The Horseshoe Theory

[xerx]

Do you believe in the horseshoe theory of politics? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

sort of. both the far right and far left people want an external authority figure to make every decision for everybody else's lives because other people's freedom pisses them off too much. I think that's how they are the same? both of it can be very 'you're not allowed to be this way or that way because it goes against my extreme ideologies'

but other than that- not really at all.

[The Reality Denialist]

This is complicated because some people called Nazi Germany far right while in reality it had very little to with right. I say these things are just a way to simply label your opponent.

[Adam Strange]

Philosophies may differ widely, but the methods by which they are achieved can be very similar.

Sort of like Quasi-Identical pairs.

[WVBRY]

Yeah I think it makes sense. Not saying far left and far right are exactly the same thing, but they are not opposites either (adherents to these extremes often think of "the other" as being their political opposite).

[EUDAEMONIUM]

[leckysupport]

No, far-left and far-right are bad for different reasons and in different ways.

The differences matter.

[Kalinoche buenanoche]

i like the idea of seeing the people behind the movements instead of analyzing the latter as legitimately standalone abstract entities, even though existentially one could say the same about the people at some point.

[Aster]

Yes.

I think in an underlying way, in the way that matters

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

lol @Eudaimonia that was great ty.

[AWellArmedCat]

There are definitely times at which the resemblance is uncanny, but I think it is a pretty extreme oversimplification of things. Horseshoe theory really only makes sense if you are approximately at the center of the Overton window (which, by definition, most people are). From that perspective every extreme philosophy will look to you as though it is equally far away, despite the fact that they are far away in very different directions.

The other glaring issue I see is that political philosophies don't exist on a one-dimensional line from left to right. The political compass is itself a simplification, though a less egregious one, but it's still only 2D, and political philosophies exist in more of a 3D (or more) kind of space. Let's for the sake of argument add in a cultural dimension (conservative to progressive). On this model the conservative authoritarian left and the conservative authoritarian right might objectively appear to horseshoe in a lot of ways regardless of your standpoint. However, I think it would be kind of silly to say the the conservative authoritarian left and the progressive libertarian right horseshoe in any meaningful way. I think these two would only appear to horseshoe if you're standing near the absolute center, but to people who occupy a more specific area outside the societal norm one would definitely appear to be "closer" to their beliefs.

Even this is somewhat of a simplification, and I'm not sure I did the best job of it, but I think it gets us a bit closer to the reality anyways

[Hot Scalding Gayser]

Liberalism vs Leftist also I think it can't be said enough how important it is to differientiate the two. I'm definitely a Liberal- ((not really a Liberterian as that is too smelly selfish fart man like for me)) but in no way am I a leftist.

Basically I view authoriatinism in a pure way- as a right-wing thing, even though I know it's not that simple but like the typical Obese Republican Karen that calls the cops on homosexuals and says to the police that they are 'sex offenders' even when they are not she's just being a bitch who hates gays etc. Landover Baptist.org has some funny shit about these types of people lol like an exaggerated satire of what they are really like... I love that site.

To be fair- since authorantaisn is attached with morality so much ((may the most innocent LSE/EII hold the biggest whip)) - I think this is why right-wing people are often also so pro-police- because the police really will of course arrest the homosexuals who really are evil & Dahmer-esque. And they fear too much SJW liberal feel good-ness will just allow a person of that minority to get away with doing something immoral... which again to be fair, I do see their point at times and that is what I didn't want to happen with the George Floyd thing. But in the extreme end of course, they go overboard- and Republicunts falsely accuse people of things- because they need minorities to be evil or sick and wrong ((even whe we're not)) - to feel better about themselves or to cover up their own sins.

So it's often heartless, unfair and sadistic, even though it's also 'more moral.'

This is why they often say liberals are more compassionate and conservatives are more moral- and yeah if I had to choose, I do value compassion over morality. I do think the in the middle perfect Chad is the way to go- but realistically speaking I don't know many people who are perfectly in the middle like that- and I think most of us lean one way or the other really - even if its only 1-2% or something. I had a female friend that was cool as hell moderate like that once, I think she was a LII or LSI.