Left or right

Realllly left. Somewhere on the anarchist spectrum, or at least libertarian socialism. Would probably vote nearer Social Democrats or Green party if we had a perfect voting system, but since we don't I'll probably just vote for the least warmongering/most human-friendly parties and be done with it.

So yeah, an arnarchist limited by our voting system, who's views are still developing... ask me next week!

 

I don't intend to start a discussion on this but fascism is a very complex political and social phenomenon which can't be reduced to or identified by suppressing speech alone. That it is sometimes bad does not mean it is fascist.

I chose right. The focus on the integrity of institutions, capitalism and moderate individualism tempered by a Burkean notion of private duties to public interest and intergenerational responsibility appeal to me. I also see integration into the mainstream and tradition as valuable social approaches for LGBT people, rather than a contrarian counterculture which brings pleasure only out of spite.

 

I like your post. Totally disagree with you because the capitalist system and its institutions maintain existing power structures, inequality and suppress counter-narratives ... but I like that you have actually thought about it rather than just going on 'feelings'.

 

Love it

 

Lets see... I'm a tree hugging witch that feels if you can't drink from a stream without the fear of dying we've done something terribly wrong, feels that the health care should be free to everyone and we shouldn't be lead by an orange egocentric, misogynistic, narcissistic idiot... then I lean way to the left.

 

I am pretty much the same. Though I may be a bit more left of center.

 

Mostly left. Until about 10 years ago I would have said centrist but that was the point at which the right wing started going off the deep end so the choice was obvious.

 

Right!
I don't like the religious right though. I support freedom of choice, drug legalization and am against the death penalty.

However, I'm against open borders and mass immigration and I supported Brexit and Trump last year.

 

more or less left, but i do not venture down the SJW spectrum because I am not that sad.

 

Hi Ryu... No, I'm completely honest. Just that fact I'm Wiccan (not Christian) and this administration is doing the fake.... okay, I won't go there but I am not being sarcastic. Either way.. nice to meet you Ryu. Have a great day!

 

Yeah, cos a more equal social democracy with lower living costs than the UK is something to avoid. Do you even hear yourself? 'Last line of defence for Western civilisation' - you mean the capitalistic imperialism of what happens to be the current dominant collection of nation states who act primarily in self-interest and ensure that poverty and oppression of millions just to provide cheap material goods and access to raw materials for the rich to make more money while the poor continue to suffer because of the delusion that capitalism somehow rewards meritocratic effort rather than being a system that perpetuates the domination of elites under a patriarchal racist meta-narrative?

Sure the personal freedoms we have are great but that is more a result of the LGBTQ community being political successful at lobbying and changing the political climate (it also helps that you cannot just identify us from something highly visible such as skin colour because it is easier to subvert people understandings of being queer when they find out someone who was 'clearly' straight is in fact gay). We don't have these rights because western civilisation is somehow inherently good or kind but because of political efficacy.

Oh and the 'last line of defence' phrase makes you sounds like a conspiracy theorist who thinks that all non-western actors are somehow working in a unified way to bring down our 'oh so glorious' civilisation. Change and challenge, integration and the breakdown of nation states as distinct political units is not a war - its just history.

 

Mostly centre/centre left (One Nation/Social Democrat). The emotional part of me would take me much further to the left, but the rational part of me brings me back to the centre. I think the greatest electoral success always comes from a centrist position, rather than extremes.

As things stand, I find myself politically 'homeless' in the UK. We have a Conservative government with an unrealistic approach to Brexit, that has cut public services to the bone and wants to go even further and an opposition that wants to spend tax receipts several times over with an equally unrealistic approach to Brexit.

 

True

I am mostly centrist, mostly because I agree with 98% of what the right says. I agree with very little, but some of what the "tolerant Left" says though.

 

About the stance I take

 

Poverty has never been reduced for so many people than under the opening up of poor markets and private property. Regardless of that being capitalistic, regardless of that being the fruit of a world shaped by imperialism, I cannot agree that it is a bad thing for that to have happened in the circumstances that it did.

Forget narratives and forget inequality. In a world where powerful groups and people have the ability to benefit themselves in many economic systems, if we can deliver relief from suffering and can objectively improve more lives than any other global economic movement has, then surely there is some moral legitimacy to at least some right-wing political thought and practice, even if you prefer another method. And surely that's worth some respect, rather than warranting you dismissing it with accusations of delusion and of imputing oppressive desires on the proponents of that system.

I'm just not sure you can separate the two. The institutional frameworks of politics and law were surely more conducive to that advocacy and its success - it isn't as if that advocacy occurred in a vacuum and it isn't as if LGBT people haven't fought just as hard in non-liberal, non-capitalist and non-democratic countries for freedoms. To the extent that the centrist right-wing is quite defensive of those institutions and open social norms, I think it's probably fair to give the right a more charitable hearing in questions of LGBT rights.