Credit to @bontchev
He was inspired by Stalinist practices, but as shown by this example and many others, far-left and far-right autocrats are very similar in this regard.
It’s not related to the left/right divide, this is the authoritarian/liberal axis.
entire “left and right” spectrum is quite stupid in my opinion. While it generally points towards what kind of thoughtset someone might have, it doesnt seem very beneficial and has been corrupted quite badly so that term for other side is red flag for the another side and drives people to think you cant have something from both ends.
There should be something else in its place, but i cant come up with anything better on the spot though. Personally i have tried to start thinking it on spectrum of beneficial to humanity as whole vs not beneficial, though with enough mental gymnastics even that could be corrupted to mean awful things
Blog commenter Frank Wilhoit made a now somewhat famous assertion that the human default for nearly all of history has been conservatism, which he defined as follows:
There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
He then defined anti-conservatism as opposition to this way of thinking, so that would be to ensure the neutrality of the law and the equality of all peoples, races, and nationalities, which certainly sounds left-wing in our current culture. It would demand that a legal system which protects the powerful (in-groups) while punishing the marginalized (out-groups), or systematically burdens some groups more than others, be corrected or abolished.
The problem with a “beneficial to humanity” axis is that I think that most people think their political beliefs, if enacted, would be beneficial to humanity. Most people aren’t the villains of their own stories.
The very act of politics is to disagree on what is best for humanity.
Stalin wasn’t far left. The man made being gay illegal. That’s not the behaviour of a leftist.
The man also concentrated ownership of the means of production in the hands of one person, administered by a hierarchy of national and regional subordinates who controlled the labour of the people and the distribution of resources. This is an economic model known most commonly as feudalism. Now given the term left wing originally referred to opponents of the monarchy in France, I don’t see how there’s any way to argue in good faith that a feudal dictator was left wing.
