163
votes
Accepted
What is the Alt-Left?
The alt-left is not really a thing unless you live in Switzerland, where it is a political party.
In the US, it's a term that got cooked up by the alt-right to describe their fantasized progressive ...
- 30.5k
139
votes
What is the Alt-Left?
There is no "alt-left". It's a term made up by the right to far-right in an attempt to create a false equivalence between white supremacists and those opposing white supremacism:
It's a &...
- 36k
122
votes
Accepted
In the US why is nationalism equated with racism?
There are various forms of "Nationalism", but one prevalent belief is that "My Nation is better than others". Racism can be broadly understood to be the belief that "My race is better than others". ...
- 115k
116
votes
Are there any major left-wing conspiracy theories in the USA?
Yes, there are plenty of conspiracy theories that are primarily supported by left-wing voters and politicians. Here are a few examples (not meant to be an exhaustive list):
Conspiracy theories about ...
- 1,511
97
votes
Is there a term for someone whose preferred policies are a mix of left and right?
I looked at your profile and saw that you're an American.
You are confused by Bob because you assume that the political positions held by the Democratic Party and the Republican Party are directly ...
- 15.6k
90
votes
Is there a push, in the United States, to use gender-neutral language and gender pronouns (when they are given)?
Pronouns are a thing, but they aren’t the thing for the most part. They’re about simple interpersonal communication and respect (it’s no big deal to make a mistake, it’s pretty insulting to adamantly ...
- 3,359
88
votes
Accepted
Why does gay marriage support seem to be "inversely" racially polarized particularly comparing White and Black Americans?
African Americans vote Democratic mainly because of civil rights issues, on which many believe the modern GOP has (shall we say) a somewhat poor track record. But setting that aside, African Americans ...
- 67.7k
79
votes
What is the Alt-Left?
The alt-left, regressive left, or illiberal left are terms used to describe a subset of people on the left. The three terms may not be exactly the same, however they are close enough that I felt it ...
- 976
75
votes
Accepted
Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?
It depends on what you mean by communism. If you mean what the Soviet-bloc states ended up like, then, yes, all historical examples of this communism were pretty authoritarian.
If you want to indulge ...
- 144k
70
votes
Why are American liberals more prone to in-fighting than conservatives?
Your premise is not correct.
First of all, the 2012 and 2020 elections don't count for your exercise because incumbent candidates almost never face any opposition from within their own party. This is ...
- 12k
61
votes
Accepted
Why are White Americans in the Southern region of the USA much more conservative and Republican than elsewhere?
Deep Roots
First, relative political conservatism and liberalism are remarkably stable in any given geographic area over time (even though, in absolute terms corresponding to specific policies, almost ...
- 73k
58
votes
Accepted
Is there a push, in the United States, to use gender-neutral language and gender pronouns (when they are given)?
Yes, but as a small part of the larger US culture wars
The push to use gender neutral pronouns, or to insist that people must use the pronouns that they are explicitly told to use or face ostracism ...
- 15.6k
58
votes
Accepted
Is Libertarianism left wing or right wing?
The first important thing to notice is that political labels mean different things in different parts of the world and in different points of time.
In contemporary US politics libertarian is usually ...
- 2,717
57
votes
Accepted
Why do right-wing parties generally oppose the legalization of marijuana?
Much of politics doesn't fit into the traditional left-right one-dimensional political spectrum. Politics is multi-dimensional.
Marijuana legalisation (and the legalisation/regulation of other drugs) ...
- 5,106
57
votes
Why do veterans skew right in the US?
The modern US military is self-selecting — a professional army, not a conscripted one — so I doubt this effect would hold true historically. But as a rule, the political Right tends to value military ...
- 67.7k
54
votes
How do politicians on the Left side of the political spectrum reconcile the need to protect workers with the support for immigration?
I don't think that there is anything to reconcile. As you said, left-wing politicians support strong regulation for workers rights and a high minimum wage.
The poorest workers make minimum wage, so ...
- 36k
54
votes
Accepted
Why would far-left groups oppose Macron’s re-election?
First, a bit of background is necessary: Macron was the Minister of Economy and Industry under Valls' government, when Hollande was president (this was a centre-left government). Previously, Macron ...
- 15.7k
53
votes
Accepted
What is the difference between totalitarianism and authoritarianism?
From a very abstract point of view, the difference is that totalitarianism desires to completely (totally) influence the thoughts and actions of its citizens, even into the private sphere, while ...
- 13.1k
51
votes
Is Communism intrinsically authoritarian?
First, I wanted to make clear that "authoritarianism" does not mean "enforces rules with some form of force" - if we were to use that definition, then every single system of ...
- 803
51
votes
Why do the right claim that Hitler was left-wing?
The right claim that Hitler was left-wing to make its political enemies on the left look worse than they really are.
There are plenty of examples of left-wing ideologies leading to unpleasant outcomes:...
- 10.4k
51
votes
Why are so many on the left in western countries so passionate about supporting Palestine (and being anti-Israel)?
This simplest explanation here is that people on the Left (Progressives and/or social liberals) tend not to classify human beings into undifferentiated groups representing competing power blocks. Or ...
- 67.7k
50
votes
Why does gay marriage support seem to be "inversely" racially polarized particularly comparing White and Black Americans?
Voting Democratic doesn't mean you support every plank of Democratic policy. The Democratic party consists of three main wings in an uneasy coalition:
The traditional white working class: in favour ...
- 20.7k
49
votes
Accepted
Why free-market capitalism has became more associated to the right than to the left, to which it originally belonged?
At the height of the Classical Liberal era (16th to 17th centuries), the main sociopolitical conflict was between the propertied middle/upper class commoners (wealthy producers, traders, and ...
- 67.7k
47
votes
What is gerrymandering called if it's not the result of redrawing districts?
"Disproportionate representation" describes the result without making any reference to the cause. For example,
States have disproportionate representation in the Senate
is a perfectly reasonable ...
- 1,803
46
votes
Is Libertarianism left wing or right wing?
Libertarianism is neither Left nor Right-wing. It's on a spectrum opposite of Authoritarianism. So, as you go further towards Authoritarian, you want more and more government control and intervention ...
- 567
46
votes
What do woke and cancel groups call themselves?
Progressive groups
The "woke" ideology is, in essence, being conscious of various prevailing discriminations, and actively working to reform the system against such.
They would like to call ...
- 4,892
44
votes
Has the American left abandoned the anti-war movement?
The "anti-war" rubric is mainly a conservative conflation of a lot of different Centrist, Leftist, and (non-authoritarian) Rightist positions. I mean, it is often blithely applied to wide ...
- 67.7k
42
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for someone whose preferred policies are a mix of left and right?
The phrase "politically homeless" has been used a lot in the UK lately for this kind of situation, since almost nobody is entirely happy with how either party has handled Brexit, and there are people ...
- 22k
39
votes
Why do working class people vote for the political right?
How could so many rich men like George Clooney and Bill Gates vote for Hillary Clinton? After all, she openly said that she thought it was sexist to hire a man (Donald Trump) over a woman (her). And ...
- 89.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible