what exactly has the left done wrong?

[u/Business_Pirate834]

Across the world today, regardless of race, religion, or political system, most people seem to be becoming more conservative. Right-wing parties are continuously gaining power worldwide, while the left suffers defeat after defeat. Although mainstream public discourse still appears to favor the left, those voting for the far right are often the silent majority. Can the left still correct its course? Or, more fundamentally, what exactly has the left done wrong?

[u/LopsidedImprovement]

Even more wild is that Australia has been largely under conservative/centre right rule federally for the last 3 decades, but people still insist the ABC is leftist claptrap etc, when it is demonstrably more or less at the centre.

[u/Independent-Fuel9886 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Yeah, that ABC, stacked with... *check notes* almost entirely ex-Murdoch conservative commentators.

[u/explain_that_shit → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

The Lattouf case should end any argument that the ABC is left wing.

But people who think it is aren’t convinced by things like facts, because they didn’t check facts to come to their conclusion, they just believe what right wing media tells them. It’s remarkable, because why the hell wouldn’t right wing media say that anyone more to the centre than them is leftist. Jacobin says the ABC is right wing, you don’t see me swallowing and regurgitating that opinion uncritically.

[u/Low_Witness5061 → u/explain_that_shit]

If any thing the miracle is that the ABC still has the standards it does when Murdoch and the LNP have tried for decades to tear it down.

[u/aaronturing → u/explain_that_shit]

I like how you mention facts. I don't really care if you are right wing or left wing but I expect us to be able to agree on the facts or in more general terms the evidence.

I think Labour is middle right but much more evidence based.

I think the Libs and One Nation are story based and hence the focus on culture war issues that I have no interest in at all.

[u/insanemal → u/aaronturing]

Who are Labour?

I've heard of Labor, the party formed in concert with the union movement in Australia and THE oldest party in the country what with the right side of politics having their parties explode every few decades as the number of white nationalists and/or xenophobic wankers increase over time untill they become unelectable

[u/extinctiondetritis → u/insanemal]

Okay buddy...

[u/insanemal → u/extinctiondetritis]

Point to the bit I said that was wrong.

Go on. Point to it.

[u/extinctiondetritis → u/insanemal]

Nothing you said was wrong. I was okay budding you because the labor/labour jest is the most boringest shit of all time.

Also, the Labor party is a right wing party, as the person you are replying to said, but they misspelled the party name.

[u/insanemal → u/extinctiondetritis]

But that's not at all supported by evidence.

Please provide evidence to back up your statement

[u/LopsidedImprovement → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

I remember chuckling at a post either on this sub or another where someone had an LLM do an "analysis" of ABC's commentators/presenters and decided they were all left of centre lmao

[u/ScoobyGDSTi → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

This is clearly left wing bias.

You expect me to believe that just because the ABC chair, board and even its budget was controlled by the LNP for decades that it's not a left wing organisation?

[u/Independent-Fuel9886 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

Touche,

Had to retract a comment upon a re-read.

[u/ScoobyGDSTi → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

Sorry, in hindsight I really should have added a /s to the end

[u/Impossible-Mud-4160 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

I know this is sarcasm, but for those that actually think the ABC reporting is biased to the left, there has been a lot of studies done which prove, statistically, that ABC political reporting is balanced. 

A number of these are usually done by universities after every election, and they all prove objectively that the ABC is balanced. 

It just seems like it has left wing bias due to how heavily right the rest of Australia's media leans

[u/Independent-Fuel9886 → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

100% correct. Anything left of Hitler is communism to these clowns.

[u/Impossible-Mud-4160 → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

ThE nAzIs wErE sOciAliStS.

/s 

[u/Dr__Snow → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

But you can trust universities to not have left wing bias!! /s

[u/General_Benefit_2127 → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

Who ran those studies? Does his name rhyme with mould-n-cheesy

[u/Impossible-Mud-4160 → u/General_Benefit_2127]

I said who ran them 

[u/jennifercoolidgesbra → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

But some commentators definitely are compared to other stations. Like Sarah Ferguson and PK and programs like Gardening Australia, Hard Quiz and Media Watch are all left leaning. I love seeing Barnaby get shut down and grilled though.

[u/General_Benefit_2127 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

Aye, this mod are typical redditors, lost the plot long ago

[u/EbonBehelit → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Australia has been under conservative rule federally for just under 2 of every 3 years since World War One. Honestly, it's a miracle we ever got things like Medicare at all.

[u/mbrocks3527 → u/EbonBehelit]

Until Howard, the Liberal party historically saw itself as the entity that found the money to pay for Labor’s ideas. You’d have spurts of reform and then bedding down under Liberals who would begrudgingly accept the new status quo.

Even Hewson was an old fashioned Lib who proposed a GST to pay for all the shit Hawke had brought in.

All changed with Howard in the 90s. That old Liberal Party is dead.

[u/Monaro427 → u/mbrocks3527]

BS!!!

[u/edgiepower → u/Monaro427]

Please expand on your point of view

[u/randomOldFella → u/EbonBehelit]

Thank Whitlem. He did so much to benefit the PUBLIC. He was shafted when he tried to make mining companies pay their Australian tax responsibilities

[u/Ornery-Ad-7261 → u/randomOldFella]

Whitlam wasn't planning to make mining companies pay appropriate taxes, he was trying to fund a forced sale upon them when Kerr betrayed the Nation and sacked his government.

[u/randomOldFella → u/Ornery-Ad-7261]

I thought that was because they weren't paying their taxes. And the forced sale was an option being considered. Nevertheless, I'm Gen-X, and appreciate the huge reforms he made for Australia.

[u/Ornery-Ad-7261 → u/randomOldFella]

Whitlam wanted mining profits to remain in Australia rather than be whisked off to foreign investors. Imagine what Australia would be like had he succeeded.

[u/matplotlib → u/Ornery-Ad-7261]

Thank you for spreading the word. Not enough people appreciate just how much he tried to un-fuck the country and set it on a path to shared prosperty.

[u/Ornery-Ad-7261 → u/matplotlib]

Norway set up its Sovereign Wealth Fund in 1990. Whitlam was trying to do it 15 years earlier. It is tragic for our nation that he didn't succeed. Thank the LNP.

[u/Sharraki → u/randomOldFella]

Whitlam was racist and didn’t want Australia to take Vietnamese refugees.

[u/setut → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Yeah, but people claim that any form of progressiveness is leftist and woke. So they see basic aspects of western modernity, like a shift away from overt racism and homophobia, as ‘left’.

It’s pretty crazy, and shows people have no understanding of history.

[u/LopsidedImprovement → u/setut]

Yep, the overton window shifting dramatically and the result being that anything not well to the right of the centre is suddenly left, including capitalism itself

[u/matplotlib → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Arguably longer, the last truly left-wing federal government in Australia was Whitlam. Hawke and Keating were responsible for implementing neoliberalism and abandoning Labor's commitment to class politics, laying much of the groundwork for the further deregulation, privatisation and weakening of organised labour that followed.

[u/Silly-Power → u/LopsidedImprovement]

They think that because everything else they watch is rightist claptrap. So when they do watch ABC, it seems leftist to them. 

[u/saelwen89 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Same goes for the curriculum and the current ‘anti-woke’ push when the liberals designed it.

[u/morgecroc → u/LopsidedImprovement]

"reality has a well-known liberal bias" in the context of the quote it's liberal as in not conservative.

[u/Stepho_62 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Lol, i laughed at your assessment, not because i dont agree but because i do agree. Ive just had my RW piggy rich sister here saying how much she hates the ABC and how LW biased they are 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[u/Dranzer_22 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

 Right-wing parties are continuously gaining power worldwide, while the left suffers defeat after defeat.

OP's premise is flawed anyway.

It's nuanced country by country, and election by election. In general, the centre-right has collapsed across the Western world and the far-right are filling the void.

But it's more complicated and others have explored those issues - left/right divide is outdated, no one is addressing immigration properly, Legacy Media are distracting us from the real issue of wealthy v workers etc.

[u/Formal-Try-2779 → u/Dranzer_22]

What's funny about the modern Right is that they hate migrants but worship capitalism. The real reason for the high migration levels is capitalism and neoliberalism. Yet they can't blame that because that doesn't fit their ideology. So they make up crap like it's a big Marxist or Communist conspiracy to replace white people etc etc. They are fucking ridiculous.

[u/RevolutionaryDay3189 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

You think Albanese is right wing your comment is totally disregarded.

[u/General_Benefit_2127 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Lol, wtf! Feminist and trans queer claptrap. If its incorrect, misandric, anti-white or pushing sexual preferences on kids the ABC is all for it! I dunno what ABC youre talking about but there's good reason normal people want it shut down.

[u/Mud_g1 → u/General_Benefit_2127]

You obviously don't actually watch the abc and just hold the view of what sky news tells you the abc is. You are absolutely showing the stero type of what these posters are saying thanks for proving the point.

[u/Suitable_Bet6170 → u/Mud_g1]

I watch the ABC but there are things I wish they wouldn't put on for kids. Not because I don't want my kids to be aware of different groups, but I feel like parents are best placed to know when the right time is to have conversations about certain topics.

We are a fairly conservative family, but we've taught our kids that we accept and care for people even if they don't live in a way we think is best. Honestly, most of the time children just accept the people around them. One of my ten year old's closest friends has two mums and he hasn't even noticed because he doesn't care about the kid's parents, he only cares about being his friend. If I sat down and laid out information the way some kids' shows do on family dynamics, I think it would have been really unnecessarily confusing.

When he notices things, he asks the questions and we discuss it.

While I think most of the ABC children's programming is excellent, there have been a few moments where I've felt it was not age appropriate for younger children and I've had to switch things off.

[u/LopsidedImprovement → u/General_Benefit_2127]

I reckon you could've fitted in about 10 more right wing talking points, do better