Why are lefties so weird now?.

[Exro]

Muricans talking bout being "lefties" the only 2 options u have in murica is extreme right or normal right.

[Collegeguy]

I think we just hardly hear about the moderate people, even though they outnumber the extreme ones on the left and right.
Just as when you watch the news you only get to hear about the extreme subjects and never about the average things.

I also blame "the internet" for giving every nutcase a platform these days. Before we had the internet, these people would only terrorize their families and friends.

All the extreme right and left jump on twitter and social media to make political statements daily while the moderates don't give two shits. Meanwhile, the media thinks social media is a new platform to measure when it's really nothing more than a vocal minority of wackos.

[Deleted]

All the extreme right and left jump on twitter and social media to made political statements daily while the moderates don't give two shits. Meanwhile, the media thinks social media is a new platform to measure when it's really nothing more than a vocal minority of wackos.

Yeah, I never really understood why they do this.

Whenever some people on a social media platform think something, the media bring it as "the opinion of the Dutch people".

[zenkai]

I absolutely think we need a dna analysis on both righties and lefties, because lefties almost seem like aliens to me. What are you opinions on this?.

Extremes on either side are weird and make their respective sides look bad

[jellmoo]

While it's rather unlikely I'd ever support a Republican (which is a moot point since I'm Canadian, but I digress...) the Republican party needs some bloody moderates that simply stick to the notions of smaller government, lower taxes and that's it. The party has shifted way too far to the right, to the point of looking like a caricature of what Mad magazine might have done. Every Republican presidential hopeful is running on a bat-shit insane platform that sounds more like the ideas of super villains than the sort of thing a President should be thinking. The ideas being thrown around are so fucking ridiculous that it's become hard to even grasp *how* these things are being thought of.

The party is setup in such a way that each hopeful needs to push faaaaaaar right in order to secure the nomination, but then cannot steer to a more moderate base in order to win the election. It happened to Romney, and it's going to happen this coming election as well.

The oddly freaky thing is that the left in the United States is pretty darn right. Bernie has some strong leftist ideas, but is still a lot more right than most people think. Hilary has a smattering of leftist leanings, but is firmly right. It's almost scary to watch.

[zenkai]

While it's rather unlikely I'd ever support a Republican (which is a moot point since I'm Canadian, but I digress...) the Republican party needs some bloody moderates that simply stick to the notions of smaller government, lower taxes and that's it. The party has shifted way too far to the right, to the point of looking like a caricature of what Mad magazine might have done. Every Republican presidential hopeful is running on a bat-shit insane platform that sounds more like the ideas of super villains than the sort of thing a President should be thinking. The ideas being thrown around are so fucking ridiculous that it's become hard to even grasp *how* these things are being thought of.

The party is setup in such a way that each hopeful needs to push faaaaaaar right in order to secure the nomination, but then cannot steer to a more moderate base in order to win the election. It happened to Romney, and it's going to happen this coming election as well.

The oddly freaky thing is that the left in the United States is pretty darn right. Bernie has some strong leftist ideas, but is still a lot more right than most people think. Hilary has a smattering of leftist leanings, but is firmly right. It's almost scary to watch.

Both parties have shifted to the extreme and thats why our political system is so polarized and hardly and you hardly see them reaching between the isle. The government no longer supports the American people, it supports its own agenda.

[Rotted]

I don't get this lefty and righty thing I keep seeing people,post, I'm guessing it's a U.S. Politics thing, but if it is, isn't you know, a bit stupid to brand everyone as one group or another?

[mvaliz]

The only reason I can think of why some people tend to look for extremes is because they can't make it in life anymore without it.

It's a form of desperation, or perhaps even panic.

Or, simply put, it gives people the ability to say "The one good thing about me is I'm not one of THEM!"

- - - Updated - - -

That is exactly why I authentically question the ridiculous notion that the Republican Party should be respected and tolerated...

Honestly IMO they have an opportunity with Trump and those that follow his anger to finally purge their party of the kind of thing that has been plaguing the party for decades now - all the racist, sexist, religious nutjobs and kick them all to the curb and bring their party back to being CONSERVATION-based... not anger/hate based.

Sadly though I fear that Trump is basically the same as all of them, just with the Politics filter turned off. Wish they would prove me wrong. =/

[zenkai]

I don't get this lefty and righty thing I keep seeing people,post, I'm guessing it's a U.S. Politics thing, but if it is, isn't you know, a bit stupid to brand everyone as one group or another?

Yes, its getting really bad and pathetic. it's funny when I say something bad about Obama all I get is "well Bush isn't better" I say something bad about a republican "well Obama isn't any better" argument.

[Adarian]

i hate the terms "right and "left" because they're ambiguous and rely too much of context, mostly because they were intended to be subjective terms with a changing context.


please use grown-up terms and describe the actual system,

authoritarian vs. libertarian, more govt. vs less. govt.?
individualist vs. collectivist, the many or the one?
and then i think a third axis should be added whether a society is driven for advancement(science!), stasis(amish) and degeneration(typically leads to collapse or self-destruction).

but as is "left" and "right" are too small of words to describe our hands, why are you using them to attempt to describe politics?

[Spectral]

To answer the question, I think it's mostly about signaling. If you're looking at some ingroup and failing to understand why people are behaving the way they do, it's helpful to think about it from a standpoint of increasing status. For the American left, signaling anti-racism (for example) is a high status behavior, which results in a cycle of one-upsmanship for who can be the most anti-racist.

Another helpful way to think about people who don't share your views is through the prism of Kling's three languages of politics (summary link). I think he's basically right, and it's helped me understand positions that I find weird from each political leaning.

[Endus]

This is just inviting political bashing, so I'm locking this here.