Posted: Mar 18, 2012 4:35 am
Animavore wrote:chairman bill wrote:How on earth does that follow? Imagine a similar statement made about murderous tendancies, with the x axis showing a variation from 'psychopathic', through something like 'murderous', to 'violent tendancies', and onto an extreme of 'peace-loving'. By your analysis, the ideal position would be somewhere between murderous & violent tendancies.
No. It's more like a curve between two sets of opinions than between two pathologies. Say between, "Cheese is awful shite which should be eradicated," and, "Cheese is the best stuff ever, people who don't agree are arseholes.' With most people falling between.
Cheese IS the best stuff ever and those who don't agree ARE arseholes!
Saim wrote:Except ideas don't actually exist on a left-right spectrum that's just a simplified way of thinking about it. Not to mention our political ideologies are specific to our time period.
Even when taking into consideration the Y axis of libertarianism vs authoritarianism as well as the X axis of right vs left these are just labels. I consider myself when pushed to a left-of-centre liberal. If you were to dilute my opinions into two sentences they would be: The rich should be taxed proportionally higher than the poor but not so much as you drive them out of the country. As long as my actions are not hurting someone else then these actions should be legal.
But that's just it. These labels dilute what are often incredibly complex opinions. I often find myself agreeing with right wing people and disagreeing with lefties. But I would be in my cold, damp grave before I ever voted for the Tories.