LeftWing

Quora Answer : All left wing tendencies are welcomed here, but to which ideology do you subscribe?

Jan 15, 2019

I'm not much into ideological purism these days.

I'm on the left, and I define left-wing as

• methodological holism, ie. that on the left we understand that society is a system, a product of emergent / systemic / holistic forces, and not simply a place where individual outcomes depend on individual performance
• egalitarianism, ie. a moral belief that everyone has equal "worth". Or that society's job is to look after everyone with equal care. Again that doesn't mean stupid things. No I don't think we should take out everyone's eyes to level down in solidarity with the congenitally blind. Nor does it mean I don't see that some people need more help than others. But it means that if you have a politics that basically says "it's OK for this group to suffer because we need to prioritise our own" then I reject that utterly.

I think anyone who is both methodological holist AND egalitarian is "left wing" regardless of what else they believe.

The rest of it I'd guess I outline best on LibertarianLeft

Quora Answer : What does "the left" want besides power?

Oct 20, 2018

Justice.

And universal brother / sisterhood.

And everyone being equally valued (we don't want it to be "acceptable" that some people should suffer more than others)

And a will towards equality of outcome. If someone is born blind we want to adapt society to help them participate as much as possible. Not say "ah well, you had the same opportunities as a sighted person, it's your look-out you didn't take advantage of them".

And as much freedom as possible without giving the powerful a license to trample over the less powerful.