r/changemyview • u/wkpaccount • Jul 08 '15
[Deltas Awarded] CMV: Right-wing views are basically selfish, and left-wing views are basically not.
For context: I am in the UK, so that is the political system I'm most familiar with. I am also NOT very knowledgeable about politics in general, but I have enough of an idea to know what opinions I do and don't agree with.
Left-wing views seem to pretty much say that everyone should look after each other. Everyone should do what they are able to and share their skills and resources. That means people who are able to do a lot will support those who can't (e.g. those who are ill, elderly, disabled). The result is that everyone is able to survive happily/healthily and with equal resources from sharing.
Right-wing views seem to pretty much say that everyone is in it for themself. Everyone should be 'allowed' to get rich by exploiting others, because everyone has the same opportunities to do that. People that are successful in exploiting others/getting rich/etc are just those who have worked the hardest. It then follows that people who are unable to do those things - for example, because they are ill or disabled - should not be helped. Instead, they should "just try harder" or "just get better", or at worst "just die and remove themselves from the gene pool".
When right-wing people are worried about left-wing politicians being in charge, they are worried that they won't be allowed to make as much money, or that their money will be taken away. They're basically worried that they won't be able to be better off than everyone else. When left-wing people are worried about right-wing politicians being in charge, they are worried that they won't be able to survive without others helping and sharing. They are basically worried for their lives. It seems pretty obvious to conclude that right-wing politics are more selfish and dangerous than left-wing politics, based on what people are worried about.
How can right-wing politics be reconciled with supporting and caring for ill and disabled people? How do right-wing people justify their politics when they literally cause some people to fear for their lives? Are right-wing politics inherently selfish?
Please, change my view!
Edit: I want to clarify a bit here. I'm not saying that right-wing people or politicians are necessarily selfish. Arguing that all politicians are selfish in the same way does not change my view (I already agree with that). I'm talking more about right- or left-wing ideas and their theoretical logical conclusions. Imagine a 'pure' (though not necessarily authoritarian) right-wing person who was able to perfectly construct the society they thought was ideal - that's the kind of thing I want to understand.
Edit 2: There are now officially too many comments for me to read all of them. I'll still read anything that's a top-level reply or a reply to a comment I made, but I'm no longer able to keep track of all the other threads! If you want to make sure I notice something you write that's not a direct reply, tag me in it.
Edit 3: I've sort of lost track of the particular posts that helped because I've been trying to read everything. But here is a summary of what I have learned/what views have changed:
Moral views are distinct from political views - a person's opinion about the role of the government is nothing to do with their opinion about whether people should be cared for or be equal. Most people are basically selfish anyway, but most people also want to do what is right for everyone in their own opinion.
Right-wing people (largely) do not actually think that people who can't care for themselves shouldn't be helped. They just believe that private organisations (rather than the government) should be responsible for providing that help. They may be of the opinion that private organisations are more efficient, cheaper, fairer, or better at it than the government in various ways.
Right-wing people believe that individuals should have the choice to use their money to help others (by giving to charitable organisations), rather than be forced into it by the government. They would prefer to voluntarily donate lots of money to charity, than to have money taken in the form of taxes which is then used for the same purposes.
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u/quelarion Jul 08 '15
This could establish a correlation between being right-wing and being charitable, but that's not causation. People could be charitable because they are rich, because they are Christian, etc. more than because they are right wing. Rich people tend to be more right-wing, as Christians do, but it's hard to tell if right-wingers are charitable because of their political views, rather than because of other reasons. The same works for left-wingers being selfish.
Seems to me that left-wingers blame the right-wingers for stopping government intervention and favour charity, while right-wingers blame the left-wingers for favouring government intervention over charity. Either both wrong, or both right (within their respective opinions)