Frank DiStefano: 'The Left-Right Political Spectrum is a Myth!'

Source:Frank DiStefano talking about the American political spectrum.

"The left-right political spectrum that many of us were taught is a myth. It doesn’t actually exist. There is no accepted way to line up every idea of the human imagine into one neat line. No one has ever figured out any one value we can use to define something as left or right in the first place. Political ideals don’t actually line up into a “left,” a “right,” or a “center” in between them.

In this episode, we demonstrate why the left right spectrum doesn’t really exist. It in the French Revolution as a metaphor from the to describe the historical political debate of that time and place, the fight between republicanism and monarchy. Yet no one in politics today is still arguing for hereditary kings and queens. Over time, left and right became convenient shorthand for the two political coalitions that inevitably emerge in democratic systems based on majority rule. That’s all they now mean. We have two coalitions in society. We call one left and the other rights. Whatever those coalitions happen to support at any moment of history then becomes a “left” or “right” issue.

Scholars and thinkers have tried over time to distil some other consistent reason to call things left or right. Nobody has really succeeded. From ideas about comfort with change, to the big five personality traits, to the moral reasoning theories of thinkers like Jonathan Haidt, no theory fully accounts for the actual parties of modern politics as they actually exist. If we have no acceptable way to define the “left” or “right” then the entire framework naturally falls apart. 

And of course. It was silly to ever think that all the countless ideas and policies of societies could ever be reduced to one simply line in the first place, much less one that works for all times and places. The left-right spectrum is the unfortunate result of a centuries-old metaphor about seating arrangements run wild." 

From Frank DiStefano 

Instead of wasting your time and more importantly mine (at least to me) talking about the French Revolution, (something I know as much about as your average auto mechanic knows about astronomy) I'm just going to talk about the American political spectrum and try to give you an idea who is on the right ideologically, whose on the left ideologically and how far right or left certain political factions are.

According to the mainstream media, as well as people are who are closeted political factions and not politically comfortable admitting who they are ideologically, (sort of like escaped prison inmates who are worried about being recaptured) the more conservative someone is, the more right-wing (lets say) and the more left-wing someone is (lets say) the more liberal they are. 

So according to this most ridiculous political theory, the most conservative people in the world, or at least in America, are racist, nationalistic terrorists, who murder people that they don't like ethnically, racially, religiously, and culturally.

And according to the so-called mainstream political theory, the most liberal people in the world, or at least in America, would be Communists, because Communists believe in the most government and least amount of freedom of all the political factions, including nationalist-religious-theocrats. Because Communists want a huge national state, that clamps down on both personal and economic freedom. 

I could give political cultural stereotypes about who the most conservative and liberal people in the world, or at least in America are as well. 

The most conservative person in the world, or at least in America, (according to the so-called mainstream media) are basically right-wing, fundamentalist rednecks, who come from and live in smallest towns possible, that are dominated by one particular ethnic and racial, as well as religious group, whose families have been in America since before the American Revolution. (A revolution I know a little more about than the French Revolution) And the only time that they're ever in a big city, or even a midsize city, is when they're serving in public office. Because you really couldn't operate a state capital or the Federal capital in a town of 10,000 people or less, because it wouldn't have the infrastructure for that. 

And the most liberal person in the world, or at least in America, (according to the so-called mainstream media: 

is basically an urban, antiestablishment, hipster, revolutionary. 

This really liberal person, (according to the mainstream media) who if he's a man, rarely if ever shaves or gets a haircut, but if the person is a man or woman, they wear military fatigues, (while claiming to be antimilitary) 

who claims capitalist is a racist economic system, (while taking advantage of everything that American capitalism and liberal democracy has to offer and not just the coffee house coffee and new technology, high-end fashions and food, etc) 

who says that free speech is bigoted, (while taking advantage of everything that the First Amendment has to offer and not just on social media and political rallies and attacking people that they disagree with) 

who says that personal freedom is dangerous and just leads to bad choices that the rest of society has to pay for, (supporters of the nanny state) while taking advantage of all the personal freedom that they can get their hands on and making on the personal choices for themselves that they can

and who claims to be a pacifist, but willing to use violence to achieve their political objectives 

who says that America a racist, evil empire, and the real terrorist state in the world. (Yet there is no other country in the world that they rather live in)

who claim eating meat is animal cruelty or murder, while wearing leather jackets and boots and other leather clothing 

who claim to be spiritual but not religious (trying wrapping your brain around that) 

My larger point here, is that you have left and right, liberal and conservative. But left doesn't equal liberal and right doesn't equal conservative. If political definitions still mean anything, (and I mean anything in the world) if you are actually a Liberal, you believe in liberty. Two words that actually come from liberal, are liberty and liberate. That doesn't sound communist or socialist. Now does it? 

If you are actually a Conservative, even in a political sense, you believe in conserving, you believe in tradition, you believe in conserving what works and protecting what works in the economy and country at large. Where do you see blowing up the system and establishment and locking people up who disagree with you, or whose lifestyle that you don't approve of, in the word conservative?

If you want to go left and right to talk about political factions, I'm fine with that in order to try to distinguish all the political factions, not just in America, but in the world as well. 

Just don't use liberal as another way of saying left or left-wing, because liberal in actuality, is on the opposite side of communist and socialist, on most issues. Socialists and Communists are always looking to expand the size of the national state, to do more good for the people. (At least that's what they say) Liberals are always looking to expand freedom for more people and that generally doesn't involve expanding government to do that.

And don't use conservative as another way of saying right or right-wing, because again conservatism is about conserving, pure and simple. It's not about blowing up the establishment and reforming the way society, the country, and the way the government is supposed to work. But instead conserving what already works. 

If you think about it, Donald Trump and his followers, are probably the least conservative people in America, because they're always looking to blow up the establishment and centralize more authority for themselves, even as it relates to the U.S. Government. 

And Socialists and Communists are the most illiberal (meaning not liberal) people in the world because of all their crackdowns on property rights, personal freedom and free speech. 

But according to the so-called mainstream media, the most anti-conservative people, are the most conservative. And the most illiberal (meaning not liberal) people, are the most liberal. Th perfect examples of how left doesn't equal liberal and right doesn't equal conservative.

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