this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2025
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MeanwhileOnGrad
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I wish people would stop referring to Tankies and authoritarian regimes as leftists. If we stop entertaining the hallucination that they are- then maybe places like Wikipedia will start labeling them correctly as right wing.
From the very beginning of the terms "Left" and "Right" to describe the political spectrum, which originated in pre-revolutionary war France, the Left has always been about freedom from Tyranny and the Right has been pro-government (ruling class) control.
Maybe the USSR did start out as revolutions of the proletariat, but once they were controlled by increasingly authoritarian leadership, that should have flipped them from left to right on the political spectrum. In a sane world that's exactly what would have happened. Guess who's best interests it was to mislabel the USSR, the PRC and the DPRK as 'Leftists'? Ill give you one guess. If you said capitalists and the right wing in Western democracies- That's a bingo! And of course they are going to label themselves as 'left wing'. To admit otherwise would be to expose the whole lie. So in a weird example of cold war cooperation between the East and West, that fiction has continued.
The only reason that Communism and Socialism were correctly labeled as 'Left' ideologies in the first place is because, implemented correctly, they both offer less control by the 'ruling class'. Socialism was meant to return the power to the people, and communism was meant to abolish the state completely. Authoritarian regimes run counter to both those goals. You will NEVER abolish the state by strengthening the state. That makes about as much sense as 'trickle down economics'. Hey maybe if we give the billionaires all the money, they'll give us a little back in return. Spoiler alert, no they wont.
/rant
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This got complicated however in early 1900s with political philosophers like Friedrich Hayek and others, after which Right can have meant liberalism and as such also anti-government.
Well, "Liberalism" is further left than say Monarchism or Feudalism, but it believes in "private property" (as opposed to Personal Property) as one of it's core values- and as such is compatible with Capitalism, especially "Economic Liberalism" and Neoliberalism, which are right wing ideologies. It replaces 'monarchs' with 'wealthy people' as the ruling class. Anarchists such as myself tend to use "Private Property" as equivalent to the "Means of production". In my view 'Personal Property' need not necessarily be 'movable' to count. For example your private domicile could be a permanent structure, but if it's used to live in and not make things in- it's Personal Property.
When Right wingers talk about being 'anti-government', they don't mean it in the literal sense. They mean they don't want the government telling THEM what to do, but are fine with the government telling everyone else what to do. They want unrestricted capitalism, and the 'freedom' to be hateful white supremacist and misogynistic bigots. But they also use the power of 'The State' to defend their "private property rights". If there were no state- they wouldn't be free to exploit people. Capitalism requires a state.
When it comes to small/"anti" government Republican politicians, it's typically a misnomer and used to exploit the 'anti-government' sentiment in their base. For example George W. Bush ran as a "Small Government Republican" and then proceeded to grow the government bigger than any president in U.S. History.
I would put Liberalism and "Small Government" republicans further left than authoritarian "Socialist" regimes.
I think a rational "Left-Right Spectrum" would look something like (from left to right)
Anarchism, Communism, Socialism, Social Democracy, "Centrists", Liberal Democracy, Neo-conservatism, Authoritarian "Socialism", Monarchism/Feudalism/Imperialism, Fascism.