jhordan

Because I am bored and I've been thinking about it a lot.

Politics is generally thought of as a line. I was going to post it here, but since that chart is widely outdated, I decided against it.

These days, we acknowledge the political spectrum as a four way spectrum with an x and y axis. Like as follows.

To the left you'll find everything from communism to socialism to the Democratic party. To the right you'll find everything from fascism to conservatism to the Republican party.

The higher you go, the more authoritarian you get. Higher government control. Communism and Fascism are up there.

The lower you go, the more "free" you get. Less government. Down there are the anarchists.

Aside from the far extremes, most people and groups tend to fall on the center lines.

This is what a lot of people assume is how the chart looks:

In reality, it is much more complicated.

I spent nearly an hour on the following chart. It's not perfect, but it is a rough idea of where things actually fall. And for full transparency, I added a little white star that indicates approximately where my views are, so if you are looking at the chart you know the views of the chart maker. I tried my best to be as impartial as possible, but I found the Trump golfing icon, and had to use it. (It's also very accurate at describing Trump's effect on the Republican party).

Also, I may need to add to it, let me know if I missed any major groups.

The explanation:

First, the American flag represents the U.S.'s general identity. The U.S. is a center right country (traditionally and the government tries to keep it that way) which is why it is so hard to vote in major progressive candidates. Bernie has been making surprising progress under the circumstances, and he honestly has a chance still.

Anyway, the Republican party has been moving to the right. The Democrats, trying to be moderate, have been pulled across the line by the Republican party. Trump treated the GOP like a golf ball and yeeted them further right, and faster than they had been moving.

Bernie is a democratic socialist, aka the sweet spot between socialism and democracy. Socialism is further left, and further up, but there are socialists who say that Bernie is "left enough" for them to rally behind.

Communism was hard to place. I had them further left, but there are some "communist" countries that have pulled the concept to the right. Think China/Russia/North Korea. I don't believe there is any overlap between socialism and communism anymore for that reason, but I could definitely be wrong.

Infowars definitely has overlap with Nazism. Fox News is all-in Republican. CNN and MSNBC (and other mainstream media) fall into the purple overlap between Rs and Ds. That's also where Joe Biden is. And all of them are generally right leaning (because of the pulling to the right and trying to seem moderate/independent).

Anarchists are in the lower left. No government.

Anti-vaxxers are also against government regulations, but on the right.

With less regulation, are the corporations who only care about money. They reach across the full left/right spectrum because they are flexible and want to reach as many consumers as they can.

Lastly is capitalism. It's the biggest circle because it is the least ideologically-aligned. Companies do what they need to to get money and keep business going. There are lots of pros and cons, and it really depends on where exactly you may fall. I am on the edge of capitalism, over with Bernie. I personally believe that there is a way to use capitalism to promote the public interest. Similarly to Yang (who was very difficult to place and I probably placed him wrong, sorry!)

Capitalism is so far reaching it hits both Hitler and anarchists. Some companies are so focused on the dollar that they are willing to appeal to almost anyone. Usually this backfires, for obvious reasons. (That's why in my opinion as a business bi, companies need to either be completely separate from politics, or COMPLETELY in and KNOW where they stand. That baker who refused to make a gay cake would be pretty much all in on his ideology, just like the gay company that is super gay. Converse and their rainbow shoe line, for example. They went all in. But anyway... back to the political spectrum)

So yeah. If you have any questions, send an ask or leave a reply. I'll try to respond with my thoughts to those who are genuinely interested in having a discussion or asking a question. I think my chart is pretty accurate overall, a lot of thought went into it lmao.

Also please note the circles ONLY indicate where the party/individual/ideology and their supporters lay on the chart. They do not indicate size or importance. Just because the GOP overlaps with Nazis, that does not mean all Republicans are Nazis, obviously. It means there are self-identifying Nazis and KKK members in the Republican party.

I also left out ANTIFA entirely because the basic idea is anti-fascist, which is harder to pinpoint and the chart is already super busy. I would probably estimate they are generally in the lower left area, but yeah.