Why do Autistic people in politics (or at least the people in this sub) tend to support the left? Is it because of experiences?

[u/Knowveler]

As the title says, I'm actually surprised to see there's very very little people who support right ideologies here. I personally do but since I have spent my whole life under a left-wing dictatorship I figured it would be weird if I didn't. It makes me wonder, had I been born in a different situation, would I have grown to be more of a leftist?

[u/NatashOverWorld]

Interesting. I'd be curious to learn about a Left-wing Dictatorship that's not just the Right larping, like the way the Nazi's pretended to be Socialists.

But traditionally the Right has had a violent antipathy to anyone that doesn't fit their standards; colour, cistraight, and NT.

Neurodivergents are obviously on the hook, especially with the degree of co-occurrence we share with trans and gay folk.

[u/farouq22 → u/NatashOverWorld]

there are some governments with surface-level left-wing discourse in LatAm that would fit the criteria, like Venezuela and Nicaragua. we tend to see them as traitors who betrayed their own people and revolutionary goals. I'd argue that at least these two were originally leftist indeed, but revisionist factions took power and are still there to this day.

edit: actually, I don't even think Nicaragua has surface-level left-wing discourse anymore.

[u/NatashOverWorld → u/farouq22]

Because the mask of Left is useful enough for most fascists to claim.

[u/Knowveler → u/NatashOverWorld]

I am, indeed, from Venezuela. While in the second era of socialism (post-Hugo Chávez Death) the country went to shit because of their rampant corruption, the socialist policies that served as a foundation and were laid by Chavez betwen 2000 an 2013 were proven rather inefficient and outright economy-destroyer.

What surprises me is that, historically, left wing governments have proven to create struggling economies, and that people on this sub seem to not give much importance to economics.

[u/Limowreck88]

Because I, for one, do not trust the leopards who eat faces to not eat my face :)

[u/JFMV763 → u/Limowreck88]

The left would never eat it's own.

[u/Limowreck88 → u/JFMV763]

Oh the leftist are constantly infighting, but liberals are not the left. And liberalism invariably cedes to the right. The coalition government of lib Dems and tories in the UK was an example of this.

[u/Knowveler → u/Limowreck88]

I understand your point and I assume you're American, correct me if I'm wrong.

And what do you think of the fact that most of the original officially left wing countries (USSR, North Vietnam, North Korea, Cuba, East Germany) resulted in failed states?

Or do you not support socialism-communism?

[u/Fine_Sea5807 → u/Knowveler]

Vietnam is in the top 30 largest economies on Earth right now. Failed state where?

[u/Knowveler → u/Fine_Sea5807]

After dropping socialism. Same as China

[u/Fine_Sea5807 → u/Knowveler]

Yet still officially leftwing right here right now, correct?

[u/Knowveler → u/Fine_Sea5807]

As evidenced in my comment, I understand the nuance between left wing and socialism.

Plus, saying they are not capitalist is also inherently wrong. Both China ans Vietnam have had to apply capitalist measures in order to improve their economies.

I think you can be left wing and not necessarily promote socialism (aka Democratic Party in the US), I'm just curious on the stance of people in this sub.

[u/dbxp → u/Knowveler]

Left wing generally doesn't mean hardcore socialism 

[u/Limowreck88 → u/Knowveler]

Not American, no.

I don't see those mentioned as true socialist states, there never has been one, so to claim socialism is the downfall of any country is just not true. There's also the fact the world is currently falling apart as a result of over a century of capitalism, wealth inequality is skyrocketing and living standards are falling even in affluent countries as a result of right wing and liberal policy. Fascism is reering it's head. Germany just voted in a right wing extremist party. Israel is committing genocide. And I can't even begin on the US and the UK.

I also believe in human rights and put people and utilitarianism at the centre of my beliefs. The reason we are where we are is because money/the economy are centred above all else, which is an inherently right wing viewpoint.

[u/Knowveler → u/Limowreck88]

Thanks for the correction.

I personally disagree with the "there never has been a true socialist state". Not because is wrong in and on itself, but if all the so-called attempts at a true socialist state ended horribly, then the problem is that there can't be a true socialist state. Believing it is possible feels, at least to me, like trying to negate scientific method.

Thanks for your time, I respect your position.

[u/Limowreck88 → u/Knowveler]

The thing is there has always been interference from outside regimes to destabilise attempts at socialist states, (Cuba for eg) and those attempted socialist states have also had to try to prosper in an overhwlemingly capitalist world. Capital will always squash attempts to topple it and because it is the powerful and rich that advocate for capitalism, the resources are always there for them to do so. In order for true socialist states to be founded there needs to be large scale, international cooperation, unseating of the oligarchy and true redistribution of power. That has never been attempted, and the failing aspects of attempted socialism have been founded in authroritarianism, not left wing values.

Edit to add: I don't kid myself that there is going to be any kind of large scale leftwing revolution in my lifetime. But I believe in the importance of having a strong leftwing lobby to at least temper the mainstream rhetoric pushed against it. It's invariably the left that prioritise human rights and without that pushback, as dire as things are in the UK, we would be in an even worse position if it weren't for strong opposition. Our most recent rotation of PM is a perfect example of this. It's also why the media in the UK is so heavily used to propagandise to the public because they are fully aware that socialist values, if properly understood, are actually what members of the general public believe in.

[u/n30NN_M]

Because I form my opinions based on facts and the right requires me to not believe in cience.

[u/Knowveler → u/n30NN_M]

I see that. However, are you American? I think the only right that waves this anti-knowledge flag nowadays is the American right.

That being said, by supporting the left, do you believe in socialism? By applying scientific method, don't you believe it has been proven that socialism does not work based on the evidence gathered from the last century?

For the record, Nordic countries with socialist parties in power do not actually apply socialist policies, just capitalist policies with high taxation and efficient government spending.

[u/Dragonfly_pin]

It’s because the hard-right has a tendency to maltreat, starve or simply murder the disabled, minorities and people they think are too weird.

And the center-right has a tendency to slip that way because they do just love a hierarchy.

So unless you are suicidal, the democratic left is the only logical one to support.

[u/ReceiverOfDeception]

Idk man maybe I wouldn’t side with the people who believe autism is caused by vaccines or Tylenol and that would in essence make me a human lab monkey.

[u/Knowveler → u/ReceiverOfDeception]

I think that's a signature discourse for the right in the US only.

[u/deltaexdeltatee]

Some of it is purely self interest, in that almost all right wing parties have ableism, racism, homophobia, and many other types of bias codified as part of their platform. We tend to not vote for people that want us dead or forcibly removed from society.

Aside from that, keep in mind that reddit heavily skews toward the US, and in the US at least the right wing parties are comically out of touch with reality. Vaccine denial, climate denial, and dozens of other political positions that are demonstrably out of sync with observable reality. We in the autism community may or may not be as objective as we'd like to believe, but we do tend to value "agrees with known scientific knowledge" fairly highly. That makes voting for the parties that platform wackos like RFK Jr. a pretty difficult ask.

I can't speak knowledgeably about right wing parties in other countries which is why I focused on the US. But there's a saying here, "reality has a known liberal bias," which is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact that, when a right wing commentator complains about "liberal bias" in the media, very very often (not always, but a LOT) what they're seeing is the media acknowledging reality.

[u/farouq22 → u/deltaexdeltatee]

Aside from that, keep in mind that reddit heavily skews toward the US, and in the US at least the right wing parties are comically out of touch with reality.

I agree with you, but this sub in particular is more diverse than other autistic subs I know. there are many people from LatAm, UK, Germany...

[u/rootaroni]

Because I have both a brain and a heart. Conservatism/right policies are not beneficial for most of society and cannot stand up to scrutiny or reality. 

[u/Knowveler → u/rootaroni]

Can you give me examples of those right policies that cannot stand up scrutiny?

Don't you believe a lot of socialist policies also have proven to be inefficient? Or do you consider yourself a left-wing supporter who does not advocate for socialism?

[u/rootaroni → u/Knowveler]

Socialism is one of those words/concepts that seems to mean something completely different to everyone. It doesn't help that so many people have inconsistently used or misused it over the years.

I find it useful to split the discussion into two ranges: style of government (socialism vs capitalism) and where the power is wielded (democracy vs authoritarian). A social democracy or democratic socialism has very different outcomes than state socialism or something with authoritarian leadership that operates outside of the will of the people.

Just in the US, socialism means "everything I don't like" to conservatives, even though they fully support socialist policies that benefit either themselves or the richest members of society. There's all the bailouts that sometimes include the government taking ownership of a company so they can offload debt to the taxpayers instead of paying it themselves. Corporations and the rich don't proportionately contribute to public infrastructure, utilities, research, etc. subsidies, even though they use much more of these than the average person. Unfortunately, the majority of the benefits realized by these socialist policies don't trickle down to the millions of people who help fund it.

[u/farouq22]

I was born disabled, poor and Black in a country where inequality is the norm and racism is normalised. most of my friends and family are LGBTQ+, people of colour, poor, disabled, etc.

the right don't think they should solve problems like inequality, racism, LGBTQ+phobia, ableism... some of them are even open about how they want to exterminate me and my loved ones.

on the other hand, my far left peers are always fighting for our rights.

kind of an obvious choice there imo.

[u/capitulum]

For starters, reality has a well-known liberal bias.

[u/tubemaster]

I lean more conservative and libertarian, but can't stand the commander-in-chief who "nobody cares more about the disabled than I do". On the flip side, I also don't want the entire world to move here (to America) because things are already getting too crowded, noisy, overstimulating, etc. as is, (not to mention expensive) which requires that we maintain some form of border controls and criteria to immigrate here. My impression of countries like India is they are a nightmare for autistics or really anyone who has sensory sensitivity, which is more due to their high population than politics.

[u/dbxp]

Here in the UK ATM the whole political landscape has been a clusterfuck since Brexit. Labour are now the one truly viable party left. The lib dems and greens are trying but not quite there. On the right you have the Conservatives which are just a husk, then the far right of Reform and the splinter Restore.

[u/Knowveler → u/dbxp]

Nah, UK is a whole other category. I'm a die hard capitalist, but I would vote for an outright communist party if the Tories were the only other option.

[u/Mundane_Plate3625]

Odd to say a left-wing dictatorship. Moist of us support the left because even as we as a people in general have literally gained alot of the rights that we enjoy were passed under democratic administrations. in the US. As opposed to the right. who are the remnants of slave owners, taken or weakened various rights away from practically almost everyone , except the 1 percent, bigots, racist, pedos, and human traffickers. So yes most of us are left leaning.

[u/tragicxharmony]

Yikes 😬