zlacker

This observation is always highlighted by the absurdity of american politics when they describe candidates like Joe Biden as "far left" when on the european political spectrum (or even an absolute one, if such a thing exists) he'd almost certainly be on the right.

>>JohnMa+(OP)
>This observation is always highlighted by the absurdity of american politics when they describe candidates like Joe Biden as "far left"

Joe Biden is by all accounts, center-left. However, the parent comment also describes the "HN crowd" as far-right. What probably is actually happening is that America is extremely polarized, where any side you don't agree with has the "far-[left/right]" label slapped on.

>>gruez+a1
Not trying to start a political discussion but people describing someone like biden as center-left are usually basing this off the policies people of his particular political flavor say they want. What they end up doing is usually very much right-aligned.

>>gruez+a1
In Canada and most of Europe, Joe Biden would be a hair right of centre-right on most things and centre-right on a few other topics. Only in America is he centre-left, which says a lot about America's Overton window shift.

Biden sounds a lot like Stephen Harper (pre-barbaric-practices-hotline) and just to the right of Brian Mulroney. Joe Clark would be well to his left.

>>gruez+a1
I disagree with your characterization of why I called the HN crowd, or technology professionals, far right. Having read my God how many comments, articles, tweets etc over the years. I see extremely conservative policy positions. No better example than asking a software engineer, developer VC there opinions on whether "gig" workers should be treated as full time employees with benefits, unionization etc.

The former use technology to do things economically to workers we haven't seen since Upton Sinclair's The Jungle. Like preventing a driver from getting new deliveries if those 10 minutes put him over 1 hour of work. It's robber barron extreme right wing economic policy.

>>JohnMa+03
No need to involve whatever "political flavor" of people making the judgement. If you compare his views to other politicians, or the electorate as a whole, he's clearly a centrist.

>>halost+w3
Comparing political rights, lefts and centers across cultures is futile, it's apples and oranges. For example, compare the immigration and integration policies of Biden [or the US] to that of Europe, and you'll find that he and most democrats are, for the most part, further "left."

>>hnpoli+i8
>No better example than asking a software engineer, developer VC there opinions on whether "gig" workers should be treated as full time employees with benefits, unionization etc.

And that's a "far right" position? So far as I can tell, even in europe, in most jurisdictions gig workers are treated as contractors rather than employees.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gig_worker#Europe

>>gruez+Ya
I mean these meanings aren't concrete. Left vs right etc. But historically it was a far right wing position to find ways to exploit labor for profit. The tech industry uses their skill set to accomplish this with algorithms.

>>hnpoli+pc
>But historically it was a far right wing position to find ways to exploit labor for profit

and historically LGBT rights were far left positions. That doesn't mean they're far left positions today. Moreover if being pro-capital (as opposed to being labor) is "far right", then is being pro-labor "far left"? Is there even a "centrist" or non "far-left/right" position?

>>hnpoli+pc
Can you give a historical example of such far right stance? Hitler's national socialist and Mussolini's fascist which are historically considered far right certainly didn't have such policies.

>>gruez+ga
I don’t think that’s clear at all, and I’m not involving the political flavor of people making a “judgment” - I’m saying his particular brand of establishment democrat politics all tend to have the same tendency.

>>nozzle+Sa
Looking at the past 10-20 years, how are the immigration policies of the US or the Biden administration [1] further left than France, Germany or the UK - even under a conservative government post-Brexit? The US does have jus soli but I don't consider that to be a left wing thing.

1. Biden was promoting - and willing to sign into law - a border bill written by a Republican; it very nearly passed as it initially had bipartisan support before being scuppered by a presidential candidate.