re: #47 Guanxi88

Just because they had the word “Socialism” in their name does not mean they qualify as “left-wing.”

Well, the only difference in the two brands of tyranny is that socialism does away with private property while fascism just gives control of all businesses to the government. To conjure S.I. Hayakawa, it’s the difference between horse dung and cat dung. And, as someone else pointed out, Jonah Goldberg has done a good job of showing how they “liberalism” and “fascism” are really pretty much the same thing.

However, this does bring up a good point: If the left/right dichotomy was devised in 1792, and the Italian fascists didn’t come along until 1919, what were the defining features of “right-wingism” in the period between 1792 and 1919?

…

As for me, I utterly reject the left/right dichotomy, but I’ve ranted about that so much already I’ll give everyone a break.

That’s my meta point, I guess. I can point at lots of things and tell they are “left wing”. But what, exactly, is a useful definition of “right wing”?

I understand your point about public perception. But I’m talking about reality here.