[Editor’s note: July 27, 2023— I have added additional comments to this article.]
Lately I’ve been seeing a lot of information debating what the terms “left wing” and “right wing” actually even mean.
Strictly speaking, “left wing” and “right wing” refers only to a scale of the amount of power of social intervention that a government has, however some people also attempt to lump in other incidental social characteristics such as “liberalism” and “conservatism,” which can sometimes be (somewhat) accurate but definitely not always; therefore two different schools of thought actually exist about the matter.
This article will explain both schools of thought and it will show why the second school of thought is not valid and potentially even dangerous.
The first school of thought which is the most accurate and relevant
When I was younger, I didn’t know much about politics, and whenever I heard the terms left wing and right wing I assumed that it was referring to an arbitrary scale from “liberal” to “conservative,” which I think is what most people assume.
My understanding of politics has proceeded in stages over the years, where I have been continually learning new information that has been clarifying my view of the world. One of such significant pieces of information that I learned from is the following video “Overview of America” that explains the various types of government systems, and well as explaining how the terms left wing and right wing are actually referring to something that is very tangible and specific:
[Editor’s note: July 27, 2023— When this video explains the role of the U.S. government, it is talking about how the Founding Fathers originally intended it to be for the circumstances at that time. It would not be possible or actually even preferable to revert a lot of the current much more socialist system of the U.S Government back to being that way since society has changed too much since then, but at least its further leftward movement toward Communism could be halted if enough people become well-enough informed.]
Also I think some people might be confused when the video says the U.S. is not a “Democracy.” Technically it is a “democratically elected constitutional Republic,” but it is not a pure “Democracy” which would actually be simply “mob rule” rather than “the rule of law.”
After watching the above videos (it is important that you watch them in their entirety), you will be able to understand why the political Establishment doesn’t want people to have a clear understanding of what “left wing” and “right wing” are actually referring to!
(Also see this article that contains a written summary of the videos.)
The second school of thought which is clunky and arbitrary, and potentially even dangerous
Now compare the information in the previous videos with the information in this one, which claims that the terms “left wing” and “right wing” arose because conservatives sat to the right of a French king and liberals sat to the left of him, therefore the terms are actually referring to a scale of “conservative-ness” to “liberal-ness.” The video then attempts to explain alternative types of scales that supposedly “work better.”
The political Establishment wants people to think that “left wing” means “compassionate and liberal” rather than the truth of it being “enslavement by a tyrannical political elite”, and they want people to think “right wing” means “bigotry and hatred”, in order to trick people into subjugating themselves to the elite’s deceitful and harmful leftist agendas. Therefore the French King explanation is propagated frequently, including often even being taught in schools by leftist teachers and professors!