Comments on: New lefty dream: A “Progressive” majority

By: eolaí

eolaí — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 14:16:04 +0000

Some labels on the Right: Christian Democrats, fusionism, capitalism, traditionalists, anti-communists, libertarians, neoconservatives, fascists even.

You could do this with labels on the Left and Right for ever. It’s disingenuous to suggest name changing is the preserve of one side. And it assumes that labels, where they last, retain their original usage – Conservative, like Socialist, being an example of words that haven’t.

I realise I haven’t answered any of the questions you’ve posed in the post, but then your description of the beliefs and motivations of people of the left do not come close to describing mine (me being of the Left), so your questions don’t apply.

By: Neil Ward

Neil Ward — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:14:35 +0000

antagonistic, obviously, not anachronistic

By: Neil Ward

Neil Ward — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 02:09:03 +0000

Thanks for coming back John, and for clarifying.

As you yourself posted on twitter, the term progressive has been in used since the late 19th Century, and indeed the US magazine ‘The Progressive’ was established in 1909, since which it has been espousing the broad range of views you define as left-wing, and which could also be defined as liberal, socialist, unionist or centrist, depending on the topic under discussion.

Which hardly makes this a recent cosmetic development, and certainly not one unique to my post.

I think the gay-marriage/marriage-equality debate is a seperate and less relevant concern in this context. It’s more akin to the pro-choice/pro-life/pro-abortion/anti-life linguistic debate, and rather typical of anachronistic politics, regardless of the matter under consideration.

By: John

John — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:59:32 +0000

Neil,

I wasn’t slagging off the substance of your post (which, as a call for broad left-wing unity, makes a lot of sense). I was slagging off the cosmetics of it. And making a point that rarely gets made. Your names change faster than your ideas.

I didn’t mean to make any assumptions about your positions on Gay marriage, or indeed any issue whatsoever. I was, rather, using that issue as an example of what differentiates left and right. I favour Gay Marriage because I think it does society no harm and as such, people should be free to do what they want. Most of the left wing groups, however, call it “marriage equality”.

By: Neil Ward

Neil Ward — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 01:53:32 +0000

This is an extraordinary post. More extraordinary by the fact that the post it slags off is one that calls for new ideas. Which makes it rather odd to slag it off for not containing those same ideas.

Also, your assumption that I am, for example, in favour of gay marriage, is wrong. As is the assertion that such a campaign is necessarily left-wing.