Why the Right and Left Hate Each Other. 

"Left wing, right wing, chicken wing, it don't make no difference to me" - Fred Flintstone

It is so weird seeing American colours on Canada and Europe, I’m just so used to labour=red

There seems to be a kind of left-wing thinking in contrast to a kind of right-wing thinking, but a lot of the time the labels are applied arbitrarily. A lot of people seem willing to adjust their definition of harm or purity to conform to their tribal identity.

“The right and left are coalitions of different forces more than they are real central forces.” Agreed. Why would liberals who hate religion be allied with a Muslim minority while conservatives who are deficit hawks be okay with such bloated military spending? This is something I’ve realized that has not only led to me to the belief we should have rank choice voting but also many different parties across America representing different political interests. For example, someone like me who has a strong interest in protecting the environment and ending wars has little in common with liberals who get more upset at racial jokes than actual human rights abuses

"you can justify the nazis" , totally wont be put out of context lmao

The perfect mix of the: Arrogance of an Italian Smug inflection of a Frenchman Cold-hearted bluntness of a German All intertwined with a plentitude of American sarcasm Keep it up buddy

I heard a pretty good analogy the other day; The Left loves their government, but hates their country, while the Right hates their government, and loves their country.

As a conservative let me say. We don’t have an issue with education spending. We have an issue with the government deciding how these funds are used since most schools are politically funded

"conservatives love a strong military and interventionism" Paleoconservatives/isolationists: Am I a joke to you?

“To realize that we live in an absurd culture where we are taught absurd things by absurd people and threatened with absurd consequences for defying all of it is to achieve a level of contentment.” Michael Malice

I take the view that humans are inherently selfish but also inherently like doing good. For example, people pretty often are willing to give directions if you ask or are willing to ask an injured person if they are ok. But at the same time we still want our friends and family to be the best in society.

"I just invested in a gay sex club" is the best synopsis of Libertarianism I've ever seen

Time stamps: Part 1: Ethics - 2:01 Part 2: Religion - 6:16 Part 3: Economics - 13:35

"We don't choose our politics based on rational decisions" You nailed the biggest, main problem of most modern democracies right there.

“Meet me in the middle”, says the unjust man. You take a step toward him. He takes a step back. “Meet me in the middle”, says the unjust man.

Reading the comments, I feel so sad that so many people missed the point of this video, and used it to cherrypick everything you said about the side they disagree with, while ignoring everything you have to say about their side. Very very sad.

Me clicking onto a Whatifalthist video as it's uploaded has the speed of Germany conquering Denmark.

I'm getting strong "Imperium of Man" vibes from your description of Right-Wing metaphysics. I don't entirely disapprove. I know that 40k is a satire, but all satire has some foundation in truth: The world is hostile and humans are imperfect; the struggle against Chaos is a constant, and civilisation is dependent on it.

The great struggle in American politics: Soda v. Obamna

it feels so weird having the left wing represented as blue in Europe

I literally was just binging your geopolitics videos and just as I finished you have a new upload. Good timing.

The "America First" thing was a tad misrepresented in my opinion. Some people really are xenophobic and aggressive, but most aren't. They see all of our domestic problems getting zero attention while the government devotes countless amounts of money and resources to help other countries with theirs...and often, those countries absolutely despise us and aren't afraid to say so. They just say that we need to focus on OUR problems, not out of malice, but out of genuine concern.

Whatifalthist: Uploads Dopamine: "Released" Depression: *Destroyed*

The interesting thing to me about the left/right dichotomy in the United States, is that the US is and always has been a radically liberal country (except for the South). So the Left and Right both express their positions within the philosophy and language of liberalism, especially when critiquing the other side. The Right claims that the Left is intellectually inflexible and dogmatic. Freedom of thought and expression is a core liberal value, and they're right to point out when the Left overly polices language and labels certain ideas as taboo. They see academia as having an elitist attitude when hierarchy and social stratification is the antithesis of liberalism. And, of course, there's the whole issue of gun control. The Left claims that the Right often stands in the way of civil rights, voting rights, immigration, and privacy, and supports more intrusive law enforcement. And that the Right have their own intellectual inflexibility, their own dogma, and their own taboos. And an elitism and social stratification of their own. The Left would point out the Rightist dogma that our military is the great protector of American liberty is so sacred that they question the national loyalty of anyone who speaks against it. Ironically, the founding fathers stated explicitly and repeatedly that a large, professional, standing military is a huge threat to liberty and a democratic society. And then there's the Right's opposition to sexual freedom and many forms of artistic expression they object to on moral grounds. It seems to me that the Left would view the struggle of minority groups against systemic oppression as a core liberal value. The Right would counter that this worldview ultimately divides people against one another and represents the seeds of Leftist authoritarianism. The Right also sees low taxes, economic freedom, and religious expression in public spaces to be core liberal values. The Left would counter that this belief economic freedom only applies the privileged and limits the economic freedom and mobility of the underprivileged. When I say that the United States is a fundamentally liberal nation, people look at me funny. But this is what I mean.

At this point “The Righteous Mind” is probably required reading for all whatifalthist viewers

"When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty" - Thomas Jefferson

Another part of the equation: lots of people have political ideas from all spectrums and aren’t centrist. Man politics are confusing

I worked with hippy dippy conservationists once and during break we'd talk and I found it interesting how astonished they were when I proposed that people will usually act out of practical self interest.

"The reason that the fight between the Left and the Right is so contentious is that, at heart, it's a religious war..." EXACTLY. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT CORRECT. You could have ended the video right there. That one statement hits the nail dead on the head.

0:27 I love how Bosnia & Herzegovina is literally 100% regional And Poland just 100% rightist

“China is trying to take over Asia” Understatement of the year if you ask me.

I usually hate ads but ground news is actually pretty awesome, thanks for promoting services that actually have value

As Morbo from Futurama so eloquently put it: “when will humans learn that all humans are equally inferior to Morbo?!”

"Ethnic minorities who tend to be socially conservative, but don't want to be culturally dominated by the ethnic majority." That's straight truth. My experience as a minority too has been very socially conservative, but when it comes to politics everyone suddenly swings left and I think it's just because of that, whether they want to own up to it or not.

The main problem I have with this type of map is that at the 50 percent mark an area gets thrown into one category or another. In reality the map should be a bunch of shades of purple. None of these areas are so purely one or the other.

One of the main reasons why they hate each other so much is because the size and scope of government is far too big. The bigger the government the bigger the stakes if one "side" wins or loses and the bigger the stake the more upset the loser will get. The government is far larger and more intrusive than the constitution ever intended and it is all too rarely questioned. People have become so accustomed to larger ever more intrusive government that people almost never consider actually shrinking government to any meaningful degree. Republicans often talk a good game about cutting the size and scope of government, but most of them engage in the same irresponsible spending that the democrats do.

"There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a united Left and Right."

Russia, China and Switzerland: Eating popcorn

Never felt the need to comment on a RU-vid vid before but your content is so underrated. One of the last videos you did “why are we so unhappy” was so on point, I watched it back to back and then circled back later to give it another rewatch and learned something different each time. Keep up the Amazing work!

I have been traditionally left leaning. I dont agree that humanity can be perfected but i do believe self improvement is both possible and should always be striven for. I find myself leaning right not because i fundamentally disagree with my world view, but the fact that i can disagree with them and have an actual productive discussion. On the left even so much as questioning the wrong person can put me physically at risk, let alone the social ramifications for things like employment and such. I find people as a whole to be relatively reasonable so long as those who seek power at all costs are kept in check. The right is more willing to question individuals like that. The left is unwilling to tolerate the slightest whiff of dissent for an individual who hits the right check boxes. Its kinda insane.

The main issue with stereotypes about the right and left is that many people alternate which side they're on throughout their lives. I think what really seems to happen is that when one side (or even non-left-right faction) gets too much social power, their over-reaching leads to purity spirals and drives people in their own faction away, and in general leads to social strife. You can see how quickly this can turn around using an example like the US--the social hysteria even as recently as the 90s was from the right, but now we've been living through a social hysteria of authoritarianism driven by the left for at least a decade.

as someone who has checked out of all forms of politics and even really reading the news over the past few years, you are the only person making any sense

*reads title* Oh boy, this comment section is going to be fun...

"Once you remove the idea of heaven, envy in society becomes impossible to control."

You forgot a major backer of the left wing in the US.....Train Enthusiasts.

this is the most american-centric video ive seen of yours, like holy tories.

The conservative position on education isn't that its useless, its that the government is the worst custodian of education due to the lack of any incentive to do it properly.

I feel like defining all politics as a spectrum just doesn't work at a level where you're trying to find the core of political opinions. There is no single "left and right" Spectrum where everyone fits neatly. Trying to fix this with just adding more spectrums like the political compass also doesn't work because there's just too many different stances people can have on different issues, I could probably undermine every single political spectrum quiz if I tried, just like most people probably could. Left and right only works as a simple view of common trends different political groups naturally share at the context and time of their period, but can't be used for actually examining the core of politics (I would also argue that people's political opinions are purely circumstantial and depends on variables like what the current society is like).

Both myself and my husband (retired Professor!) absolutely love what you're presenting here, but we both felt that you presented it Way.Too.Fast.! We both had a hard time following your finer points, and would love to see this presentation with some time to ruminate over what you have said. Yes, I would have told you this anyway, but my husband (retired Professor of Electrical Engineering Technology, no less; he's picky about that distinction,) asked me to weigh in about the 'too fast' aspect specifically! We will have to watch this several times, which is inconvenient, given our schedules. - But Thank You for producing this! It does make sense. We would just like to see that sense with some ability to digest it! =)

Left and right differ greatly in Europe and the US, so speaking of "west" here is typical American-centrism.

Gridlock is EXACTLY what the Founding Fathers designed into the system so that changes have to arrive by large consensus. They thought this slowness in creating changes (checks and balances) avoids tyranny. So if we have gridlock, the system IS working.

I describe myself as a social democrat rather than socialist or liberal. My complaint is the left has stopped thinking seriously about the things that really matter to people- income, housing, health, crime etc. The right simply thinks the answer to everything is the free market

I'd say one problem is that the word "compromise" has been dropped by both the Left and the Right. More and more, both sides think in terms of absolutes. The other side is wrong about everything and evil, too.

It's a shame that people value tribalism over healthy comunication.

On abortion I don't think you're right that it's because women are shirking their duty. I'm pretty sure they just see the fetus as being an alive human being and thus abortion is a legal version of infanticide

There is a deep rationality underpinning many ancient moral laws, even if they seem irrational. Great video though, keep up the good work!

The way you very casually speak about libertarians and acknowledge their existence is mind blowing. There needs to be more people talking about politics in this kind of way.

"Forget the promise of understanding for In the grim dark of the Far future there is only war, there is no peace amongst the stars only an eternity of carnage and slaughter and the laughter of thirsting gods" -Warhammer 40k When everyone hates each other than nothing would change only the sounds of the grinding wheels of time and decay.

First time I've seen a sponsorship that actually interests me. I'm actually gonna pause this video to get ground news. Edit: best features aren't free, but still useful even for free.

I'm sorry, but I strongly disagree with the assuption that "the left" inherently beliefs that humans are naturally generous or altruistic, and that human nature is moldable. Maybe some weird hippie people think that, but it's far from being the standard. There are many "left wing" beliefs that are built on the assumption that humans *are* naturally greedy, and our society should be built around that. Many forms of socialism for instance assume that humans are naturally greedy, not just under capitalism. And those seek to build a society with strongly reduced class diffrences, one in which the economic interests of the individual align with those of the community. You help your community, you help yourself, and vice versa. Many socialists will argue that the best social system is one that still works if everyone is an absolute POS. That capitalism sucks speciffically because it turns human greed, which will always exist, into something negative. Karl Marx, the big boy of socialism and communism, he didn't believe humans were these naturally good creatures, no. He believed that his vision of communism was a desirable goal speciffically because humans were naturally self serving. His whole belief in the class war was also built off that. That throughout human history diffrent social classes have always been in a struggle for selfish wealth and power. He believed this materialistic greed was a fundamental part of humanity and a driving force of social conflict throughout history. If you want a more current day example, Noam Chomsky, a left wing/ anarchist leaning professor and linguist, even pointed out how dangerous it is to assume that humans are blank slates, as it is a belief that could benefit authoritarian states and allow them to propagandize the youth. So no, some pretty prominent left wing voices disagree with the ideas of human blank slates or altruism. That's not a belief that's inherent to the left. You might just as well argue that this is a conservative/right wing belief, since the economic right will constantly argue for abolishing welfare and replacing it with voluntary charity, because "people are naturally generous". Making the poor dependent on the altruism of the rich.

Another fascination lecture. Have you thought about making a video detailing why today’s modern western youth romanticizes misery?

Disliked for implying Florida sinking is a bad thing

I'm a libertarian, but the way you're describing right wingers makes me feel I'd be considered a conservative in the US

Unbelievably good video. I kept having to pause and relisten to soak it all in. Thank you. Way I see it is that everyone has their own ideals (values) and blind spots, and we need everyone talking to each other so that pragmatic decisions can be made for both the individual and collective good. Another way of looking at is that there are collectivists and individualists. An extreme on either side ends up suppressing both collective and individual values. Strong balance between individual and collective values leads to strength for both groups of values. In modern politics it seems that the Left is increasingly focused on only the social issues, and bring forward solutions that on paper seem like it would solve the problem, but in the longterm would only make it worse - example, homelessness in Pacific NW cities. The Right tends to ignore that the social problems exist and would rather do nothing. If the Left were left to their own devices, they would constantly try to solve one social problem after another, but continually failing since every new social policy tends to come with unintended negative consequences which are often worse than the original problem they were trying to solve. Similarly, if the Right were left to their own devices, they would never change anything for fear of disrupting what they know works. This why we need both and why democracy works so well. We need the Left to point the social issues the society is facing, and we need the right to point out the flaws in their proposed solutions and help them come up with pragmatic solutions that will actually solve the problem without causing a whole chain of other unintended negative side effects.

The "Right" and "Left" is so different and varied in different countries that it's hard to draw any sort of overarching trend

"Conservatives" on Anglo-saxon countries, are "Liberal-Conservatives"

The European map is so inaccurate it is almost random.

I'd say the hatred comes from several irreconcilable differences. In the US, Liberals tend to believe: 1 Society can and should be actively engineered 2 The government should be strong (to facilitate #1) 3 Western civilization due to its historical behaviors is bad and should be replaced 4 Due to #3, mass immigration should be sponsored Conservatives tend to believe: 1 Society should evolve organically, and above all slowly 2 The government should be weak 3 Western civilization is a good thing and should be maintained 4 Due to #3, immigration should be limited to rates which allow successful assimilation of immigrants These are pretty core differences, and hard to reconcile.

This is pretty much what a lot of us have come to see as well. Good on you for realizing Nazism was Darwinian in nature and you are correct about the origins of western liberalism. I think whether you start with Jan Hus or Martin Luther it's obvious that the various other revolutions all spring from there.

I feel that you are being quite America centric with lots of your standpoints. As an European quite some deatils differ from how you make them out to be. And that counts for the right and the left. For example the focus on college educated leadership is much more an US phenomenom as in Europe. While there is a trend towards that in Europe, theres still a huge spirit of emacipation of the simple worker in europe. Especially social democracy and laborunions emphasize that. A prime example would be France. In the US it is quite new in comparison. While Europe the workers movement was indeed lead by educated people, it was driven by the workers. In the US it is much mire recently and picked up by young well educated people and more spread amongst them. Also the church and military play a way less major role in Europe and the position on a strong state is inherently different. Take Germany, where the conservatives are the major party to drive forward video and digital surveillance, while its the left, having strong positions against it.

Before starting this video: "This is just going to be 'A Conflict of Visions', isn't it?" 10 minutes in: "Huh, surprised he hasn't even mentioned the book." 10 minutes and 8 seconds in: "Ah, there we go."

I must say, being diagnosed as a sociopath helped me understand why I hold the views I do, constantly struggling against my antisocial urges for my whole life.

The upload rate is great. Hope this continues. I like the new consept.

"A man sees what he wants to see and disregards the rest" - Paul Simon (of Simon and Garfunkel) from The Boxer

”We should do more listening and less talking." Bow to that.

"Forget about left wing or right wing, a bird can't fly with only one wing" - Prince EA 2020

Keep in mind the moral foundations is still just a theory for now and are not very rigorous yet. But it does provide some insight that we need

In the thumbnail most of the Left is concentrated in urban areas and most of the Right in rural areas, but in Norway and Sweden it is the opposite. I wonder why that is the case ?

You need to make a video called "what we really need to worry about" listing the true problems we need to adress, think about and discuss.

When people talk about income inequality they aren’t saying everyone should make the same. The concern is wages have stayed stagnant since the 1970s and not kept pace with increased cost of living. This is eviscerating the U.S. middle class and they have increasingly slipped into being closer to “working poor” than what we think of as middle class. Most people don’t really want a lot of expensive stuff. They want decent housing, reliable utilities, transportation, healthcare, and a general ability to pay for these and other basic necessities as long as they work a full-time job. The elites in this country have been squeezing the American middle class for decades and it makes their lives severely stressful and precarious.

I feel this could've been done with less pigeonholing and explained better by discussing the left and right's sub groups and how they interact. Because the "ideal" leftist or righty doesn't exist so purely and if they do they're are a total minority of their group. This is a very complex subject that requires more than it was given here @Whatifalthist

That thumbnail is going to confuse the shit out of Canadian and International viewers, it basically every western country except the US the colour of conservative and right/centre-right wing parties is blue, and the colour of progressive/socialist/left wing parties is red.

Sucks how divided, not just America, but our species in General is. Sadly political divisions is one reason why I think humanity will go far.

Well done! This sums it up perfectly. Most Americans still fall in the center (slightly right), but our political class can't seem to figure it out. Further, we are now so divided that any compromise (which is kind of the definition of what politicians are supposed to do) is seem in a negative light. I've been on the Earth long enough to see BOTH parties do really stupid things whenever they have full control. The founders were wise - we have a House that can turn over every 2 years to quell the really stupid stuff. And, we have a Senate that is designed to delay/stop the stupid that can happen from the House. What worries me though is the increased power given to the Executive. It started during WWII when budget execution went to the POTUS, and more and more power has risen to that level since then. That's a problem.

Thanks Prof! Can't argue at all - thank you for the maps and infographics. These videos are a great resource in my personal studies.

My coworkers and I talk about politics from time to time. I lean to the left and they lean to the right. I’ve been thinking about why it feels like we don’t see eye to eye, and I think you perfectly capture the difference between our world views.

13:25 Actually, from what I’ve seen from my right-wing and Christian family, and as a Christian myself, we view abortion as morally wrong because it’s basically killing a living soul, and as you had mentioned earlier, Christianity teaches the value of human life due to each of us having a soul. For me at least (I can’t wholly speak for my relatives as they are more right-wing than me), gender roles don’t factor into the equation here.

Nah, it's an age-old conflict between the farmer and the philosopher. The farmer sees the philosopher as a bloated egg-head, and the philosopher sees the farmer as a dumb brute. Each considers the other a waste of time, and neither could be more wrong. They need each other, and our world will be a merrier place when both realize that.

You are also massively oversimplifying the abortion issue. Defining what a person is is as much a biological issue as anything else, as if we are dehumanizing a whole section of humanity based on what they look like we are perpetrating a grave crime against humanity.

As a left winger turned right wing by ultra lefty toxicity, I can assure you that both sides equally think the other is insane.

Parents put a lot of time and energy into their children. It breaks their heart to see their children corrupted by an uncaring education system. If you lose your children, what's the point? If you have people teach alien values and recruit children to their lifestyle then what's the point? There needs to be a new education system option for parents. Homeschooling is B.S. but public schools are unacceptable at this point.

I don’t know if I agree or disagree with your perspective, but this video was excellent! This actually makes people think independently. Thank you.

are you Democrat. Are you Republican. Are you Independent. No I am an American.

I've never met anyone who opposed abortion simply because they wanted to keep women in traditional roles. Everyone I've met who opposed abortion did so because they believed it is murder, that women are being pressured into having abortions when they don't really want them, and that the idea that abortion is necessary is purely down to societal factors which encourage women to see the role of motherhood as humiliating rather than affirming. I've never met anyone who literally said, "Let's make abortion illegal so we can keep women down!!!"

I admittedly didn’t watch the whole video cause I was lost at “loyalty: self explanatory.” There’s a big difference between loyalty to an individual or group of one’s friends rather than ideals or values. He gets a lot right in his videos, but it’s impossible not to have a lot of errors with big sweeping historical claims. The one about the West’s affinity for liberty starting in the Middle Ages was also puzzling.

They always ask if I'm far-left or far-right... bitch I'm far-ting

They don't hate eachother at all. They need eachother to reinforce the false dilemma that keeps them scamming us. Like that lord from the Life of Lazarillo de Tormes with the cop.

In my very left wing college in my US history class our professor, when lecturing on the founding of the country and the idea of democracy, asked us if we believed if humans were more inherently good or inherently evil. In my class of Californian liberal arts majors, almost everyone but me said humanity was inherently evil. I think there was exactly 1 other guy who had faith in humanity. I don't know if left wingers believe in human goodness anymore. The attitude in the younger generation may be that society must be bent into shape to create equality. It's anecdotal, but interesting.

For the most part, the right values individualism and the left values collectivism. I would say the exception to this is organized religion, which by its nature is collectivist, and is embraced much more by the right. The left tends to embrace more individual spiritualist views if they are religious at all. But this of course comes back to a purist view by the right. But overall, this is why we see the majority of rural dwellers being politically to the right and urban dwellers to the left. Again, by the nature of their lifestyles, most rural people must depend on their own efforts, like in farming, while urban people must rely more others in the collective to keep things running smoothly in an urban setting. Just my thoughts, I am actually a libertarian and don't really consider myself right or left...maybe slightly to the right.

Some people just want to be left alone and some people just can't seem to leave them alone