The left seem pretty disconnected from the majority of Americans these days. Like remember how they were attacking the Arizona law on illegal immigrants like it was a far right thing and the same for people not wanting a mosque at Ground Zero? But both of those had like 70% support and were clearly centrist, yet the left seemed convinced they were far right ideas.
I thought I’d illustrate why the left has such trouble perceiving the actual center of American politics. There aren’t white boards in blogs, though, so I just drew something on my iPad really quick. Yeah, I know I put the “Far Right” on the left and the “Far Left” on the right, but for some reason that seemed more logical in the illustration… Know what; I don’t have to explain myself to you. Anyway, here’s the illustration:
It’s a very accurate drawing I made using Science!.
Right now, the politically active left — journalist, pundits, most of the the politicians — are just way out there. So this is why FOX News looks so far right, because it is to the far right — of them. Like it’s way more far right than any other news media because it actually acknowledges the other side at all.
See, the left likes to think the center is near them, but it’s not even close these days according to polling. They actually group the real political center with the far right — because, again, it’s all quite far to the right of them. Lately, none of their ideas have been very popular and they scream and get angry at the far right — which is most Americans who are far to the right of them.
I also put Sarah Palin on my illustration. She is to the right of center, but she’s still about ten times closer to the center than the editorial staff of the New York Times. The left attack Palin all the time on her intelligence and for the maps she draws, but can you even think of the last time they attacked her because of her politics? They can’t because she’s actually pretty close to the center… unlike the left who are way out there with unpopular ideas.
Anyway, the point is what the left consider to be far right is actually the politics of most Americans. I guess one day we need to help them realize they’re the crazy, extremist weirdos, but I’m not sure how to do that. Maybe grab them and shake them while yelling at them. People seem to understand yelling better when they’re shaken.
Science!
Good graph, Frank, and a disturbingly accurate one at that. The Left is sooo far to the Left the Center is “far to the right” of them. So they can essentially call everyone who isn’t with them “far right.” It’s like people in California, Oregon and Washington state saying they are to the West of everybody, which they are. So your graph is kinda like a map, without the pretty colors and other things that make maps fun.
I like the shaking them while you yell at them part. I really don’t care if they understand, I just think lefties should be sharen and yelled at for being lefties, as a prelude to being punched in their monkey faces because they’re hippies. What, not all lefties aren’t hippies? LIES, I tell you, LIES!
If you make a bell-curve of say public opinion on immigration and then put all the fox news hosts on a bunch them are to the left of average Americans.
Like many words “center” “moderate” “racist” “hate” these words do not mean what the left thinks they mean. They are so self righteous/absorbed that all definitions are not based on average people or reality. Their definitions are based solely on where they personally stand. You can spot it in their language because literally in their mind everything else revolves around them.
“moderate” =shares most but not all of their leftist views. Not in the middle between average left and right
“racist” =makes a non white race feels bad. That’s why Bill Cosby, Michael Steele, etc.. were called racist by a bunch of privileged white leftists.
“hate” = means they hated it
Anyway you get the point. Do more listening when you hear a far leftists talk and you will constantly hear the central premise that the meaning of all words are calculated originating from their own position.
I’m sure there is a Science!-tific term for it, but most people who haven’t given their political views much thought view themselves as Moderate, as in “Everyone (who isn’t retarded) thinks just like me.” People who hold a “non-emotion-driven” view are seen as lepers, which minimizes exposure to those yucky “extremist views”. Their heads remain firmly planted in their rectums.
Their own views become The Standard By Which Moderation Is Judged, never mind that polling data shows otherwise. They enjoy living in the illusion that Many Believe As (they) Do.
People who HAVE given their political view some thought are either Leftists or Conservatives – not Moderates.
“The darkest places in Hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis.” – Dante
The fact that the right is on the left and the left is on the right bugs me to no end.
I dont get it. This graph does not make me feel better about myself, nor does it instil a thirst for the arts – are you sure you are not bias? Racist!
Two thoughts:
1) Frank, were you holding the iPad upside down when you made this?
B) We may laugh; however, were it not for clever naming, the Mensheviks, instead of the Bolsheviks, would have led the Russian Revolution. I can’t say much would have been different. They were both commies.
Well, looking OUT of the screen, the Far Right is on the right, so Frank’s drawing must be ‘outward looking.’ The question is, however, where is FRANK on that drawing?? (Left or Right of Palin? Or in the background?!)
I still like your non-scientific! pencil drawings better, though.
This is very, very good, Frank. It doesn’t explain why most “historians” claim the Nazis were far right, but make no mistake, you did a good job.
It’s like people in California, Oregon and Washington state saying they are to the West of everybody, which they are.
And, in fact, they’re like that to the point that, a year ago, my neighbors in Silicon Valley were asking me about my impending move “back east” to Iowa. I wondered how far west my destination would have had to be so that it didn’t qualify as “back east”. Sacramento?
I live in Sacramento and I enjoy every moment that I am to the right of San Francisco
That’s very interesting, Jim, considering that I refuse to recognize any of ye damned westerner, half-injun heathens on the far side of the Illinois River as members of the United States.
I’m still confused, Sarah Palin is left of Fox news? Are people from the far right called “lefties”?
I like that the line slopes downhill going toward the far left. Very accurate. The further left you go, the further downhill you end up.
I want to shake a liberal and yell in their face! How do I sign up? Are there any registration fees?
There’s actually an interesting article in the current issue of National Affairs that mentions a 2010 Princeton Survey Research Associates/Pew poll that tangentially relates to this subject: that Democrats perceive themselves and their party to be centrist/moderate, while Independents and Republicans perceive them to be more liberal. (http://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/after-the-wave) Science!
The colors are wrong also, but thats the fault of cnn. Red should be for the communist left, whoare on the right of the drawing, but are none-the-less to left of the center,… oh its all ass-backwards!
I agree with Turtle.
Oh, Mr Turtle, how many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop? Science! wants to know.
Actually if you can get past all the hyperventilating leftists and DC republicans and look at Sarah Palin’s record as governor Frank has her just about right.
@Shiggz – Actually, if you look at the way Palin governed you could even move her back to the left…..err right….. err….
more toward the center…..
Marco –
Far side of the Illinois River? Sort of an odd marker, isn’t it, given that it runs pretty much east-west from Joliet to just west of Peru and then south by
southwest until it hits the Mississippi?
I spent the first twenty years of my life in or near Chicago, followed by a bit less than two years in Chicago right after graduate school.
Ten or fifteen years ago, when liberals called Hitler a right-wing figure, it was because they were morons who didn’t know that Hitler was an atheistic, total-government “progressive” national socialist, a man of the Left in every respect. Nowadays when they call Hitler a right-wing figure, it’s because they’re actually further left than Hitler.
There, I fixed it
The definition of liberalism is a bunch of Harvard Sq. pukes demonstrating against the Evil Dictator in Egypt while
wearing their Che t-shirts and thinking that Castro, Chavez and Obama are the greatest thing since sliced arugula.
Is it really surprising that people who think that 3 feet of snow is a sign of global warming will argue that the head of the
National SOCIALIST Party in Germany wasn’t a socialist or “left wing”? They will also tell you that the Russians aren’t/weren’t
socialists in the Union of Soviet SOCIALIST Republics, they were communists you see, they actually think there’s a difference.
Once you realize that the tiny minority of people that actually admit to being “progressives” consider anyone who believes in God, doesn’t support gay marriage, doesn’t see Islam as “the religion of peace,” owns a gun, was ever in the military…or a boy scout, doesn’t hate America, or thinks that our government officials should adhere to the Constitution to be “far right wing,” you realize what extremist radical jackasses they actually are.
I would consider the graph to be more compelling if there were something at the “far right” side of the spectrum. What is the most right-wing as-far-right-of-Palin-as-Palin-is-of-the-NYT you could come up with?
Frank’s diagram reminds me of the Rulers law, Peoples law, Anarchy graft in The 5000 Year Leap.
On the far left – 100% tyranny, on the far right – no law, anarchy, (The Road-warrior, Beyond Thunderdome territory), and in the middle – the Peoples law, where everyone Wants to live but can’t agree on how to achieve it or keep it.
It’s a dynamic balancing act – and the Founders knew it.
#25 – Capitalist_B,
I tried to imagine a world in which all the nasty things the left accuses the right of doing were true and failed. Then I remembered that the left always accuses the right of doing what they themselves are trying to do. Yikes! We have a lot of shaking and yelling to do!
FTC What is the most right-wing as-far-right-of-Palin-as-Palin-is-of-the-NYT you could come up with?
Me
You shoulda used a pie graph, everyone likes pie graphs.
#27 — I agree with you there that if you want to know what evils the left is up to, look at what they’re accusing the right of. . .
I disagree with the chart.
As I see it, the Left in America doesn’t think there even IS a “Left”. To them, there is a spectrum going from “Normal” to “Far Right” To the Left, Castro and Chavez are “Normal”. There is nothing to the Left. They see the images at zombietime’s Hall of Shame, and think “NORMAL PEOPLE!” You will rarely, if ever, see an MSM article or TV show describe somebody as being “Leftwing”. You never hear the MSM describe a “Left-wing think-tank” for example, or describe a politician, no matter how far Left they are, as “Leftwing”.
There is “Normal”, and if you get just a couple of issues off the plantation — sometimes even just one step — then you are “Rightwing.” Recall when South Park, after many years of faithfully sticking it to the Right, made an episode parodying the San Francisco “Smug” problem, and their new hybrid car, the “Pious”. With this ONE EPISODE, they lost half of their rabid leftwing fans, who screamed, shouted, cried, and kvetched that South Park was now nothing but a shill-machine for the Right-wing. It was amazing and not at all surprising to see this mass exodus of fans, when they produced this episode.
The way the American Left sees the spectrum:
Normal——–Rightwing——-Hard Right——-Far-Right———-Extreme Far-Right
Ummmm…Pie
I’d feel more comfortable looking at a 3D graph. Frank, how good are you at 3DMax?
Yelling while throttling sounds like a great idea. Cardiovascular. Sounds like a new Wii game idea.
I think you’re completely missing the point. I can’t speak for all liberals, but I for one could not care less where the center is. I don’t choose my politics according to the opinions of others; I base my opinions on a combination of my personal experience and the facts I’ve gathered about the issue.
Accordingly, I sometimes deviate from what is considered “mainstream liberalism”: I think political correctness is deeply annoying, though not as insidious as the right believes it to be. You could possibly consider me pro-gun rights and definitely anti-union. I don’t believe in punishing people for being born white or wealthy, and I don’t believe in rewarding people for deciding to do drugs or commit crimes. But I’m definitely to the left of all of you and it doesn’t matter if you don’t like it.
I went to a meeting where an ACLU speaker was reacting to the Gingrich revolution, where the media lie was that the left suddenly ceased to exist. I’m pretty sure the goal was to both radicalize the remaining lefties and lull the more gullible right into complacency. My response during the Q&A:
“I’m wondering why you try to marginalize the Christians when they are the largest voting block in the largest party. I also wonder why you say their is no left anymore. After hearing your speech, I’m guessing the reason is that there is no one to the left, of you.” The whole room, except for one or two extreme leftists, burst into laughter. My follow up was, “The Weather Underground maybe?”, but no one heard it. He managed to say, “true…” but never finished.
Yes, this was Chicago. And I crammed his 1 hour propaganda speech right back down this throat in 15 seconds. I think that’s the proudest moment from my 20’s.
Atta boy, Kent!
Both for having a good response, and for having the intestinal fortitude to sit through the entire meeting to the end!
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