Left or right? Wrong - understand the political compass
Whom does it best serve to create division? Not you. Those holding the vested interest, of course. It's easy to think there's "left = good", "right = bad". For some reason, our political discord has been distilled into this bizarre either/or world. Sadly, it's a farce.
Our obsession in the UK with the simple definition of where someone's political preferences lie is puerile. With the proliferation of more and more Progressive Drift, it's all too easy for politicians or activists to lazily label an opponent as "extreme" or "far [insert]".
It implies, however unsubtle, that the individual is suggesting things, or holds opinions outside consensus - or, the Overton Window, as it known. This is the blob between which it is understood the public will accept policy suggestions. It's also dynamic - it can move permanently or temporarily. Our tolerance of extremely authoritarian policy and socialist economic packages during Covid (here in the UK) attests to this.
In the UK, our Overton Window would not include privatising the NHS, or Nationalising Supermarkets. One policy relinquishing government control to the market, the other grabbing choice from the market. They may each be seen as "left or right", but left doesn't not per se equal state control nor right its opposite.
This kind of political mud throwing is difficult to combat. Once a label has been painted onto a person, others may be slow to rally around them and counter the passive aggressive assertion that the view lies outside the unobservable Overton Window.
After all, if the media, and prominent politicians all label someone "far" - and refuse to platform them so you can hear their views - how are you supposed to decipher yourself.
This often sadly becomes self-defeating, part of the Progressive Drift, because having pushed them to the far, the progressive only serves to make the observer likely surprised when they finally get to hear what an alleged extremist is like or what an alleged extremist says.
That is what often becomes lost. On could stand for a non-profit making health service market, with limited options but low state control. That would not fit with a simple binary plotting of political views. But no less controversial would it be!
It's the Political Compass actually best describes where anyone "sits" on the political spectrum. Rather than being simply left or right - it plots how "free" the economy is with regards to trade and then maps how much state control an individual wants. So a "far right" person could actually be entirely libertarian... believing in no government at all.
Labelling is therefore an all too tempting short term tactic - to rid a political actor of an opponent - but if that opponent isn't actually outside the Overton Window, the label may only serve to empower them down the line. Have you ever listened to someone you were told was extreme, only to hear something you did not consider extreme?
It does tend that those self-identifying as "left wing" will try and push right and right of centre views further right. Joe Rogan suffered this during Covid for discussing things that weren't aligned with government formal policy.
Next time you're reading the news, or having a good ding dong debate with a friend or colleague - try and plot the subject onto the graph of the political compass.
Take the test, don't get sucked into the either/or semantics of modern political chaos.