A plea: try to be charitable in your responses. I’m not looking for people to post “people with my politics are smart and compassionate, while those on the other side are morons and/or sociopaths.”
When you hear the terms “left wing” and “right wing”, what do you think? Or “liberal” and “conservative”? What constellation of philosophical beliefs do you associate with each side?
Also, what variance does this question have from nation to nation? I know certain political terms in the US are not always synonymous with the same terms as they are used elsewhere. It’d be really interesting to see the difference.
I tend to see the phrases “left wing” and “right wing” as indicating something a little more extreme than simply “liberal” or “conservative”. The word “wing” in these contexts suggests something a little farther “out there”.
This is my view in admittedly very simplistic and hopefully inoffensive terms to both sides…
Liberals are liberal about the application of the law to solve what could be described as social issues, for example, “The government should be involved in safeguarding the environment and therefore we need the EPA” and “We need a social net for those who need our help.”
Conservatives are conservative about the application of the law to solve social issues, for example, “The free market will regulate companies who pollute the environment so the government does not need to impose regulations” and “Communities and church groups are capable of taking care of unfortunate folks and the government doesn’t need to reach into our pockets to help them”
While these viewpoints are a common trope, they are demonstrably inaccurate. Actually, both “wings” think the costs are too high or the drawbacks too great if they don’t like the government program in question (and vice versa). And both wings are very ready to support *or criticise *heavy government involvement in social issues, if it suits their goals. To give examples counter to yours, conservatives are often very supportive of heavy government involvement in suppressing behaviours conservatives dislike, and liberals are often very ready to criticise exactly the same thing if they believe the behaviours to be acceptable, or that other ways of minimising those behaviours are appropriate.
The left to a large extent wants to spread out the decision-making power as widely as possible. The right prefers to limit power to a smaller group.
The left fought for votes for women, blacks, 18-year-olds, etc. The right opposed this. The left fought for direct voting for Senators. The right opposed this (and to an astonishing degree still does.) The left is more willing to allow ex-convicts to be allowed to vote than the right is. The left prefers democracy, while the right is more comfortable with the “lobbyocracy,” and government beholden to corporate interests.
The left is more likely to favor initiatives – popular votes on legal issues. The right prefers power to be kept in the hands of legislators, not the people.
The left is afraid of a cabal of insiders taking over. The right is afraid of the great unwashed mob. (And…both are actually right in this, as both forms of corruption can endanger our freedom.)
That interpretation is not consistent with the approach taken by the right-wing groups in the US over the past ten years to prevent same-sex marriage. They were quite willing to use the law to solve a social issue, to the point of pushing for constitutional amendments to prevent same-sex marriage from becoming a reality.
The terms are used in so many ways and to cover such broad groups its very hard to pin down. Consider that an extreme libertarian who believes the government shouldn’t regulate any form of social behaviour unless it causes physical harm to others might well vote for the same “right wing” party as an ultra social conservative who thinks strong religious behaviour rules should be legally binding.
Personally I can think of counter examples to debunk essentially all my own attempts to come up with generalised statements about the dichotomy.
But this is only true in certain ways and places. For example, if what the US would call a leftist (ie communist) junta got into power somewhere, they would want to limit power to themselves. And there are socially right wing groups that want direct voting on issues because they think they could bring about the imposition of socially conservative laws despite the opposition of liberal elites.
Edited on previewing to add: I tend to agree with the approach that septimus mentions. There are a lot of political and tribal and traditional and economic overlays to what gets seen as left/right. There are also multiple definitions of those terms. However, the basic research on differences in mental functioning between liberals and conservatives seems to gel in some way with at least some of what I tend to think of as being the tendencies of such groups
Maybe the difference is biological, maybe not. Regardless of the origin, I’d still like to know what you associate with each side. Left wingers/liberals believe in…, right wingers/conservatives believe in…
I’ve long seen it observed that extremes of both wings in the US tend to fold back into one another, as in a extreme left winger starts becoming right wing, and an extreme right winger starts becoming left wing.
This maybe a tangent, not sure. I always shake my head when I hear people make the claim that there isn’t a left wing party (Democrats) and a right wing party (Republicans) in the US, but only a left and a far left, or a right and a far right party. Seems the only people who think we go to the extreme enough are those in the center.
If you read the articles to which septimus linked, you will see that they don’t just discuss the origin or cause of beliefs but what those beliefs are.
You might need to consider the possibility that there are no simple answers to your question.
I’ve read similar work in the past. Wouldn’t be too hard to point out inconsistencies with the definitions they give and the facts on the ground.
I know there is no simple answer, which is why I think it’s an interesting discussion. If it were as simple as looking the words up in the dictionary, it would be a lame topic IMHO.
So, are you talking about stereotypical right wingers who believe that individuals should have “Freedom[sup]TM[/sup]” or stereotypical right wingers who are against “Pro-Choice[sup]TM[/sup]” laws?
Are you talking about stereotypical left wingers who think that medicine should be socialised, or stereotypical left wingers who think that laws should never be used to encourage social conformity?