They aren’t useless, but they are pretty broad strokes that will always have a use as long as we’re talking about any de facto two party states (e.g. those with FPTP voting systems).
It’s also worth remembering that the population of one country’s idea of left wing politicians might actually end up being right wing elsewhere (for instance, people in the US saying their democratic party are lefty when in most of Europe they would be considered center-right or just plain right-wing).
I’m not really saying what makes them useful, that’s a long list. I was more going for saying they’re not useless, but are potentially pretty ambiguous without additional context due to how people use them.
Gotta stop pretending “left” and “right” are useful labels to apply to politics too.
They aren’t useless, but they are pretty broad strokes that will always have a use as long as we’re talking about any de facto two party states (e.g. those with FPTP voting systems).
It’s also worth remembering that the population of one country’s idea of left wing politicians might actually end up being right wing elsewhere (for instance, people in the US saying their democratic party are lefty when in most of Europe they would be considered center-right or just plain right-wing).
That’s not what makes the terms useful.
US Democrats aren’t left and the term is still useful in European politics.
I’m not really saying what makes them useful, that’s a long list. I was more going for saying they’re not useless, but are potentially pretty ambiguous without additional context due to how people use them.
They are useful, but as any other category they can be instrumentalized.
Please elaborate how “equality” and “hierarchy” based policies aren’t useful labels for politics anymore.
c/iamverysmart
I’ve always liked a 2 axis spectrum. Social ownership/ private ownership on one axis. Authoritarian / libertarian on the other.
You’re right
The current situation is certainly making that clear.
Especially “horseshoe” politics. Leftist just means centrist.
Horseshoe theory is basically regarded as nonsense by anyone that knows about politics.
It’s pretty much only parroted as alt-right propaganda these days