When did you grow weary of the left/right dichotomy?

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mr_bigmouth_502
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Location: Alberta, Canada

05 Jul 2014, 10:54 pm

Growing up, I remember learning about the conventional political spectrum, and at various times I identified myself as being on different parts of it.

When I was first told about it at the age of 12, I was given a grossly simplified explanation that basically stated "the right wing is in favor of fewer laws but greater punishments, and the left wing is in favor of more laws with less severe punishments", and as such I identified with the right wing.

As I got older and did more research later on, I found that my beliefs actually lied more with the left side of the political spectrum, and that the explanation I had been given when I was younger was wrong. Even though I generally identified as a left-winger, I still had a few stereotypically "right wing" beliefs and philosophies, so I felt confused.

Go forward a few years, we were learning about different political perspectives in Social Studies, and when we learned about classical liberalism, it really struck a chord with me. It wasn't a perfect representation of my beliefs, as I also believed in some socialist philosophies, but it was a pretty damn good way of summarizing it.

Eventually, I just gave up on trying to place myself on a dichotomy, and nowadays I describe myself as a libertarian socialist. Some might say that that's an oxymoron, but it makes sense to me. I support a government just big enough to help its people out, but not big enough to interfere with their day to day lives. I'm also not a big fan of stuffy old politicians or bigshot corporate CEOs who try to control everything.