I've always felt like horseshoe theory smacks of South Park-style centrist "the person who cares the most is the person who's wrongest." I don't really think there's one Rosetta stone to codify and classify and understand everything, but I think the political compass is probably closest. You can have authoritarian left-wingers and authoritarian right-wingers who have their authoritarianism in common but not much else.
Horseshoe theory still seems to be nonsense to me. Historically some of it came from red-brown alliance which was more about the Soviet Union's treaties with Nazi Germany because they were both being sidelined.
Even then it was more a political convenience with no ideological agreement. At the same time they were doing some joint military exercises in the 1930s they were supporting different sides in Spain. And yes the Soviets formed a treaty that shocked communists outside with Molotov Ribbentrop pact.
The horseshoe theory really does seem to be a reactionary centrist trope for delegitimizing leftists and both sidering them with right wing authoritarians.
This was interesting, and I learned what the word "syncretic" means, which really describes fascism's/MAGA's process of rolling up all kinds of different niche movements and groups.
The idea of a "left/right" spectrum is an abstraction, and it can be useful, but I think it's important to remember that people and groups don't really sort themselves into a linear left/right spectrum and non-political people probably don't even think in those terms, so when you're confidently bending the linear left-right spectrum into a horseshoe or fishhook shape, you creating a 2nd order abstraction that assumes that all the sorting you did of people and groups onto the left-right spectrum is correct.
I don't think it's an accident that whenever you see someone manipulating the left-right spectrum, they place themselves on the straightest or most "consistent" part of the spectrum. For example, centrists don't really like extremism, so all the "extremism" is on the the part of the horseshoe that bends away from the center (where the correct people are). You can see the same kind of thing with the "fishhook theory" - the left is straight, and the fascists/right and the center meet to contain the "incorrect people".
Not that there isn't a pattern of centrists trying to make deals with, appease, or use fascists and fascist movements, but "they're all fascists" is incorrect, and there are explanations for why that tends to happen that have nothing to do with even a left-right linear spectrum. IMO you will always have to look at what's happening and what people are doing, and holding up a shape is not a replacement for the process of figuring out what's actually going on.
I've always felt like horseshoe theory smacks of South Park-style centrist "the person who cares the most is the person who's wrongest." I don't really think there's one Rosetta stone to codify and classify and understand everything, but I think the political compass is probably closest. You can have authoritarian left-wingers and authoritarian right-wingers who have their authoritarianism in common but not much else.
as per usual 🎯
Horseshoe theory still seems to be nonsense to me. Historically some of it came from red-brown alliance which was more about the Soviet Union's treaties with Nazi Germany because they were both being sidelined.
Even then it was more a political convenience with no ideological agreement. At the same time they were doing some joint military exercises in the 1930s they were supporting different sides in Spain. And yes the Soviets formed a treaty that shocked communists outside with Molotov Ribbentrop pact.
The horseshoe theory really does seem to be a reactionary centrist trope for delegitimizing leftists and both sidering them with right wing authoritarians.
This was interesting, and I learned what the word "syncretic" means, which really describes fascism's/MAGA's process of rolling up all kinds of different niche movements and groups.
The idea of a "left/right" spectrum is an abstraction, and it can be useful, but I think it's important to remember that people and groups don't really sort themselves into a linear left/right spectrum and non-political people probably don't even think in those terms, so when you're confidently bending the linear left-right spectrum into a horseshoe or fishhook shape, you creating a 2nd order abstraction that assumes that all the sorting you did of people and groups onto the left-right spectrum is correct.
I don't think it's an accident that whenever you see someone manipulating the left-right spectrum, they place themselves on the straightest or most "consistent" part of the spectrum. For example, centrists don't really like extremism, so all the "extremism" is on the the part of the horseshoe that bends away from the center (where the correct people are). You can see the same kind of thing with the "fishhook theory" - the left is straight, and the fascists/right and the center meet to contain the "incorrect people".
Not that there isn't a pattern of centrists trying to make deals with, appease, or use fascists and fascist movements, but "they're all fascists" is incorrect, and there are explanations for why that tends to happen that have nothing to do with even a left-right linear spectrum. IMO you will always have to look at what's happening and what people are doing, and holding up a shape is not a replacement for the process of figuring out what's actually going on.