will pass bigger changes for more people a more "extreme" party. But obviously that gets into a deep partisan discussion...

If you care more about whether something works rather than if it fits some ideology, you'd be called a pragmatist in political science.  Pragmatists make choices by looking at the potential results instead of worrying about sticking to strict rules or principles.

Pragmatic voters are often seen as being more centrist or moderate than ideological voters.  So, "left" and "right" does not apply to you.

You will most likely find you do not fit exactly in any of these.

As far as right and left:

- "Right" tends to focus on individual rights, social stability understood as immobility of classes (conservatives) and usually free markets and small states (liberal).
- "Left" tends to focus in the social rights, the collective progress and distributing wealth (even if not necessarily by merit).

This is the simplest explanation I can come up with.


This is an interesting point. You define what is extreme in relation to the current state of  opinion, so Trump will effectively be a mainstream republican.

I like working this in a different manner: for me extremism happens when two or three of these are there:

a) You are not open for a discussion on the ideas - e.g. they are God given or they are the only truth and anyone saying anything slightly different is wrong "by definition".
b) You are willing to impose those ideas, even if it means breaking the consensus, passing over large numbers of people's rights, demoting a rightful government,...
c) People opposing are no longer opponents, worthy of respect, but rather "enemies" or "infidels" or "traitors" or ...

Under this definition, Trump is not mainstream, is he?

You will notice that "extreme right" and "extreme left" are not that different, which is actually what happens in the real world out there.

These terms have lost their meaning. So has "liberal" and "conservative". Don't use them unless you want to be confused.

In the US at least, just stick with "Democrat" and "Republican". Both of those groupings are a hodgepodge of ideological leanings that change almost hourly sometimes, but at least that means something in the real world in terms of the laws we're all going to have to follow.

And be careful when people use the term, "extreme". Trump is not an "extreme Republican", he's the consummate mainstream Republican since he is the leader of the party and almost his entire party supports him. Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney are the "extreme Republicans" today.

You can Ilhan Omar an "extreme Democrat" in some of her stances because she actually is way out of tune with the rest of her party, who have proven this with their votes. Biden, on the other hand, is a mainstream Democrat, and so on.

In other words, disregard the partisan name-calling and just look at the actual outcomes.

Ok thanks, now I'm more confused about my stance in politics, because other than promoting violence against any particular type of people, and promoting racism, I have supported all the rest one way or the other at some point in time. I just can't decide on which side to stand, because if I see a side is doing something wrong, I'd abandon supporting them, which makes me a no side kind of person.

And all of these political terms, are just some political BS to categorize people into smaller groups in order to have a much more effective brainwashing influence over the masses.

Racism, discrimination is bad, period. IMO we should always stay on the side of truth, meaning even if our child does something wrong, we should not try to hide it, because God already knows everything, and if we try to cheat him like that, then there will be nobody saving us from him, but as long as we have him on our side, not even the whole world could harm us.

The political spectrum is often simplified into left and right, but there's a ton of diversity in there.  The left usually wants progress and to shake things up while the right is conservative and likes traditional values.   

The far left gets pretty extreme.  I'm talking socialism, communism, and anarchism - radically changing how we live.  The far right gets scary too though being into fascism, neo Nazism, white nationalism, and often believe in authoritarianism.  Some even promote violence against minorities or immigrants.   

But it's not always so black and white, theres lots of left and right viewpoints between the extremes. and  politicians can support different mixes of policies across the board.  These are slippery labels anyway that never quite capture where someone stands. 

Ok, I seriously don't know what any of them actually mean, can anyone explain in simple english? I would love to know which side I'm on. 😉
Thanks for the time, unless of course it could be considered a waste of your time and therefore constituting a ban for me trying to waste your time and other biased BS. 😂