politics

There is a clear and pervasive difference in the way extremism manifests in the Right vs Left, and both sides are not the same..

You ought to read this section from a blog post I published today that pertains to this very subject.

Highlights:

In a study evaluating Left-Wing and Right-Wing domestic extremism between 1994 and 2020, there was one fatality as the result of Left-Wing extremism, versus 329 fatalities resulting from Far Right extremism in that 25 year period. [5]

The Far-Right movement is the oldest and most deadly form of domestic terrorism in the United States, and ... the Far-Right is responsible for 98% of extremist murders in the U.S. [24] Furthermore, for nearly every year since 2011, Far-Right terrorist attacks/plots have accounted for over half of all terror attacks/plots in the United States. [21]

In the U.S., Right-Wing extremism was responsible for two-thirds of all failed, foiled, or successful terror attacks in 2019, and was responsible for 90% of attacks in the first half of 2020 alone. [21] Since 2013, Far-Right extremism has been responsible for more terror attacks/plots than the Left-Wing, ethnonationalism, or religiously motivated attacks/plots. [21]

Again, this is from this article I have written and you can follow the citations. I have ads turned off and don't benefit in any way from this blog.

This sounds good on paper, but the specifics don't really hold up. The right wing in the US in 2023 is pretty thoroughly vile. I'm not aware of any issues offhand where they have the right idea. They're certainly wrong on a lot of things.

• LGBT rights
• Women's rights
• Minority rights
• Climate Change
• Voting rights
• Freedom of expression (they're trying to ban books, drag shows, and use the government to address their whole "people downvote right wing votes" problem)
• Should government provide any services
• Should the government exist at all
• Should we have democracy

Slightly more contentiously you have

• Abortion rights
• Gun control. (Their stance seems to be 'Do nothing' or maybe 'Put more guns into the mix'. Neither of which seems to be helping. Pair with the whole "refuse to study the problem" thing and it's a bad take, imo)
• Policing. Their stance seems to largely be "leave it as-is" but it has numerous problems. Solutions range from reform (if you're feeling "centrist") to more radical approaches.
• Their tax policies are stupid. I don't have the energy to go into detail but
  • they tend to create more debt by cutting taxes on the wealthy, without the general populace getting anything for it - Debt to build infrastructure, for example, at least gets you infrastructure.
  • also wars. A generation of war in the middle east for dubious reasons
  • they don't want to fund the IRS to enforce current laws, even though that's a net profit for the government
  • the wealthy have enough money. giving them tax cuts is stupid and ineffective.

And more specific things like

• Net neutrality
• Should your ISP be required to have clear billing

I can't speak to the right wing outside the us in any detail, but Brexit was a tremendous self-pwn in the UK.

This is just off the top of my head.

Also remember that time they poisoned a generation of children in Flint, Michigan, and nothing much came of it? If we had a left wing like we have a right wing, people would have hanged for that. I mean, it's not too late to hang people for that, I guess, but it seems unlikely.

There isn't really a radical left in the US. There might be a handful of people who say somewhat left-wing stuff like "Nationalize internet infrastructure" (I'm for it), but they don't have any political power to speak of

Don't do that. There is no equivalent article to this.

(Warning: Might be coded by German extremism culture)

Right-wing extremists burn immigrants. Left-wing extremists burn cars. The latter is worse, because it could be my car while I don't own any immigrants.

(from the Cangaroo Chronicles)