re: #204 Charles

And since when is environmentalism considered left wing, anyway?

that might be more my european interpretation; I’ll certainly agree it’s more complex than that.
as I put it in my #209 there’s no simple way to align someone left or right and deduce their entire world view from that, but either you’ll have to drop “left” and “right” entirely (which is not common practice here, many a post is made to call out “right wing” nutjobs every day, so left and right as a distinction is certainly made) or you’ll have to take some less absolute interpretation where you align ideas as generally left or right leaning.
social security, government medical care and so forth are generally seen as left-leaning ideas, but what about Romney’s (that was him, right? ) Massachusetts health care reform? wouldn’t exactly call him a leftwinger. still, the general association stands.

now while moderate, sensible environmentalism is (or should be) a wholly bipartisan thing, it can certainly be said that generally, the more extreme the (less sensible) environmentalism gets, the more “leftist” it’s proponents tend to be on other subjects.

never mind the fact that ‘guvmint’ money can only be spent once, be it on social security or further-reaching environmentalist ideas, it’s proponents often seem to be the same.
of course now I am looking mostly at the raving, frothing-at-the-mouth activists without direct political involvement (you know, people chaining themselves to trees one day then a few days later trying to explain to me why communism wasn’t a bad idea, suchlike loons), and I’m disregarding a lot of politicians, who seem to have their heads on a bit more straight.

however, this dude for example wasn’t a politician, he was a frothing-at-the-mouth loon. same for the dude shooting an abortion doctor (though I’m slightly worried by how little his actions were denounced, that doesn’t make a politician directly guilty in my view - responsibility falls on the perpetrator first and foremost): those sorts of people, fringe idiots, are the danger zone.

and yes, in the fringe danger zone, environmentalism is a near-monopolized left-wing topic.