Tuesday 9 October 2012

The right will never relinquish fptp if they are bigots

We know from the law of the excluded middle that either something is true or it is not... there are no grey areas. But in countries where there is fptp (and even in countries where there is not) people are often referred to as being left wing or right wing. This is a false dichotomy because we might instead be libertarian. Fptp usually gives rise to a two-party system which divides along lines associated with left wing and right wing views. But if the system is more proportional these dividing lines break down. Just because someone is not right-wing doesn't make them left-wing... both positions might be false. The opposite of left-wing is not right-wing it is libertarian and the same holds for the right. A lack of (right-wing) bigotry is not communism which makes fptp a problem... we cannot (easily) exclude bigots from being involved in the party of the centre-right. Fptp gives us a choice between bigotry and communism.

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