Lately, I've been wondering about the right-wing-left-wing thing. Does anyone know why we say that and how it originated? Thanks in advance! - Peace, Love, Health, and Happiness to all! Athelwulf.
It supposedly dates back to early days of the French Revolution. There were two different groups that had town hall meetings in a church. The more liberal group "humanists" sat on the left wing and the Christians sat on the right. There are a few different versions of the story...but the basic premise is the same.
Analbeads, way to screw-up the truth. It goes back to the legislative body first established by the French when they over-threw their King, it had nothing to do with Churches, humanists or any of that other dog-shit. Those who wanted to really change things sat on the left, those who wanted to just establish the third Estate sat on the right. Those on the left were responsible for creating the "French Calendar" which lovely dates the year 0 as the beginning of their Revolution (they even made a device to help you translate Christian time to Revolution time, how quaint). This is where "reformed liberalism" began to take form, and why those Liberals are often considered "leftists".
I was under the impression that it occurred even before the French Revolution while the King still received advice from the legislature. I'm also wondering about the origins of the words "right" and "left" in French politics. The right - "droit" (look at the English word "adroit") and the left - "gauche" (again think of the adopted English word "gauche" and its meaning) and it seems to me that the appellations were loaded from day one Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Also, the Latin for Left is "Sinister". We lefties have been looked down on and ostracised throughout all history.....
"Left" and "Right" are pseudo-distinctions in the political spectrum. Most of us Americans would characterize communism as "left", yet in Russia a few years ago the media was calling hard-line communists as the right wing. All this left vs.right BS serves to divide and conquer us.
look at it this way america is the west (left) russia is the east (right) lol... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! and i think the whole 1st world 2nd world 3rd world stuff is more dangerous than left and right. PS happy new year people Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Yeah, when people use "left" to mean change and "right" to mean conservatism, it depends on the nation's status quo. That status quo was different in places like U.S. and the former USSR.
Heh, that's what people say about the third parties here in the US...Libertarians are so far right and Greens so far left, they meet up around back someplace. Being a fan of the LP myself, I can say that aside from disagreeing more profoundly with a lot of the GP platform, I find myself much more turned off by the two mainstream parties.
This was simply an example of media bias. To the media, anything BAD must be right wing. Fascists? Far right nutjobs. Communists? Far right nut jobs. Ax murderers? You can see the pattern here. No one is ever labeled a left wing extremist. Jim Jones, the Unibomber, PETA. You never hear them described as left wing. The media is trying to convince the public that: Left=good Right=bad Surely a sinester plan if there ever was one. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
And to expand - when were communists ever described in western media as 'right wing'. MadTony, pegasus is being benevolent in calling it nonsense.