Quote Originally Posted by drillerpie View Post
I agree witht thenidea that socially we've moved to the left and economically to the right.

I think the move to the left reached a peak during the Covid / George Floyd era. Defund the police, effectively decriminalise theft under a certain amount (is it 1000 usd?), allowing city centres to become homeless encampments, same day release after arrest, judicial reparations, obsession with DEI. All of these things are bat **** mental and helped re-elect Trump.

A good example of a longer term shift is the stigma around opposing immigration. Opposing or at least having reservations over large scale immigration is (or can be, depends how it's done) a perfectly reasonable position but was stigmatised, and it became the default position to accuse the person of being a closet racist for airing their concerns.

That has shifted people to the right as they are the only people articulating people's concerns. The parties they have found new homes in are parties that used to be ignored by pretty much everyone and get low single digits at the polls. I think we need to reflect on this.
Yeah I agree with this, by and large.

"Defund the police" was a fringe view that got magnified by social media and the press because, you know, outrage clicks. I don't think it ever had popular support amongst the "left" if you include the massive moderate majority. I don't know anyone personally who supported it. But it was very loud in online spaces.

I too am irritated by the "you're racist" response to any criticism of immigration. I mean, the person could be racist. Can you address the concerns they actually raised, or is it about sticking a label on them and ignoring them from then on? My guess is B in most cases.

I also think the "left" of politics, especially in the US, has failed to actually make people's lives better in a tangible way, and folks are sick of it. Sick enough to try voting for a "burn it all down" candidate like Trump. I would never vote for him. But I understand how incredibly frustrated a lot of people are with the total lack of progress and indeed loss of progress economically for ordinary people.

Australia is indeed in a similar boat (albeit a bit less severely) and I won't be surprised if Albo loses outright or has to form a minority government after the election. Whenever he ends up calling it... presumably the last possible date since inflation is trending down now. But he just hasn't done enough for ordinary people to make a convincing case IMO.

Again, there's no way I will vote for Dutton - the last leader that party had who was actually competent was Turnbull IMO, and they knifed him for being "too left" and wanting to actually solve the energy/climate change problem. Twice. But, I do agree with the view that the left in Oz (and many places) has at least somewhat lost their way and have failed to a) improve things and b) be seen to improve things.