Quote:
Originally Posted by freebeard
I've been thinking about what distinguishes Left and Right. It used to be anti-war and free speech vs lawn odor; but those qualifiers have been reversed. So I think it comes down to collective vs sovereign.
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So far as I can tell, it's victims (mentality) vs overcomers (mentality), which is essentially the emotional states of the categories you present. Those who feel more helpless against external circumstance are more inclined to sacrifice liberty to gain the protection of the collective. Those who feel that personal action is more deterministic of outcome aren't willing to surrender liberty in exchange for a faulty collective.
This largely explains why the left is over-represented by females, and the right by males. Women are more constrained and affected by external forces than men, in general. Men's outcomes are more determined by their effort, and can't as readily fall back on appearances to make it. That said, the current political atmosphere is also congruent with falling testosterone in men. Politics is becoming feminized, which is the natural outcome of abundance and safety.
This is the fundamental difference, and many of the other political topics are more arbitrary by nature. For example, should we be more industrially isolationist, doesn't seem to have a clear male/female polarity. Of course, in the increasingly polarized political climate, every topic will tend to become polarized. That's the entire point of political parties; to get the pawns to uncritically accept the party position.