Labeled: Left, Right, and Centre
A short analysis on the evolution of right/left political spheres and labels over the past decade, and the emergence of a new Alt-Centrist movement
The Left. The LEFT! THE LEFT!
If you've been around sociopolitical circles in the past half-decade you've almost certainly heard of the Left. Especially the Left's plans for America.
“The Left wants rapid inflation. The Left wants to infiltrate your schools. The Left wants to read to your children at drag queen story hour. The Left wants to steal your genitals and sell them to China. The Left wants to destroy capitalism and the American dream!”
...or do they?
What is the Left anyhow? On the one hand, I'm told that the Left is pro-LGBT, but on the other that they're socialists who hate capitalism. So what does it mean when I see Uber, Amazon, Facebook, and Walmart all sporting a rainbow variation of their standard company logos during the designated month we're all supposed to pay extra attention to gay people? I will be forthright and admit that a portion of this is unquestionably pandering on the part of the companies, though there are surely corporate executives who legitimately believe in this cause. Though likewise, we must admit that there's a significant amount of the population who both support this “representation” and will absolutely shop at a business because of its participation alone.
The market research has shown over the past decade or so that “go woke go broke” rhetoric is incontrovertibly a myth perpetuated by coping boomers. The fact is that companies, at worst, do not see a loss, but more often what happens is they actually increase their sales. The fact is that people in the West controlling much of the wealth, both personal and corporate, are progressive liberals, socially speaking.
The Left, as it is, has certainly evolved from what it was arguably even just over a decade ago. Though the term “the Left” was used much less often, if it all, the sort-of caricature representation we've come to understand through the nightly prime-time Fox News channel lineup (Sean Hannity especially a fan of this terminology) was a somewhat more accurate portrayal in say 2008 when they focused more in particular about the economically leftist policies. I personally remember the Occupy Wall Street days of leftist thought. Admittedly there was a level of social liberalism it usually played the second fiddle to a more pressing economic crisis looming around the recession and the housing market crash. Then, by 2012, we'd seemingly forgotten much of the economic rhetoric and as gay marriage was federally legalized in the USA, with massively promoted transgender identity not being too far behind (not to mention the almost manufactured reactionary reply to this legislation and these civic causes) suddenly the conversation had evolved into one that hadn't been so focused on social issues since perhaps the 60s sexual liberation movement.
Now we find ourselves in 2021, over a decade since this evolution and I'm begging to ask myself, what is this new Left, and where is it headed?
Well certainly with corporate America, in addition to the government's rubber stamp of approval, it can be asserted that the Left poses basically no threat to either the capitalist oligarchy or neoliberal autocracy we've seen take root in our Western nations.
How will this new Left evolve in time? Well, it's difficult to predict at this point, but it seems as though the Left has become just a tool of the core, centrist elite. One to be used as both a sort-of counter reactionary hammer to smash down any sort of traditionalist or anti-establishment thought within the Right (eg. Trump and MAGAts are racist for wanting strong borders and strict immigration), as well as a more controlled and malleable off-shoot of what was once a truly anti-establishment leftist school of thought. Despite all the meaningless rhetoric we’ve heard about “making the rich pay” and “smashing capitalism” the Left has essentially become a political weapon to be used during times of crisis, or in pre-election propaganda.
It would be disingenuous to assert what I have thus far without paying acknowledgment to the fact there is presently a legitimate branch of classic leftist thought that does not fall within the aforementioned frameworks. People who may be very socially liberal but don't look to either corporate America or the nanny-state government for their validation or approval. People who are essentially anti-government libertarians and anarchists who pin for the liberation of the proverbial boots upon their collective necks.
An easy go-to would of course be Antifa. Now, a whole essay could be written on Antifa alone. What they represent, their end game, and whether or not they're even a legitimate group or just a government psyop, etc. Whether identifying as Antifa or not, the ideological consistencies of these “legitimate” leftists do tend to fall within a more proto-leftist [in Western terminology] anti-establishment structure, but I simply do not think their numbers, combined with the consistent infiltration by more moderating groups, makes them a legitimate threat or even a relevant player in politics outside of militantly propagandous pre-election skirmishes.
Now of course one can not speak of the Left without discussing its most obvious and present enemy within the political theatre – the Right.
I will confess I don't spend nearly as much time in leftist circles as I do would-be rightist ones, but through my cursory knowledge and limited experience, I know for a fact the Right isn't a term used nearly as much as the Left. That being said though, it is used, and it has grown over time. In particular during the course of the Trump administration.
For all his unpredictability, self-contradictions, his positions seemingly all over the political compass, and his attempts at pragmatism and to reach out to the people outside of his ideological base, Trump has more or less become the face of the Right. Definitely in America, but with his political matches in Canada and overseas (Maxime Bernier, Nigel Farage, Marinne La Pen, Geert Wilders, and the AfD in Germany, respectively could all be argued to be within the same ideological camp) we've seen a similar evolution of what it means to be “right-wing” in the past decade or so.
I think it's important to again establish what the Right used to be, and what path it is nonchalantly moseying down. I use these words deliberately, as it seems the core Right is far more apathetic about what is happening around them. If not apathetic, then at least disarmed (metaphorically and literally), spending the majority of their time whining about problems on Twitter and accusing anyone who dares suggest taking action of being a federal agent – pardon the digression.
The Right has certainly had its evolution over the years; time was the “Right” were the more authoritarian side of the political circles, with of course the Right being the group of individuals who sat to the King's right in the French court, with the progressive and liberal reformists to the left. But as the time passed and years turned to decades the pendulum swung with the rise of communism across much of Europe and the world the idea of being on the right soon found itself evolving to mean something perhaps even of leftist's past – equality, free-market capitalism, and individual liberty – liberalism.
To this day I would say that the hard-line, mainstay, core “Right” is absolutely and inextricably liberal. Despite all their attempts to claim conservatism and traditional values, the Right has time and time again proven themselves to conserve nothing and to capitulate always.
There's indisputable evidence of this suggested by simply looking at a sampling of Republicans’ opinions on gay marriage over the past 20 years. In 2001 over 75% of registered Republicans opposed gay marriage. Compare this to the last national survey in 2020 which saw a staggering flip in that 55% of Republicans now approve of gay marriage, with that number reaching nearly 70% when isolated to millennial Republicans only.
So what has this taught us, other than the fact the next generation has all but completely abandoned their grandparent's politics? Well, for one the Right is essentially the party of liberalism now. Staunchly “classic” liberals. They believe in many of these same tenets that reformers in King Louis' court fought for – personal freedom and Man's inalienable rights. This will assuredly be the core of the Right for many years to come.
Now I will say that the Right is definitely more of a broad designation. Though the core Right is more of a narrow definition than the core Left, the overall Right is undoubtedly more encompassing than the overall Left; and once again I mustn't forget to acknowledge the fact that there is still at present a notable contingent of legitimately old stock Rightists, and I would say they're more numerous and more fervent than the old stock Leftists, with the very interesting note being that many of these legitimately authoritarian people on the Right tend to be younger millennials and zoomers who have adopted these politics as a sort-of reactionary response to increased progressivism and degeneracy seen from their liberal counterparts of the same generations.
It can not be understated just how much the legalization of gay marriage, and by proxy, the normalization of transgender individuals and associated sexual deviancy has aided the rise of far-right politics. It could be argued that as the political pendulum swung along the course of human history that the rise of authoritarian conservatism was inevitable, but it's certainly inarguable that these legislative moves under the guise of gender and sexual equality have directly correlated to the rise of neo-fascism and associated far-right politics.
I would also argue that this branch of the Right, the “far-Right” as the media and progressive liberal objectors have likened it to is certainly both more of a threat to the current system and they are far more relevant than say a group like Antifa, politically speaking. One can see the evidence of this in the fact that even years later people still discuss the Unite the Right rally and Charlottesville protests. Now, it can obviously be said that this is done in a manner to drag and demonize the Right, but the fact of the matter is that the Right did manage to organize and get themselves out there. The fact the Right is able and willing to do these things, despite the constant cries of racism and antisemitism from their political opponents, and those within their own circles accusing them of being federal agents because they don't (solely) participate in e-slacktivism like making memes and shitposting in Facebook groups means that they do have a level of organizational power that seems to elude other dissident groups, be it leftists or the cringe lord boogaloo boys who are barely worthy of a mention.
As for the future of the Right as a whole, I find this to be another unpredictable future. We live in a politically tumultuous time, and with that, the evolution and progress of these political divides change rapidly and erratically.
There was a time not even 10 years ago when people would be posting memes of Donald Trump, clad in a shining gold suit of armour with a text decrying him the “Grand Imperator of Planet Earth”, and the man viewed in an almost saintly type of reverence. But now, as Trump has proven himself to be nothing more than a corporate lackey for the Zionist agenda it's become all too apparent that Trump's reign of the Right has done nothing for a return to tradition and everything for a return to kosher conservatism (classic liberalism.)
At best Trump has sewn the seeds of isolationism and protectionism, but with the vast majority of his policy and cabinet decisions benefiting nobody besides himself and his oligarchic allies he’s proven to be loyal to no one but his own stock portfolio. Surely, he was not the right-wing populist demagogue he was painted to be when he descended that escalator in 2015.
The core Right may and the MAGA cult will undoubtedly follow this buffoonish Manhattanite billionaire to the gates of Hell, but I will acknowledge that a growing contingent of disaffected ex-Trumpers may be evolving into an entirely new sphere of politics.
The insightful and well-spoken journalist Robert Stark has brought forth and pushed for an idea of a new branch of politics to combat both these ineffective and useless left/right politics in their totality – and that is the Alt-Centre.
Personally, at first glance, I was instantly hooked. I could immediately understand the connotations implied with this and I could tell I was going to spend the majority of his article (
) nodding my head in agreement, which I did.
Stark proposes a new divergent; a coalition of people who are “politically homeless or at odds with the left, right, and mainstream center”.
An Alt-Centrist maybe someone who is both left-leaning economically, believing in things such as universal health care or taxation of wealth capital, as well as the efficacy of vaccines, but may also hold some socially conservative values such as the preservation of the natural human hierarchies, or the abolition of gay marriage and transgender surgeries.
The Alt-Centre at its first glance would almost certainly share more in common with the Right, particularly the Alt-Right, and I think that's no mistake. I believe this Alt-Centre is developing almost out of a necessity, as these people have found themselves completely marginalized and disenfranchised by the core Right, with so many going so far as to label those dissidents in a manner not too dissimilar from a core Leftist (ie. calling people nazis, anti-semites, etc.), and with this have created a vacuum of representation for people with legitimate complaints and concerns about the direction their nations are headed. Now, as a response to the frustration, these ex-rightists have felt over the past half-decade or so, watching the core Right surrender to the core Left; over and over again, they have adopted a more left-leaning stance economically as a reaction to the continued reverence for free-market capitalism by the indoctrinated boomer masses.
I would also argue that as the “dissident left” has found themselves more moderated during the Biden presidency, that the dissident right has only continued to get more radicalized, and more extreme. As both continue to amplify we see the growing level of acceptance for authoritarianism grow among the right to a point their politics are beginning to reach a 1930s level of indistinguishably autocratic politics, with the lines of leftism and rightism in these extremists being obscured to a point you're not sure if someone is a fascist or a communist now.
Some older Trump-supporting personalities from what seems to be a lifetime ago have begun to sow the seeds of what may evolve to be the most encompassing and big tent type of politics we've seen in decades.
As mentioned before Robert Stark is one in particular mind of note, but we can also look into others such as Richard Spencer along with the notable 5%'er gents on Twitter, and all the way up to someone like Tucker Carlson who has proudly espoused anti-trust sentiments alongside his criticisms of free-market capitalism and support for social conservatism.
It's once again difficult to say where the future trajectory of this ideology may be headed, but I think in particular what a relevant agenda moving forward would be is a push for a foothold in both the legitimate political sphere (ie. electing someone at even just a local or regional level who can embrace these talking points) and also creating an influential media outlet collection – substack is a good start, but I would like to see things like podcasts, news anchors, and writers taking a piece of this political smorgasbord that is seemingly endless.
In closing, I will conclude by restating that the future of politics is, as always, unpredictable, but one thing that is certain is that evolution is eternal. Whether the core Right or the core Left controls the reigns on the wagon that is Western politics a push towards a new future seems inevitable. Evolution is eternal, but empires are not. Oligarchies are not immortal, and the common man will always find a way to root out the evil that plagues his society.