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So this is not actually a super-political post, haha, but I was thinking about how I conceptualize the terms left and right on the political spectrum. I think the most succinct way to explain how I view the difference is that leftist politics are organized around changing society and moving away from the status quo, and right-wing refers to politics organized around maintaining the status quo. Of course different individuals may prioritize and concern themselves with different issues regarding these political directions, and these terms are relative to the society (the status quo of one society is not necessarily equal to the status quo of another), but I think that covers the focus of them fairly well.
I think this can be seen in general regarding how leftist politics focuses on changing government, laws, cultural mores, distribution of wealth, etc, whereas right-wing politics talks about maintaining or restoring tradition and maintaining current power structures, which means that the focus is on delaying, slowing, or preventing change in these areas.
Obviously there's a number of caveats to these general definitions, and there's a large range of beliefs that could fall under either of these general categories, including some things that might technically fall under them that are not things that the majority of people, whether they classify themselves in that category or not, would generally think of as being in that category (eg. A leftist who is focused on changing all vehicles to have three wheels, or a right-wing person who wants to specifically change all laws to be identical to those of 1913 specifically). There are also some things that are generally viewed as being in one category but could technically be in either depending on the motivation for promoting them. For example, preserving the precedent of Roe vs. Wade could technically be thought of as maintaining the status quo, but it's more generally viewed as a vital underpinning to increasing the societal equality of women to men, which is geared towards changing laws and norms. But I think that this fairly accurately describes the general type of politics either of these political labels generally apply to, even across countries (since it takes into account that the status-quo can vary between countries). Some commonly held examples of these terms include redistributing wealth being a leftist position since it's about changing the status quo, and strict immigration laws being a conservative position intended to preserve the status quo.
Interestingly, this means none of the actual positions held that are actually important to anyone are inherently left or right, but are only classified as such relative to the current politics of the day. If we lived in a different world, different things would disrupt or preserve the status quo regarding world politics, and on a country level, different things already do disrupt or preserve the current laws and norms of the country.
I think this can be seen in general regarding how leftist politics focuses on changing government, laws, cultural mores, distribution of wealth, etc, whereas right-wing politics talks about maintaining or restoring tradition and maintaining current power structures, which means that the focus is on delaying, slowing, or preventing change in these areas.
Obviously there's a number of caveats to these general definitions, and there's a large range of beliefs that could fall under either of these general categories, including some things that might technically fall under them that are not things that the majority of people, whether they classify themselves in that category or not, would generally think of as being in that category (eg. A leftist who is focused on changing all vehicles to have three wheels, or a right-wing person who wants to specifically change all laws to be identical to those of 1913 specifically). There are also some things that are generally viewed as being in one category but could technically be in either depending on the motivation for promoting them. For example, preserving the precedent of Roe vs. Wade could technically be thought of as maintaining the status quo, but it's more generally viewed as a vital underpinning to increasing the societal equality of women to men, which is geared towards changing laws and norms. But I think that this fairly accurately describes the general type of politics either of these political labels generally apply to, even across countries (since it takes into account that the status-quo can vary between countries). Some commonly held examples of these terms include redistributing wealth being a leftist position since it's about changing the status quo, and strict immigration laws being a conservative position intended to preserve the status quo.
Interestingly, this means none of the actual positions held that are actually important to anyone are inherently left or right, but are only classified as such relative to the current politics of the day. If we lived in a different world, different things would disrupt or preserve the status quo regarding world politics, and on a country level, different things already do disrupt or preserve the current laws and norms of the country.
