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⬅️ Previous capture (2023-06-14)
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One nauseating political meme has survived too long - the two-axis political-compass.
"You see", (someone explains), you might be left or right wing, but you can also be more or less authoritarian or libertarian.
I get the idea. People's political ideas don't really divide well into Left and Right, so a little nuance wanders in to bandage the oddity.
However, we can't meaningfully place people on this axis like we could with Left and Right. Left-wing people identify as Left-wing, and the Right do the same. Nobody identifies as an authoritarian, so none of the same ideas apply.
The Left/Right wing split talks about two camps of people. The Authoritarian/Libertarian split gives us an insult, and a badge.
I am a Liberal. I like freedom. Not like those Authoritarians, who want a big government to control you.
┌──────────────────┬────────────────────┐ │Left Libertarian │ Right Libertarian │ ├──────────────────┼────────────────────┤ │Left Authoritarian│ Right Authoritarian│ └──────────────────┴────────────────────┘
Now we have an empty space where Authoritarians might live - none arrive to claim the title, so when people plot themselves on this new axis, it turns out we're all Libertarian/Something, and half the disagreements we once had magically vanish.
The Libertarian/ Authoritarian axis may as well say 'idiot axis', if nobody wants to fill it. Sure, some people may seem authoritarian, but if they can't identify as that, then give you some political ideology behind it, the axis still serves only to insult people.
Far worse than the insult, this gives the illusion of common-ground reached, and problems solved.
"We're all Libertarian! Finally we can get along with each other!", it promises.
"So we can pull down that pesky red-tape demanding people wear helmets on building sites and that doctors all have official, government-approved qualifications", you might continue.
But no - we can't do that, because government health and safety regulations save lives.
Picking a less extreme example, perhaps we can all agree to remove laws about bigotry, then we can say all manner of racist jokes on Twitter, and the government will make sure employers can't fire people for their political opinions.
...but that's not workable either.
These 'Authoritarian rules', when written out, invariably target Left-wing political points. So 'Left-wing Libertarian', at best, might amount to someone who thinks we shouldn't say bigoted things, but governments also shouldn't prosecute such speech.
The real problem is thinking in terms of Left and Right, so the real solution is to simply go without wings.