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Far Left & Far Right Political Directions Discussion

Childlike Empress hit the nail on the head, at their extremes far left and far right become indistinguishable. The scale is circular, with centrists at the opposite position of the extremes in either case.

That is why people like Hitler, Stalin, Kim Jon Il, Pol Pot, Mugabe, Idi Amin, etc. are claimed as perfect examples of the OTHER extreme by each wing. Strong leadership -- activist leadership -- becomes an extreme position while laissez faire free marketing is a centrist position.

American politics is all about money anyway -- it costs so much to run for office that fund-raising never stops, and there is no concrete wall (as Robert Reich has stated there should be) between donations and influence-peddling. People who believe that pols work for anything beside gaining their next ride on the gravy train are sadly naive.
 
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NoCoPilot said:
Childlike Empress hit the nail on the head, at their extremes far left and far right become indistinguishable. The scale is circular, with centrists at the opposite position of the extremes in either case.
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I would say the far left is much more collectivist in terms of economics, whereas the far right is more or less completely individualistic.
 
Listen to Rachel Maddox and Keith Oberlin(sp) if you want to hear some classical, right wing haters.

My father went through the depression and fought in WWII and he was a democrat. By today's standards he would be a liberal conservative. But he would still bitch slap you senseless if he saw you burning desecrating the American flag. Back in his day they believed in a balanced budget, small govt., controlled borders and a policy of non-intervention whenever possible.

With that said, the Far Right is all about big business, and wanting to get religion back in govt., which is scary.
 
jakesteele said:
My father went through the depression and fought in WWII and he was a democrat. By today's standards he would be a liberal conservative. .
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Are you sure?
I'm pretty sure that conservatives ( both dem and repub) want to abolish Medicare and Social Security. Is that what your dad wanted?
 
Chaos said:
I think the reason you don´t hear the main stream news warn about the Far Right is that they ARE the far right.
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You can't be serious. Here's a little test you can do yourself, periodically. Do a search of the NY Times for "right-wing extremist". In the last 12 months, that phrase has appeared 130 times.

However, readers of the NY Times seldom encounter a left-wing extremist; there are only two instances of that phrase in the last year.

Similar results at ABC News: 48 right-wing extremists, five left-wing extremists.
 
Murray Ball, probably best known for his cartoon Footrot Flats, did another cartoon that was the longest running comic for Punch Magizine. It was called Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero, and was about a caveman type character trying to make sense of the world. It was decidedly cold war too with the enemy country to Stanley's being the USSR to Stanely's USA.

In one strip two soldiers are standing across the painted line border discussing the virtues of their country. It went something like this.

Communist Soldier - My country pushes huge hills into valleys to build great roads between the cities.

Capitalist Soldier - So does mine.

Communist Soldier - My country has a massive army equipped with the best weapons all paid for by the workers who support us.

Capitalist Soldier - So does mine.

Communist Soldier - My country moves huge populations and dams great rivers to make massive lakes.

Capitalist Soldier - So does mine.

Communist Soldier - Want to defect?

Capitalist Soldier - Not a lot of point is there.

Left wing - right wing discussions always remind me of that.

The thing I have to find the funniest though, the US politics doesn't have a left wing. True it has a slightly less right wing wing, but both the major political parties in the US are so far right wing that even the Democrats make right wingers in other countries look like bleeding liberal hippies and pinko commies. I can't figure out why when the parties are so darn close together in their politics, Democrats and Republicans hate each other with such a passion.
 
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jakesteele said:
Back in his day they believed in a balanced budget, small govt., controlled borders and a policy of non-intervention whenever possible.
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I wasn't aware that the new deal was generaly considered consistent with small goverment. between 1910 and 1930 US gov dept grew by 620%. there was a period of non intervention between the wars but between 1900 and 1913 the US was involved in 4 seperate conflicts. Given the technology of the day it's unclear what controlled boarders would mean.
 
Brainster said:
You can't be serious. Here's a little test you can do yourself, periodically. Do a search of the NY Times for "right-wing extremist". In the last 12 months, that phrase has appeared 130 times.

However, readers of the NY Times seldom encounter a left-wing extremist; there are only two instances of that phrase in the last year.

Similar results at ABC News: 48 right-wing extremists, five left-wing extremists.
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Well in the UK at least the far right in the form of the BNP and the national front actualy gets a fair number of votes and wins the odd local council seat. The far left would probably be the Socialist Workers Party (they get a few votes) and whats left of respect (rapidly imploding). I suppose there is the Socialist Labour Party but again a tiny group.
 
Brainster said:
You can't be serious. Here's a little test you can do yourself, periodically. Do a search of the NY Times for "right-wing extremist". In the last 12 months, that phrase has appeared 130 times.

However, readers of the NY Times seldom encounter a left-wing extremist; there are only two instances of that phrase in the last year.

Similar results at ABC News: 48 right-wing extremists, five left-wing extremists.
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Do you have the honesty to apply this test to Fox or CNN?
 
PhantomWolf said:
I can't figure out why when the parties are so darn close together in their politics, Democrats and Republicans hate each other with such a passion.
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Its partly because they are so close, i think. Like a marriage you cant get out of. Both parties gets their funding from mainly the same interests, wich determines their policies. To get the votes, the parties must fight each other on a shared and narrow platform.
 
Have you ever noticed that an American is expected to have an opinion on EVERYTHING?

I hear there are cultures out there that if you have an opinion on every (major?) subject, you are seen as a gullible douche. It has nothing to do with submissiveness or traditional values. A person who can form an opinion on most subjects misuses their time.
 
PhantomWolf said:
Murray Ball, probably best known for his cartoon Footrot Flats, did another cartoon that was the longest running comic for Punch Magizine. It was called Stanley the Palaeolithic Hero, and was about a caveman type character trying to make sense of the world. It was decidedly cold war too with the enemy country to Stanley's being the USSR to Stanely's USA.

In one strip two soldiers are standing across the painted line border discussing the virtues of their country. It went something like this.

Communist Soldier - My country pushes huge hills into valleys to build great roads between the cities.

Capitalist Soldier - So does mine.

Communist Soldier - My country has a massive army equipped with the best weapons all paid for by the workers who support us.

Capitalist Soldier - So does mine.

Communist Soldier - My country moves huge populations and dams great rivers to make massive lakes.
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Capitalist Soldier - We have meat from identifiable animals and you don't have to stand in line or break the law to get it.

Newly Capitalist Soldier - I brought beer.

I can't figure out why when the parties are so darn close together in their politics, Democrats and Republicans hate each other with such a passion.
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That's why.
 
Personally, I think that the left and right is used to divide people up against each other and drive them into conflict with each other.

Those in power simply want as much power as they possibly can get their hands on to the detriment of everybody else; they don't care if that power came in the form of a corporatist oligarchy, a communist dictatorship and so forth. It's just about the power.


INRM
"No matter how I die, it was murder"
 
INRM said:
Personally, I think that the left and right is used to divide people up against each other and drive them into conflict with each other.

Those in power simply want as much power as they possibly can get their hands on to the detriment of everybody else; they don't care if that power came in the form of a corporatist oligarchy, a communist dictatorship and so forth. It's just about the power.


INRM
"No matter how I die, it was murder"
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CT forum is ----->
 
BobTheCoward said:
Have you ever noticed that an American is expected to have an opinion on EVERYTHING?

I hear there are cultures out there that if you have an opinion on every (major?) subject, you are seen as a gullible douche. It has nothing to do with submissiveness or traditional values. A person who can form an opinion on most subjects misuses their time.
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I have no opinion on that.
 
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