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https://pluralistic.net/2024/02/26/horsehoe-crab/#substantive-disagreement>
'You know the "horseshoe theory," right? "The far-left and the far-right,
rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear continuum of the
political spectrum, closely resemble each other, analogous to the way that the
opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together":
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory
It's a theory that only makes sense if you don't know much about the right and
the left and what each side wants out of politics.
Take women's suffrage. The early suffragists ("suffragettes" in the UK) were
mostly interested in votes for affluent, white women – not women as a body.
Today's left criticizes the suffrage movement on the basis that they didn't go
far enough:
https://www.npr.org/2011/03/25/134849480/the-root-how-racism-tainted-womens-suffrage
Contrast that with Christian Dominionists – the cranks who think that embryos
are people (though presumably not for the purpose of calculating a state's
electoral college vote? Though it would be cool if presidential elections
turned on which side of a state line a fertility clinic's chest-freezer rested
on):
https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/segments/how-alabama-ivf-ruling-was-influenced-christian-nationalism-on-the-media?tab=summary
These people are part of a far-right coalition that wants to abolish votes for
women. As billionaire far-right bagman Peter Thiel wrote, he thought it was a
mistake to let women vote at all:
https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/
Superficially, there's some horseshoe theory action going on here. The left
thinks the suffragists were wrong. The right thinks they were wrong, too.
Therefore, the left and the right agree!
Well, they agree that the suffragists were wrong, but for opposite reasons –
and far, far more importantly, they totally disagree about what they want. The
right wants a world where no women can vote. The left wants a world where all
women can vote. The idea that the right and the left agree on women's suffrage
is, as the physicists say, "not even wrong."
It's the kind of wrong that can only be captured by citing scripture,
specifically,
A Fish Called Wanda, 6E, 79: "The central message of Buddhism
is not 'Every man for himself.' And the London Underground is not a political
movement. Those are all mistakes, Otto. I looked them up."'
Via Molly White’s [citation needed] Issue 52 – I am Sam’s low-level
culpability:
https://www.citationneeded.news/issue-52/
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
