[ExI] antiscience from both sides

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Tuesday, May 5, 2020, 12:20:57 AM PDT, Giulio Prisco via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote: 
> "Often what is seen in the US and Europe is self-identifies Leftists
> adopting Right methods — compulsion, hierarchy, and unreason."
> - well said!

Thanks! I wish I'd copy-edited it before tapping Send. :/ I would've corrected it to:

'Often what is seen in the US and Europe is _self-identified_ Leftists adopting Right methods — compulsion, hierarchy, and unreason.'

That said, I also believe many self-identified Leftists are basically Rightists in disguise. They might share some Left ends -- emancipation is the basic Left wing goal. This is if one goes back to the origin of the distinction. The classical liberals were on the Left, in this regard. And so are anarchists. 

By the way, I'm not trying to oversimplify too much here. I wouldn't, for instance, identify the Right with conservatives, though conservatives are generally on the Right. The Right would also include anti-conservatives, such as actual fascists. (Fascists, in general, don't want to preserve current institutions, for instance. In that respect, they tend to want a social revolution. That might make them seem Leftists -- if one identifies revolution with the Left, but I would look at a given revolution's ends and means and not merely define anything that a radical break with the status quo as Leftist. In fact, a coup d'etat by a Right wing faction could be a radical break with the status quo all in effect to break down anything in the way of a Rightist social order. Obviously, this is exactly what happened in Italy in 1922.)

By the way, see also Jeff Riggenbach's helpful essay on why he believes libertarianism (in the US-American usage) is on the Left:

https://jeffriggenbach.liberty.me/why-i-am-a-left-libertarian/

His reasoning hearkens back to Herbert Spencer's 'The New Toryism':

https://www.econlib.org/library/LFBooks/Spencer/spnMvS.htmleconlib.org/library/LFBooks/Spencer/spnMvS.html?chapter_num=5#book-reader

Regards,

Dan
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