The left-right dichotomy: A user manual for a broken compass
Content Warning: May cause acute frustration in readers who (a) remember when politics had more than two settings, or (b) still believe electoral systems are designed to represent people. Being a Thoroughly Unimpressed Examination of Political Labels, Their Stubborn Persistence Despite Overwhelming Evidence of Uselessness, and Why We’re All Arguing in the Wrong Bloody Language. Recommended for Recovering partisans Citizens who’ve noticed the emperor has no clothes Anyone who’s ever muttered, “There has to be a better way” The political spectrum of left vs right is one of the most enduring, yet increasingly obsolete, frameworks in modern discourse. Its origins are surprisingly mundane, dating back to the French Revolution (1789), when members of the National Assembly physically divided themselves. The revolutionaries, who favoured democracy and equality, sat on the left, while the monarchists, clinging to tradition and hierarchy, sat on the right. ...