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Culture War Roundup for the week of May 15, 2023

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Liberalism didn't exist in feudal Europe. But someone like Thomas Jefferson, a slaveholder, was certainly a liberal by the standards of his time (and a pretty radical one), though he'd be barred from any liberal political party today (and most right-wing ones). Even if you wanted to measure Bush or Reagan against other contemporary world governments, it isn't as though there were a surfeit of openly fascist regimes on the world stage, since the end of WWII the vast majority of world governments at least pay lip service to democracy and liberal constitutionalism. Though I wouldn't disagree that there are and were politicians who were more right-wing than Bush and Reagan, sure.

We can actually compare governments between countries and time periods.

To an extent, yes. But at a certain point certain political perspectives become so marginalized and irrelevant that to insist they be used as anchor-points for the definition of the political spectrum is to treat "left" and "right" as platonic ideals rather than convenient labels. If someone is going to argue that say Eric Zemmour isn't really right-wing because he doesn't advocate for the restoration of the Bourbon monarchy and the reinstitution of manorial dues that would just be ridiculous.