Political Geography

[progressive_lefty]

I just came across this image (here (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/4029557427_939237519a_o.jpg)) on the internet. What are people's thoughts?

The authors seems to be from a leftwing viewpoint, thats my suspicion anyway. I'm sure right wingers won't like it. Seems kind of interesting - and there's a fair bit too it - so don't just glare over it for only a couple of seconds.

[Dunk]

I just came across this image (here (http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2612/4029557427_939237519a_o.jpg)) on the internet. What are people's thoughts?

The authors seems to be from a leftwing viewpoint, thats my suspicion anyway. I'm sure right wingers won't like it. Seems kind of interesting - and there's a fair bit too it - so don't just glare over it for only a couple of seconds.

I've seen it before. I think it's just a graphic made by (a) liberal(s), perhaps in what they perceive as an actual attempt to be "fair" in their assessment of "left" and "right", but in the end just strokes the ego of liberals.

[Catma]

This is kind of interesting. It's fun trying to figure out what the ideas are of the person or people who made it. They are either misinformed or so hell-bent on producing a "neutral" viewpoint that they are incapable of coming up with a coherent theory.

Conservatives don't want to interfere with peoples' social lives?! Hah. Of course they want to interfere with both society and pople's lives but it can be harder to understand the ways in which conservative policies reshape society rather than just "letting it be". Here is a perfect example of the quest for equal dichotomy leads centrists to absurd conclusions.

Next, the left is said to support personal freedom (whatever that is... civil liberties?) While the right supports "economic freedom". I don't think I have to explain to any marxists what's wrong with THAT picture. And of course these freedoms are diametrically opposed and nobody could support both.

And check out the comparisons of "equality" and "freedom" in the thought bubbles. They are hopelessly muddled. They're defined in terms of each other, and every statement says pretty much the same thing.

There are plenty of other holes and bad assumptions in the graphic if anyone cares to go through it.

[gestalt]

It comes from a site called Information is Beautiful (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net), which features some interesting graphics with varying educational usability. It is far too generalized and inaccurate for serious discussion, but helped me introduce some features of the mainstream "left" and "right" dichotomy to secondary students.

This (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/the-billion-dollar-o-gram-2009/) is another interesting piece which both shows the relative extent of the crisis and the priorities of capitalist. Climate change (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/climate-change-deniers-vs-the-consensus/) "debate," a graphic challenge to swine flu vaccination lunacy (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2009/is-the-h1n1-swine-flu-vaccine-safe/), the extent of the Gulf oil disaster (http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/2010/in-deeper-water/), etc.

If you find these types of visualization interesting, GOOD Magazine (http://www.good.is/infographics) has a decent selection as far as quasi-progressive commentary goes.

[Rafiq]

I think it's bullhsit.

[GPDP]

I'd very much like not to be lumped in with left-liberals, thank you very much.

Even the most progressive liberal is, well, still a liberal, and thus a proponent of the capitalist system, reformed as they'd like it to be. Revolutionary socialists come from a very different school of thought and envision a society no liberal would ever think of endorsing except the most utopian of them. Our analysis of politics and the economy is different, our priorities are different... really, the only time we ever seem to have anything in common is in abstract philosophical polemics about "equality" or "liberty."

This is why I'm beginning to detest the whole "left-right" division of politics. It is a narrative that requires insane muddling and vague generalizations about drastically different ideologies just so they can be shoehorned into being categorized as left or right-wing.

If calling myself a left-winger means being branded as having similar general politics as those espoused in The Nation or the Green Party, then count me out. I am not a leftist, but a socialist.