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Definitions are good
Congratulations to Rob for deleting the only definition of the political spectrum from the political spectrum page,
Congratulations to Rob for deleting the only definition of the political spectrum from the political spectrum page,
and replacing it with
and replacing it with a complaint:
:The political spectrum is a method used to assign views to persons and groups which they do not hold. It is a method of pigeon-holing stereotypes.
Notice that says '''nothing''' about what the political spectrum actually is. "A method used to assign views ... people do not hold" could be a definition of comedy, or a definition of blackmail, or whatever. But it says '''nothing''' about what the political spectrum is. Don't you think the political spectrum page should try to explain what the political spectrum is?
I tried to define what seems to be the main difference between viewpoints called "left" and viewpoints called "right". I said:
:'Right' means defending traditional institutions and values; 'left' means challenging them.
Is that a perfect definition? Probably not. Can somebody come up with a better definition? Great if you can. But just deleting it and boo-hooing about unjust stereotyping is a sign of insecurity worthy of the P.C.-est college hippy around. Personally I don't even understand what a 'rightist' or a 'leftist' would find insulting about my definition.
Obviously not all views can be neatly classified. I'm happy to see that the criticisms of a one-dimensional viewpoint didn't disappear from the page: it's correct and important to remember that not everything can easily be classified as left or right or conservative or liberal or whatever. I sure wish people on other pages in Conservapedia would remember that once in a while.
Having words to classify political viewpoints is helpful, but obviously that doesn't mean every viewpoint can be nailed down perfectly. I'm not trying to assign views to people who don't hold them. The left-right 'political spectrum' is just a way of classifying '''some''' views.
It's like when you go into a furniture store and ask for a red couch. Are all red couches exactly the same color? No. Are there some couches you would call red, which upon close inspection contain some fibers of other colors. Yes. Does that mean the word 'red' is a method for pigeon-holing stereotypes? Good luck furniture shopping if you ban all words for colors.
So don't delete my definition. If you can figure out and defend a better one, that would be great. --[[User:Redblue|Redblue]] 03:48, 10 April 2007 (EDT)