About a year ago I gave up trying to define “left,” “right,” “liberal,” and “conservative.”
The concepts are too nebulous, and people have strong incentives to distort their meanings. There’s no stable “there” there.
This has been wonderfully liberating.
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Not a real option. It may feel liberating to give up but doesn’t mean there isn’t a there there or that it doesn’t apply to you if don’t define it for yourself. Even patterns of giving up have left/right/lib/con tells.
They’ve gotten convoluted rather than nebulous.
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btw, I’m not saying I’m opting out of choosing a side (although, kinda). Rather, I’m opting out of trying to essentialize the labels. I recognize their validity as flags/banners for the current moment, but not as enduring/stable concepts.
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I’d like to build a token-curated list at some point, listing words the community decides have lost their useful meaning and devolved into propaganda (or “hijackonyms” as calls them)
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