The political spectrum is a myth

ever since i was a kid i thought politics were stupid, specifically how people atgue and yeah.. the whole "left right" downright stupid, but whan i mentiom my thinking to others as a kid, people agreed, even adutls, but now that im 21 people dont really its odd.they responding 1 dimentionally and stupidly tbh, when i point out "hey your wasting your time.. you cant do much, spend the time doesnt something important" whuch is just a general true statement if anyone is "wasting time" (basically im very happy someone made a video i could point to explinig why this is stupid 🙂

Merci !

That last quote is powerful. Its hard to disconnect. Its our main way of communication and information now, and the other ways take much longer. It is important though to focus your short life on just a few things

Over all I think this idea is good one, and I agree at that more nuanced approach would always be good.

I think the big problem this video has is stating that Democrats are "left", when they are center-right.

Obama cut taxes because he's a neoliberal in the mold of Reagan and Clinton, he just sold "hope" instead of "freedom".

The reason "support for Israel" changed over time is that Israel changed over time, becoming pretty extreme right wing and spending a lot of money to capture US politicians.

I would like to see a deep discussion of how the "Equality vs Hierarchy" would actually fail this test. I don't think it would.

I usually use the terms "Emancipatory (or Liberatory) vs Exploitive", so maybe that's slightly different.

The thing is Democrats are quite exploitive on many issues.

I wonder if the problem you're seeing in the classification system, ie that positions sometimes switch, is just the Democrats are way too close to, and sometimes overlap with, Republicans.

Excellent reporting. Keep doing what you are doing. 👏

Most people seem to be softly libertarian left I've noticed in Wales

The United States is also a one-party state but, with typical American extravagance, they have two of them.
-Julius Nyerere

"This video is a complet idealist BS, liberal." a materialist, libertarian, socialist

That settles it, I have to move to Sweden

This was excellent…the algorithms create virtual echo chambers and reinforce “belief systems”…when you detach/resist these mediums and the thoughts they espouse, reset your reality that people will not be understanding, fair-minded and open-minded but even aggressive against YOU, not what you believe in that moment….

Thanks! This video is very succinct and, I think, convincing. I hope it helps people wriggle out of constrained political thought patterns. As the United States has been taken over by oligarchs, left vs. right branding/mythos feels less like a convenient heuristic and more like an intentional distraction. I will be using your astrology metaphor, that's fantastic! Left vs right thinking is political astrology people die over.

Totally agree with you, and the solution you propose is a good one, we should make an educated effort and call everyone based on the whole set of opinions they hold. The problem I see is that this myth works both ways, as the political parties also put up the act on each side, though if you ask them personally they will probably have slightly different views, they do have to hold and defend their party's beliefs and ideology. For instance, here in Spain, there was a huge uproar that caused a social movement against bipartisanship, from where a couple of minor parties came out. Some of these parties were really interesting, as they were progressive but libertarian, or they were more conservative without openly hating on minorities, but did support public services and more taxing. 10 years later, these parties have been crushed by the respective right-left wing parties… So we are back on bipartisanship, and what I consider even worse is that one of the political arguments from right wing parties, is that having more parties is worse because they don't represent the majority, which is absolutely right, but it doesn't represent the complexities of society.
In my opinion, the future should be a sort of co-ruling, having multiple parties work together holding the government. Any thoughts on that??

6:15 The right wing extremist actually supported the formation of Israel. That is what is known as the Haavara Agreement and was considered one of the solutions to the Jewish Question

The actual left means an end to capitalism. The true border of the center divide between left and right is between democratic socialism and social democracy.
In the US, both democratic socialism and social democracy both are seen as far left, despite that there are much further left ideas. That's how far right we've gone.
4:50 Change? This is using the wrong parameter. Both left and right want change, while the center wants the status quo. The correct parameter is openness.
6:33 Bernie Sanders has improved his immigration policies and while opposed to open borders, wants immigration reform with paths to citizenship and to abolish ICE.

A spectre is haunting America — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Democrat and Republican, Trump and Jeffries, MAGA Radicals and FBI police-spies.

Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried as communistic by its opponents in power? Where is the opposition that has not hurled back the branding reproach of communism, against the more advanced opposition parties, as well as against its reactionary adversaries?

I think you totally miss the point of Ground News, which I don't subscribe to. It's not intended to help you put yourself into a silo by labelling everything, it's intended to help you critically evaluate and expand your news sources, which is exactly what you recommend at the end of your video lol. Left and right leaning news sources have argumentation techniques and blind spots in common, so it could be quite helpful to highlight sources that are likely to have a different perspective on the same issue or stories that are covered more or less by different portions of the overall media.

Of course, you could always just trust the almighty algorithm as an alternative, but that is known to do exactly the siloing thing you're worried about.

The Left-Right spectrum also creates polarization in other areas, making everything a black-white problem with less and less nuance.
Great video, put really well into words what I have been thinking of the political spectrum for a while.

When you started speaking about Ground News (which sponsors several creators I watch) I thought "Oh no, he's sponsored by them too, which totally undercuts what he just said throughout his video." I was so pleased to find out I was wrong! And I'm not at all against Ground News. I haven't used it, but from what I hear, it probably at least helps people break out of blind political tribalism by exposing viewers to more varied viewpoints, but you're right, it also highlights that very tribalism by the way it appears to label things. Anyway…I like what you shared. I may be guilty of third person effect bias, but I really think I've escaped this kind of tribalism. I critique the current political "right" on almost everything, but I also critique the "left" on a lot. Even my favorite politician Bernie Sanders, I don't agree with every position he holds. Unfortunately, the two party system in the highest levels of American politics force us to vote along party lines, to avoid the greatest harm by aligning with a lesser harm party even if we don't really agree with them. Even Bernie has to do that; he's the only Independent Senator, but he caucuses with the Democrats because they are at least LESS wrong than the Republicans. I think there are many of us who actually believe like this, but the two party system has a strangle hold on all the elections, and it fools even researchers into thinking we have all bought into the oversimplified notion of a partisan dichotomy. We haven't!!

edited by AI

People think Right/Left because they don't have their eyes on heaven and don't want to believe in hell. God understands politics better, but it is vertical, either good or evil.

Perhaps we can say selfish politics is evil, while the politics of selfless love is good. But it takes a very long view of love of selfishness to get a good understanding of these concepts.

It's a useful simplification of the world. The world is complicated enough, even when simplified.

Treating each other as sensible individuals with rights to disagree has become increasingly problematic in left leaning countries and their rulers. The latest address of US Vice president to EU leaders illustrates this problem more clearly.