And the left still havent learned their lesson. In fact they seem to be doubling down...

@freemo *slams my head on the table*
awww not u too freemo! i've just had this similar debate with shebang earlier today.
"left" and "right" are such vague and abstract concepts. the 1D spectrum or 2D compass are indeed inaccurate.
this could apply to any in-group vs out-group situation that occurs in the left, right and even centre (like NazBols, Strasserists and Neoliberals).

@cee In the usa the left vs right dichotomy is very evident and virtually everyone will self label into one or the other. I would be inclined to agree with you outside the usa to some extent however

@freemo well, since the revolutionary social movement of the 60s, u had the emergence of Left Rothbardians in the USA- who are an AnCom :flag_ancom: x AnCap :flag_ancap: hybrid
"the free market will make it easier for masses to seize the means of production".

There's also the Green Gadsen and Bleeding Heart Libertarians "pollution violates the NAP" and "the freed market doesnt exclude queers & minorities".
People like Murray Rothbard, Karl Hess, Samuel L Konkin III, Roderick T Long and Kevin Carson, who were physically a part of that libertarian alliance or endorsed it.

@cee all of those groups are very clearly divided into the left right dichotomy. Simply because there can be diversity on the left and right doesnt make the left vs right any less accurate

@freemo u might as well take the authority vs liberty, cultural dynamics, and each individuals political journey into account.
I used to be a green anarcho communist, then after getting backstabbed by Structuralists like the red Syndicalists, i became Post-Left... now i am here, a Transcendentalist (in the centre), who is friends with both commies and capitalists.
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@cee You can take all sorts of things into to account when it is relevant. In this co9ntext those arent relevant though as we are discussing left vs right.

@freemo it is relevant tho
Have u not seen leftist and rightist infighting before?

@cee The meme is about how the left attacks people who agree with some aspects of the right, pushing them to the right. So how are dichotomies other than left vs right relevant to that?

Of course there is infighting on the left and right.. again how is that contrary to the point above, no one claimed there isnt.

@freemo the right does the same thing as well dsfuhvsduvuhcfvjhysavfd
The Night Of The Long Knives is a huge ass example of that.
It's all a false dichotomy at the end of the day
"b-b-but Cee"
no! djuhgfsdbf shhh
if it was truly a dichotomy, it would be just left and right, no centre; but alas, the centre exists!
It's non-dualism: it could be monistic, it could be pluralistic, but it's defs not a duality.
Modernism was a cringey phase- binary oppositions, meta-narratives and uinversal/objective truths are all wish-wash. Tradition and modernity are a thing of the past... awkward phases. Now we are in the early days of Post-Modernity... but there are still a few Late Modernist stragglers who refuse to let go of objectivity

@cee You are confusing discrete vs continuous with dichotomy. A dichotomy is a division between two things where you have two opposites. There is no stipulation it must be discrete (all or nothing). Positive vs negative numbers form a dichotomy, the fact that some numbers are bigger than others or that the number 0 exists doesnt change the fact that positive and negative numbers exist, and that the concept of positive vs negative are opposite, and thus a dichotomy.

@freemo well in this case, i would be a metaphysical and mathematical anti-realist: numbers do not exist in an external, mind independent reality. Purely a human construct, just like universals.

left vs right, authority vs liberty? pffft, that's normie stuff.
realism vs conceptualism vs anti-realism is where it's at now

@cee Not realivant to the point there... "where its at" doesnt cause the dichotomy not to exist. The fact remains the overwhelming majority of people, particularly Americans, define themselves on the left or the right and are hostile towards those who dont follow suite.

You are arguing the case that because <1% of the population fall in the middle or have other interesting properties to define them that somehow this makes a false dichotomy despite holding true for 99% of the population.

I think in the end your just trying to impose your own non-binary outlook on the whole world as if it was the norm, which it very much isnt.

@freemo > <1% of the population fall in the middle or
ok, first of all, source? and secondly, before u answer the former, are u being objectively empirical with me? Ur intuition always comes first. We all know how ugly it can get when we rely on empiricism alone- u get ultra nationalists who look at the data, at face value and go "oh, black people, statistically, have lower IQ... so therefore they are genetically inferior."

like wait hold on, did one actually take into account the external variables? like environment, economics, quality of education etc etc

>I think in the end your just trying to impose your own non-binary outlook on the whole world
i mean why yes, i do have a philosophical framework.... but no i aint claiming no universals. I don't have an in-group, but i do speak for myself. I know myself (what my philosophy is), and i trust myself. But can u say the same? do u know ur own philosophy?

@cee The <1% figure comes from the fact that each election in the usa you usually have 1% and often less who vote for a candidate who is not left/right if such a candidate even exists. The overwhelming majority vote down party lines in america and even if they vote third party most of them are explicitly left leaning parties (libertarian and green party both being strongly left).

The thing about bias in my opinion is that im part of the 1%. I am very vocally anti-left and anti-right and feel the solutions lie somewhere in the middle and include aspects from both sides. So If i have any bias it would be towards agreeing with you and wanting to beleive the middle is far stronger than it is. But the sad fact is, people who dont exist on the left or right in the USA are extremely rare, if they werent we wouldnt still have a two party system divided on left/right terms.

@freemo the reason why challenged this okay, not cuz i wanna be a pain, but because the meme had an anti-left bias.
I had a problem with an ancap, equating fascism with leftism, and before i also had an ancom claiming bolshevism is right-wing... both are being completely disingenuous. Also, both individuals have been completely inconsistent with their philosophy- claiming to hatie commies/antifa, yet still associating with them or claiming to oppose left unity yet still upholding left unity movements.
Anyway, ima leave it at that... it is valentines day so i wanna refrain from debates and keep it wholesome

@cee
Oh do t worry your not a pain and even if i may disagree with you your views are always welcome.

I think the negative view of the left in this meme, specifically in context of the usa (the left elsewhere dont apply here) is accurate. The left in the usa are completely intolerant of criticism even internally and thry go to absurd and aggressive extremes to attack the people who disagree. The right dont have that s problem nearly as bad as the left.

That said the left and right both of countless other problems and there are plenty of criticisms of the right as well that dont apply to the left.

But yea in summary the anti-left quality described here is absolutely valid on the usa and a real problem driving people to adopt the right. In fact this meme sums up pretty well the most annoying thing for me to be in the usa at all, dealing with idealistically pure lefties who are violent and aggressive.

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