The "left" is way too broad of a grouping today. The classic political compass is 2D with left-right referring to economic and up-down (authoritarian-libertarian) to social policy. And even that is oversimplifying it, many saying it should be 3D. Grouping everyone into either A or B is I guess what humans do when their understanding of a topic is too narrow.

I find this especially funny with Trump's tariffs. You know, the mechanism with which you control the market... closing it... like leftist economic policy does. Trump is a leftist now? Any more tariffs and he'll be a complete communist! Dismantle more government and he'll be an anarchist! It just completely falls apart.

[+] ziproot@lemmy.ml -8 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

This is supposed to be a tetrahedron, but I suck at drawing 3D shapes. Just imagine that anarchism is the top of the tetrahedron and that the triangle is the base.

EDIT: Also, yellow is liberalism, if you can’t read it

EDIT 2: I have no qualm with down-voting, but I would prefer a comment explaining what parts specifically you did not like, so I know how to not make the same mistake in the future.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 10 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

I'll offer an explanation, I think it would be helpful.

First, mapping complex political beliefs on ill-defined and vague lines adds more confusion than it clarifies. What is authoritarianism? What is meritocracy? We have a general idea, but these aren't useful for measuring ideologies.

Second, making it 3D makes little sense. Why is Liberalism in the "meritocracy" column, when one of the most widely agreed countries to focus on an idea of meritocracy, China, is a Socialist Market Economy? Why is liberalism distinct from conservativism enough to be an entirely separate leg?

All in all, it's nice to think about how to view ideologies, but we should view them as they are, and not on some map that doesn't exist. For example, why is a fully publicly owned, democratic society considered more "authoritarian" than society decided by the whims of few Capitalists competing like warlords?

[–] ziproot@lemmy.ml 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Those are all good points. Thank you.

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 6 points 3 weeks ago

No problem!

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