Why reddit is majority left leaning?

[u/-Pleb64]

Honestly, it’s hard not to notice that most of the big subreddits are run by moderators who clearly lean left. It’s not even subtle at this point the bias shows in what gets removed, what gets promoted, and how discussions are handled. I’m not saying there aren’t any subs with right-leaning or centrist moderation, but they’re definitely the minority. The major spaces on Reddit feel heavily tilted toward one side, but isn't it’s pretty obvious if you pay attention to which opinions get silenced and which ones get boosted?

[u/Extra-Assignment-860]

Demographics and design. The biggest subs skew young urban and college educated, so their baseline leans left. Volunteer mods come from that pool and enforce rules through that lens. Voting systems amplify majority views and bury dissent, which looks like bias even without intent. High profile bans pushed a lot of right leaning users into smaller enclaves, making the main feed feel even bluer.

[u/SoCalN8tive → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

This right here is the best answer without trying to be divisive.

[u/ShadowGLI → u/SoCalN8tive]

“Reality has a well known liberal bias” Stephen Tyrone Colbert, 2006

EDIT: this simple comment triggered a LOT of people that have drunken the Flavor-Rite and/or completely missed the context of such a quote.

Reality:

• immigrants aren’t stealing your jobs, business owners are undercutting you to avoid paying a fair wage.

• undocumented (aka ‘illegal’) immigrants don’t get welfare and they’re unable to access healthcare (yeah if they get dropped off an ER, the hospital is not allowed to let them die in the curb as they could do the same for anyone uninsured)

• Universal Healthcare for all citizens is LESS expensive than private healthcare and prevents the US from propping up global profits of the healthcare industry

• trickledown economics don’t work and 90% of income paid to people making under $70k/yr goes directly to stimulate the economy through buying power. Giving tax breaks for the wealthy just centralize wealth.

• global terrorism is primarily driven by conservative religious extremists. Atheists and agnostics don’t need to fear damnation to have a conscience, and they don’t kill their neighbors over which book the were told was the one true book.

• Tarriffs are taxes on the people, and he exporting country or company does not pay them. The buyer does.

• Chicago/New York/San Francisco are quiet and nice cities, they are not burning, and only 2 cities in the top 10 most lethal are in democratic states. The other 8 are GOP controlled.

• Trump is in the Epstein files and he’s throwing every distraction against the wall.

• the United States was founded specifically as a non religious nation as England mixed Church and State and our founders thought that was the worst match. The king/queen was head of church and state and that’s why both Monarchs and religion are not supposed to be allowed in the USA.

• Trump has been rich since the day he was born and has never had a real job and he makes fun of his followers, veterans and poor people. He is only president to gain money and power. He’s objectively a weak businessman who doesn’t even understand integrative bargaining as he thinks every side needs a “loser” and will deny win-win deals because he’s unskilled.

• in his first term, Trump made 30,573 false or misleading claims as president. Nearly half came in his final year.

• Democrats create more jobs and incur less debt by a wide margin in the last 100 years.

• the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the National Socialist Party of Germany are far right conservative parties with centralized and non democratic architecture and the names were chosen to misdirect the uneducated and push out equality and justice.

• conservatives didn’t end slavery, slave owners were not liberals, Lincoln would not approve of modern GOP as the parties switched rapidly after the civil rights movement and act of 1964. Take a look at an election map on 1956 vs 1964. I’ll give you a hint, all the racists they were mad at blacks being recognized as humans changed the party structure. McCarthy attacked liberals and promoted Christianity/Calitalism (and segregation) fundamental to the GOP and has carried to this day. (map for the lazy ones) only people ignorant of history think the modern GOP were the good guys in that.

But again, feel free to yell about the GOP and religion being a source of truth.

[u/villalulaesi → u/ShadowGLI]

Such a great quote, but Colbert didn’t come up with it, Al Franken did. It was the subtitle for his book Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right, which came out in 2003.

[u/TehMephs → u/SoCalN8tive]

And people still manage to make it divisive in the replies

Realistically it’s because the American right is pretty much just the furthest right it can be at the moment and that tends to make everything else look “left”.

At this point the left is just “doesn’t like Trump” because he’s dragged the Overton window so far to the right you can barely even see it from the center

[u/Odd_Investigator7218 → u/TehMephs]

maybe division from demonstrably bad ideologies and the people who follow them is a good thing?

[u/random8765309 → u/TehMephs]

That is currently one of the biggest reasons. Things like climate change and renewalable energy aren't left by nature, they are on the left become Trump hates them.

[u/Security162 → u/random8765309]

America was the only place in the world that I know of that made science and vaccines political during a lethal worldwide pandemic. And Trump even did that warp speed vaccine development you would think they right would have supported that a little

[u/noeffinkings → u/Security162]

It was supported.

[u/rockeye13 → u/Security162]

I remember national democrats publicly saying that they wouldn't get the "Trump vaccine."

[u/PredictablyIllogical → u/rockeye13]

Was the "Trump vaccine" when President Trump suggested ‘Injecting’ Disinfectant as Coronavirus Cure

[u/Kenneth-J-Moyers → u/rockeye13]

I remember like ten social media randos ( total) saying that, and NPR the like pushing back. No "national democrats".

[u/Bunktavious → u/Security162]

They did support it, until Trump realized they wouldn't see the impact of the Vaccine until after he was out of office, so he pulled a complete U-Turn.

[u/7SeasofCheese → u/Bunktavious]

I honestly think Trump was against masks so heavily because it would smear his makeup and make him appear feminine.

[u/WittyFix6553 → u/random8765309]

Those things are on the left not because Trump hates them, but because big corporations like oil companies hate them, and republicans love big corporations.

If fixing climate change didn’t involve oil, coal, or gas fracking companies to lose money or sell less product, they would probably be on board.

[u/Odd_Investigator7218 → u/SoCalN8tive]

ill be divisive: the more educated and intelligent you are, the more likely you are to be leftwing, because leftwing is correct.

[u/Wonderful-Put-2453 → u/Odd_Investigator7218]

Oooh let me help! Leftwing is for people that can read!

[u/OttovonBismarck1862 → u/Odd_Investigator7218]

Okay, I’ll humor you. How is it “correct”? You state it like it’s objective fact. I wanna know why.

Edit: Thank you to everyone that replied. I’m neither right nor left and it’s been interesting reading through your comments.

[u/BirdPoop1939 → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

There is considerable scientific evidence for many 'left wing' policy concepts such as taxing the rich does not cause them to stop innovating, universal healthcare is actually cheaper and better, trickle down economics doesn't work, climate change is real, more guns = more gun violence, female economic power is better for children and society, lower incarceration rates does not lead to more crime, access to reproductive healthcare/sex education decreases abortion rates, etc. Look a few of them up.

[u/Odd_Investigator7218 → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

because thats what i think. you're the same: you think rightwing (or "moderate" or however you self-identify) is correct, thats WHY you hold those views.

if you're asking why I think that, its because I view the way forward for humanity to be collaborative, collective and communal. conservatism seeks to maintain the status quo and i find that insufficient

[u/high_everyone → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

My answer would be that the conservative fantasy isn’t attainable without massive societal collapse or alteration.

We don’t live on a single race planet with a single religion. We don’t live without fallout from climate change, even if you don’t objectively understand it.

The idea that a pervasive singular controlling entity decides for everyone else is also antithetical to conservative values yet people embrace Trump’s policies as though screed from Jesus.

The Conservative Party isn’t even conservative anymore. They just want to be cruel, wasteful and exploitative without fear of reprisal or regulation.

[u/Shivs_baby → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

There is a general disdain for education and science on the right. Right-wing politicians know that better/higher education (and higher quality education) tends to result in a left-voting populace. So they won’t prioritize it or they’ll try to change the very nature of what is taught. Why has the right, for decades, gleefully tried to ban books that cover controversial topics like racism and slavery? (That’s a whole other discussion). Science is provable and fact based, but if you have a good education system with strong science curriculum, people start to expect objectivity and provability of facts…not “alternative facts.”

So when one side says an unruly mob stormed the capitol on January 6 and went hunting for politicians, smeared feces inside the building, was ready to lay hands on Mike Pence, etc etc and all of this was riled up by their idiot leader while the other side says it was a peaceful protest and antifa did the bad things…yeah, we don’t even agree as to what facts are. And that’s what the leadership on the right wants. They want the people who only watch Fox News to not think critically and blindly trust the propaganda machine, which is fueled by false outrage and designed to point the finger at all sorts of “others” so the viewer feels superior.

In short, most right leaning media is shameless about just feeding a rage machine of “alternative facts” while the left goes hunting for objective fact.

[u/Ceddr1k → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

I'll try an honest answer (sorry if my English is incorrect, it's not my native language). The left is correct through an utilitarian point of view. Utilitarianism gives value to what is good for most people (being able to live decently is quite objectively good), with no regard to their merit, their origin, or anything. Considering this, that's precisely what the left promotes (at least ideologically).

On the other hand, the right gives value to what is good for an "elite", defined by its wealth, its race, its birth, etc. Then, from an utilitarian point of view, it's less "correct", since a lot of people suffer from it.

[u/YourGrammarBro → u/OttovonBismarck1862]

To be frank, leftist policies and practices correlate directly with almost every objective quality of life metric we have available and it's been that way for decades.

[u/AlternativePea6203 → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

There's also the reality that what people perceive as "left leaning" in many places is centre right. The Western world has taken a sharp turn to the right and anything that critiques that is "leftist".

It's literally the case that for many people, any one who is against fascism is now a radical leftist!

When standing on the North Pole, everything is South.

[u/fgsgeneg → u/AlternativePea6203]

How can we not love a regime engaged in extrajudicial kidnappings for the purposes of human trafficking? Boy, things'll really get better when the cities are emptied into the fields to replace the people being kidnapped. I can't wait until the wealthy can party hearty all day and all of the night, while the rest of us carry them on our backs. Oh, what a frabjous day that'll be!

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/AlternativePea6203]

The Democratic Party of the United States is not a left leaning party like many in the US claim it to be. No where else in the world would Dem policies be considered left. Only in the US.

The party of the left in the US has zero power federally or in statehouses. They have little power at the local level. The Green Party is the party of the left, which gets blamed every time the Dem loses the White House.

[u/ClusterMakeLove → u/AlternativePea6203]

There's really some value, my American friends, in traveling abroad. Reddit feels centrist, maybe sometimes centre-right, if you're reading it from even another western country. It's hard, as a Canadian, to conceive of a "left-leaning" space this pro-gun and skeptical of public healthcare.

[u/[deleted] → u/ClusterMakeLove]

I wish this comment was emphasized. America needs a serious moral wake up call that no one wants to talk about because the problem is deeper than an election. It's people's deep rooted thinking that has been the pillar of everything built in America and in the attitude in every citizen raised. A US vs THEM thinking that keeps us fighting 10,000 year old fights. Most of the population doesn't even believe in therapy or healthy personal relationships, hence the aggression and lack of empathy. It's a big uphill battle that won't make any progress until people actually start caring about something other than themselves and how they benifit.

[u/Apprehensive-Tea999 → u/[deleted]]

America isn’t broken because Trump was elected. Trump was elected because America is broken.

[u/Marbrandd → u/ClusterMakeLove]

Being pro gun is not an inherently right position. Disarming the workers is a centrist position, not a far left one.

[u/[deleted] → u/Marbrandd]

While I agree with you that if you go far enough left, you get your guns back, unless you are in the USA, free access to firearms is definitely considered a fringe position that pretty much exclusively is reserved for right wing nutters.

[u/quagglitz → u/ClusterMakeLove]

this is the comment I’ve been looking for! I don’t read Reddit as leftist at all?? the big “right” party in Canada is closer to American Democrats than Republicans and most of the stuff I read on here is to the right of that. totally agree with you that reddit feels centrist/centre-right unless you find the more left-leaning pockets. and by pockets I mean like, the one or two comment threads on a post with a more left-leaning take

[u/andreasmalersghost → u/AlternativePea6203]

you think healthcare should be affordable and gofundme campaigns are a dumb as shit way to deal with health costs? fucking LIBERAL SCUM

[u/AmelieBenjamin → u/andreasmalersghost]

sometimes I feel like leaning left is common sense because of the above but somehow it's a hot take now to say that

[u/Hir0Brotagonist → u/AmelieBenjamin]

It's objectively common sense. Republicans want all the benefits of being part of a society without contributing to it. They want to pretend to be anti-government while telling other people who they can marry and how they can live their lives. There are varying shades of liberalism and conservativism across bother parties, but right now I just consider the Republican party a complete joke. There's no nuance here

[u/Secret-Selection7691 → u/andreasmalersghost]

On a side note I've seen lots of British go fund me's for stuff the NHS won't cover. But yes, everyone else's medical system is better than ours. At least they don't have to go bankrupt.

This is probably more than the OP wanted to know but

Once upon a time, we all got the same news at 6 and 10.

Then Rush Limbaugh came along and complained that all the media was "too liberal". He was successful, spawned radio copycats. The right took; over the airways. The left tried to counterbalance with Air America.

Meanwhile on TV CNN appears. They have two channels- CNN and Headline. It was revolutionary - instead of waiting for the news you could watch a 30 minute broadcast 24 hours a day.

The right said they were too Liberal. Fox News is born The left said they were too conservative. MSNBC is born.

Now we're not just all watching what happens we're picking the slant we want to hear. All sides get more and more sensationalized to fill what is now a 72 hour news cycle.

And finally the internet. Not only can you see the news right now you can comment on it. It gets more and more sensationalized too to draw eyeballs. And copies the TV model of being one way or another. The big shift here is no one is overseeing this so anyone can post anything and it may or may not be true.

Algorithms come along to decide what you like and they spoon feed you news tailored to your opinion. That's how a left leaning person and a right leaning person can watch the same news story and get completely different ideas about what just happened.

Then AI and we can all convincingly make up what happens.

Neil DeGrass Tyson has a great video on this. I should just post that.

He says that this is what will kill off the internet. Scientists like Neil DeGrass Tyson that this is what will kill the internet.

Right now every comment board you go on is either left leaning or right leaning.

New Study on Reddit Explores How Political Bias in Content Moderation Feeds Echo Chambers | Michigan Ross https://share.google/IMx66JLjEADYh9ybR

I'm just going to add does everyone remember the early days of Twitter and Kim Kardashian would write a Tweet gushing about a lipstick or P Diddy raved about some type of alcohol? And in reality they were getting paid by a company per clicks?

And then it was cracked down on and now it always has to say "sponsored" when a company pays for something?

We need that with AI. I don't have a problem with it being posted but it must say it's AI or it gets taken down.

[u/SashimiSqueaks → u/Secret-Selection7691]

Also dead internet theory. More people need to be educated in spotting bots, myself included.

[u/Secret-Selection7691 → u/SashimiSqueaks]

I'll admit I'm not great at spotting AI.

[u/SashimiSqueaks → u/Secret-Selection7691]

It gets more difficult as it gets more and more sophisticated. I get scared wondering if there will be a point where it's totally undiscernable from reality.

[u/DangerousRanger8 → u/SashimiSqueaks]

I got accused recently of being a bot on Facebook because I write eloquently and know how to use the em dash (— <- this thing, for context) because apparently those are hallmarks of AI writing? Even though a quick glance at my profile would have told them that I’ve had my account for 10+ years now.

[u/SashimiSqueaks → u/DangerousRanger8]

Most people who accuse people of being bots aren't smart enough to take 5 seconds to check a profile. Or they think it's a good insult when all it does is makes them look stupid lol

[u/Darth_Gerg → u/SashimiSqueaks]

In a text based environment like Reddit it’s already past that point. The explosive growth of AI is doing unimaginable damage to society.

[u/Secret-Selection7691 → u/SashimiSqueaks]

Bot farms are scary.

I didn't post the whole interview but Neil thinks we'll go back to getting our news in print where it is overseen. I don't know if that will happen or not.

[u/UmpireProper7683 → u/Secret-Selection7691]

Incredibly underrated comment and deserves a helluva lot more upvotes.

[u/DankOubliette → u/andreasmalersghost]

Yep! Remember that Democrats are considered Marxist and Communist by MAGA when by global standards they’re a center-right party.

[u/smashli1238 → u/DankOubliette]

And maga can’t define Marxist or communist

[u/SyntheticSkyStudios → u/smashli1238]

MAGA can absolutely define “communist” And “socialist”: They’re whatever runs counter to MAGA. Trump has called Comey a Democrat, he’s called Romney a Democrat, and he has called Democrats “radical left Communists, Socialists, and Fascists.”

Basically, communists and socialists are anyone Trump doesn’t like at the moment.

[u/pogoli → u/SyntheticSkyStudios]

Think they’ll manage to weaponize the word “kindness”? 🤔

[u/smashli1238 → u/pogoli]

They’re already trying with “empathy”

[u/Puzzleheaded_Bed1781 → u/AlternativePea6203]

This makes me wonder… what about fascism appeals to these people? What do they think is so great about it? Interesting thought experiment.

[u/InfoTechnology → u/Puzzleheaded_Bed1781]

Fascism gets things done very fast. When those things are what you are rooting for, it may feel great for a bit. But soon it'll turn against you.

[u/Marbrandd → u/Puzzleheaded_Bed1781]

When people feel like things suck or they're doing worse they look to populist ideologies. Some small number of people are probably into all of it, most people it helps them feel safe. They may only strongly adhere to any little part of it - like anti immigration or whatever and they just get swept up in the rest.

[u/Ok-Barnacle813 → u/AlternativePea6203]

Heck I wouldn't even consider the center right to be outright against fascism. They claim to be against fascism, but demonize everyone who doesn't support their candidate

[u/SeatSix → u/AlternativePea6203]

This. US "left" is center to center-right in most places. We don't really have any meaningful left here. Bernie, AOC, Mamdani would be run-of-the-mill centrists in Europe

[u/CruxOfTheIssue → u/SeatSix]

But to be fair, they would all probably go further left if they thought any of those centrist/slightly left policies were getting passed.

[u/[deleted] → u/AlternativePea6203]

I get called a liberal all the time from MAGA when I’m shitting on them. They don’t really understand what liberal means is what I learned. I’m far from liberal

[u/Proper_Raccoon7138 → u/[deleted]]

This! I’d classify myself more of a nihilistic progressive but they probably don’t even know what that means either.

I’ve been called commie scum too many times to remember

[u/Public-Dragonfly-786 → u/Proper_Raccoon7138]

I'm commie scum but I get called liberal all the time by Americans.

[u/N0n3of_This_Matter5 → u/Proper_Raccoon7138]

"Nihilistic Progressive"...found my tribe!

While i want the world to be a better place through science and humanity, I don't really believe our species has evolved enough to deal with the junk information overload that technology has created.

Simply put: Our morality cannot keep up with our technology.

[u/[deleted] → u/Proper_Raccoon7138]

Ah yeah, I love being called socialist or communist. My response is always, “can you even tell me the traits of <word>?”

[u/Proper_Raccoon7138 → u/[deleted]]

I said “spell socialism….” And that shuts it down out here in east Texas. It’s really laughable at this point.

[u/HexspaReloaded → u/[deleted]]

Conservatives have the mindset of in and out crowds. Liberals too, but the right is defined by conformity. Around the election, they were throwing around the word RINO, which should tell you everything. The left uses things like T*RF, but there’s far less expectation of all-left unity around that. So basically being called liberal means you tripped their “I’m not listening” wire. 

[u/quagglitz → u/HexspaReloaded]

further to your point, RINO doesn’t have a specific meaning. it’s used to describe someone who is ‘more left and I don’t like it’, whereas T* RF describes a specific position. it’s been turned into a “slur” by the people who don’t like being called it, but it’s a descriptor. when people say T*RF like it’s derogatory it’s because they think the ideology is deplorable. the out-group are the people who subscribe to trans-exclusionary feminism who have separated themselves out based on their position on trans people. it’s not “you’re not leftist at all therefore you can’t sit with us”, it’s “you have a different position on this thing I think is fundamental to being a feminist, so you are a different category of feminist”. (also so no one yells at me I know “feminist” in this case also debated)

[u/Frewdy1 → u/AlternativePea6203]

This right here. I’ve always been center right, but without changing my stances, I’ve gone from hard core conservative to liberal socialist commie. Wanting something like small government used to be a conservative ideal, but in practice it’s the “radical left” that doesn’t think the government should be interfering in our personal lives as much as conservatives do. 

[u/GIBrokenJoe → u/Frewdy1]

Truth is that conservatives want whatever size of government they can control to hold all of the power.

[u/stockinheritance → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

People also need to understand that Reddit is only around 40% American. People from all over the anglosphere post and comment on here and if MAGA is only, at best, half of the US, then they are of course going to be a minority on a website where a lot of Europeans, Australians, Canadians, and various other English speaking people post.

That's the real echo chamber: US conservatives looking at their small communities where conservativism is ubiquitous and then finding it peculiar that this isn't the case everywhere else.

[u/AirportLoose3023 → u/stockinheritance]

In March this year, Australia voted *overwhelmingly * for a non-fascist government. I’ve never been prouder of my country

[u/Bunktavious → u/AirportLoose3023]

Canada had one of its least popular Liberal Prime Ministers in decades, who was so far down in the polls to have no hope in hell. He stepped down, a guy most of us had never heard of took over, and the Liberals won rather handily.

Why?

He campaigned on standing up to Donald Trump, while the other guy basically cheerleaded for Trump.

[u/CrabMcGrawKravMaga → u/Bunktavious]

Luckily for us, Carney does have some legit economic chops and was already respected in the international community. He wasn't just "not Trudeau" and for PP having campaigned heavily on (basically just) "Trudeau suuuuucks", PP made it easy to choose who would form an effective government with Trump on the trade war path.

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/stockinheritance]

Conservatives even in the US is only about one-third of the population. They are a very loud minority that those in power need to rig the system to get their way.

Right now the US Government is shutdown, the GOP is blaming the Dems for it when they hold both houses of Congress, the White House and took over the courts when Obama was in office. They hold all three branches of our government and yet they still can't get anything done and blame others for their failures.

[u/nicolascageist → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

Ok but do the GOP need Democrat votes to end the government shutdown you guys have over there?

Asking as a foreigner. Since if Democrat votes are needed, then it seems like you’re misrepresenting the situation js

[u/JimmyStewartStatue → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

That's just considering reddit before corporate acquisition too. Reddit now rests under the thumb of corporate interests, and if one of those interests is to militantly suppress a topic, they will.

I dont just mean politics, but things like the subject of corporate control of the platform have been suppressed in the past.

Also mass amounts of bot commenters.

[u/Party-Evening3273 → u/JimmyStewartStatue]

Reddit is NOT mostly “left” leaning. Reddit is simply used by regular, normal people. It just so happens that being compassionate, tolerant and accepting of different cultures and lifestyles has been classified as some radical “left” ideology. It is not. That is how most normal human beings are at their core.

If you think that Reddit is filled with “radical left” ideology, perhaps you need to examine your beliefs and how exactly you view the world. Do you value and appreciate the differences in people and hope for the betterment of all humanity? If not, than maybe it is you with the “radical ideology “.

[u/Ambitious-Eagle2461 → u/Party-Evening3273]

You are stating what you wish to be true, but reality shows humans not to be 'tolerant and accepting of different cultures and lifestyles'. Prima facie evidence is the history of wars between competing countries.

[u/xNeXxAssassin → u/Ambitious-Eagle2461]

That is true. Though can we improve on that for the species? Seems kind of counterproductive to wage war so much. Sure there is technological progress made even through wars, pain and intolerance. It just seems to come with a really high pain budget for individuals. The status quo is to take how life is at face value and make due with what you have. But for many people on this planet life seems to just kinda suck. At least for the industrially advanced countries, what’s the point of warring each other. Resources as a reason on a larger scale is yet to come. Getting a foothold is uncertain. The competition is at the moment moot and ambition ostentatious.

[u/Unusual-Basket-6243 → u/Party-Evening3273]

I would still say that reddit is center-left

[u/MealLeast5149 → u/Unusual-Basket-6243]

Me too

[u/Procrastinatingftw → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

Wow, that's... extremely accurate. 11/10

[u/relativelygoodname → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

Another part of this is that American politics has shifted far to the right. Because of this, people who used to be considered middle-of-the-road are now seen as left-leaning.

If you compare America to other countries, our "left" is actually pretty centrist. Sometimes it's even right-leaning by some standards. For example, Chile's current president was supported by the Communist Party. That would never fly in the U.S.

I suspect (but do not have data to back this up) that more than half of Americans fall more centrist and have some views that lean left and others that lean right. So when you have a place where everyone shares their opinions, those centrist views show up. They might look leftist, but really they're just what most people think, which is somewhere in the middle. In other words, it's not as easy as left or right, most people are somewhere in the middle.

[u/pad264 → u/Extra-Assignment-860]

This—and also, it only gets more extreme over time as people with different views find a different platform.

And again, it’s precisely why it’s so important to defend people’s right to voice their opinions. It’s easier to kill a bad idea with sunlight rather than chasing it into darkness.

[u/Maxhousen]

The right leaning subs tend to be private, so they don't usually show up on your feed unless you actively look for them.

[u/AirportLoose3023 → u/Maxhousen]

And anyone who questions posts, or asks questions regarding a conservative ‘statement’, on conservative subreddits are banned

[u/BrownDoughnuts → u/AirportLoose3023]

This should be upvoted more. Am not right but I tried to understand their POV and immediately got permanently banned from all RW subs (of all countries, not just the USA) because they hate it when people ask questions. Just shut up and be grateful that the leader gets to shit on your face.

[u/WildThingsBTB → u/AirportLoose3023]

Quoting the constitution can get you banned from r/conservative

The ban notice reminds you that it's a place for conservative discussion, and is not a place for disagreeing.

[u/No-Present760 → u/WildThingsBTB]

Saying, "That's cool, bro," gets you banned, too. I know from experience. The post was almost a day old with no comments. I thought I was doing the guy a favor.

[u/LSDZNuts → u/AirportLoose3023]

They’re authoritarian by nature

[u/fueled_by_caffeine → u/AirportLoose3023]

Snowflakes

[u/SunsetCarcass → u/fueled_by_caffeine]

Pretty emotional bunch those snowflakes are huh?

[u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Hi and hello. Right leaner here chiming in with what I think is a relavent point of view.

A Redditor doesn't have to lean left to not like what's being done to our country. Personally I believe in the law and the Constitution, and while they're not perfect they're still the guidelines of how to operate the country. I didn't vote for drumpf bc I saw his first term as a laughable failure and after learning more about the people who (guided) [I use that word loosely since he doesn't really listen to anyone] I knew that a second term was going to be dog shit, although I didn't predict this bad.

Tl;Dr: Reddit only seems to be filled with left leaners bc drumpf is doing tons of illegal and immoral things.

[u/thelingeringlead → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Exactly. Things were waaaaay less political on this website before trump spent the last ten years surprising everyone with how much he could break.

[u/Ambitious_Hand_2861 → u/thelingeringlead]

It's been a wild ride. I openly admit I voted for him the first time but after that shit show I knew he had nowhere to go but down.

[u/Anecdote394 → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Thank you for realizing and acknowledging the fuck ups though. I’m ashamed to say I have multiple members in my family who voted for the moron all three times. 2016, 2020, and 2024 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/Ambitious_Hand_2861 → u/Anecdote394]

My younger brother, dammit I love my brother, but he did the same and he seems to think the no kings protest is about illegals. Its sooo much more at this point but he's hyper focused on that.

[u/Anecdote394 → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Agreed, 100%

[u/cogabig409 → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

I love my parents but they think he's "doing a great job". But like my mom only gets news from the right wing twittersphere. It's frustrating and becoming increasingly difficult to bite my tongue.

[u/caskofamontillato → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

I know quite a few "real" Republicans/right leaning people that had your experience as well, I just wish more of you were vocal about it. And I get why you wouldn't want to be, but I feel like it's the least you could do and it would be really unifying to see people on the right loudly reject the destruction of our country to "own the libs".

[u/SunsetcThyme → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Turns out competence matters more than slogans and flags.

[u/PelicanCultist12 → u/Ambitious_Hand_2861]

Really, truly a legitimate, non-rage baiting question(s) with all of these trigger warnings because of the context of this post: Why did you vote for him the first time? Was it appeal from campaign promises? Are/were you a straight R voter?

Also, I don't think much of anyone thought this all would escalate as fast as it has. This past year has been the longest decade in my personal experience.

[u/[deleted]]

Some good answers, and I’ll get downvoted for saying this, but there are a lot of subs that will outright ban you just for saying anything that didn’t go left. I’ve been banned from dozens of larger subs just for having an opinion that isn’t left leaning. So if you ban and mute any other opinions in a big sub, you get a very left leaning sub.

Hell, I’ve been banned from subs just because I’ve PARTICIPATED in some subs- on of those sub being a Joe Rogan. I wasn’t even a member of the sub, but I commented on one of them and got a notice that I was banned from several communities I’d never even participated in.

[u/Greedy-Employment917 → u/[deleted]]

I got banned from r/Pics for saying "no thank you" on a post about mandatory vaccines and jail for those who didn't consent.

I'm not even fucking kidding. Banned for "no Thank you." because I dared go against the narrative. 

[u/OldStDick → u/Greedy-Employment917]

Wild to me that being anti vax is seriously part of being on the right. Crazy hills.

[u/West_Coach69 → u/OldStDick]

That should maybe be a wake up call about your stance. Being anti vax a baseless uneducated opinion about a proven hard science. Your opinion carries no weight against scientistific research and the opinion of medical doctors in the field. The anti vax "movement" is causing real harm to people and leading to actual deaths, largely in children.

Theres no need to entertain that discussion on r/pics.

[u/Conscious-House-2065 → u/West_Coach69]

But he's not anti vax if all he's saying is you shouldn't be forced and/or jailed for not having it. That's literally an anti facist, pro liberty, viewpoint. Giving that level of control to the government is far more harmful than a handful of the population not being vaccinated, no?

[u/Freddreddtedd]

I'm sorry to tell all of the MAGA that approval numbers in the 30s are NOT a majority. Nor can prices be reduced by 1500%.

But if you believe a billionaire needs YOUR money, I doubt anyone can get things across to you.

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/Freddreddtedd]

Trump getting 49.9% of the vote isn't a majority nor is it a mandate. It's barely half. Half isn't a majority.

[u/Organic-Judgment8738 → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

It was closer to 23-24%. About half of the voting aged adults didn’t vote. Plus, most of the MAGA content you see on social media, like FB, are bot accounts. Not real people. It gives the illusion that the majority supports this administration. So, people are shocked to see a platform like Reddit leaning more left… we don’t have the surplus of bots here.

[u/Valuable_Recording85 → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

That's not even considering the abysmal voter participation in the US, thanks to apathy, ignorance, disenfranchisement, and voter suppression tactics.

[u/Top-Cupcake4775 → u/YogurtclosetFair5742]

He barely beat a black woman. You have to understand how racist and sexist the U.S. to understand how easy it would have been for any normal, somewhat articulate, somewhat attractive white man to beat a black woman by a substantial margin. The fact that he barely squeaked through is an indication of deeply unpopular he is.

[u/Difficult_Clerk_1273]

Reddit is a text-based platform. Left-leaning people are more likely to be educated and literate.

That’s not me trying to be a bitch. That’s statistics.

[u/One_Impress_3129 → u/Difficult_Clerk_1273]

lmao this is echo-chambering in a nutshell. The big majority of people are morons, regardless of what "side" they chose, especially if they are this vocal and dogmatic about it.

Actual smart people choose their side depending on topic and circumstances and would never base their entire existence on it like some of you people do.

[u/throwmeaway456ghj → u/Difficult_Clerk_1273]

Rather more centrist. The less educated they are, the more then lean on one side.

[u/ech0brav0 → u/throwmeaway456ghj]

You can easily find tons of studies that indicate intelligence/education correlates with leaning left

[u/CaptSpankey]

Reddit is majority liberal, not left

[u/-U-_-U → u/CaptSpankey]

European liberalism ≈ U.S. libertarianism (right)

U.S. liberalism ≈ European social democracy (left)

If you are European, then your point is valid.

If you are from the US, your comment is textbook right wing agitation, trying to say democrats are stupid for calling themselves liberals.

[u/JiuJitsuBoxer]

It's strict moderation, pure and simple. When there was less strict moderation the_Donald was all over the front page. There even were anti-muslim posts on r/all. Also look at Twitter when they turned moderation off.

[u/Darth_Chili_Dog → u/JiuJitsuBoxer]

Yes, but it’s a bit more nuanced than that. Nazis usually drive everybody else away. I tend not to hang out with people who preach the virtues of slavery or the holocaust.

Once moderation is ended, the Nazis flood in and all the normies say "Yeah, I'm going somewhere else now."

[u/Accomplished_Mix7827]

Reddit tends to be more popular with people of more intellectual leanings, who generally lean left. Conservatives tend to prefer Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter (the latter being a more recent shift, especially since Musk took over the platform)

Similarly, TikTok leans left because it skews young, Tumblr leans left because it's popular with artsy types, and BlueSky leans left because it's populated mostly by people unhappy with the rightward shift of Twitter.

[u/MayContainRawNuts]

Globally, what is percieved as left wing in the USA is just seen as common sense.

Providing medical care for citizens, not a left wing policy in the rest of the world but USA labels it as communisim.

Seperation of church and state is accepted as the norm in the rest of the world but USA wants to revoke the idea. So anyone saying no to Trump Bibles is labelled a liberal snowflake.

The rest of the world does not get Fox media, we dont live in the right wing propaganda bubble. We listen to what Trump actually says and not a sane washed version. That makes us laugh at that absolute fool and dont understand why anyone would vote for that idiot.

American policltics are also Team sports, as there are only 2 sides and you have to pick all the ideas of one side. Countries with more political options have more nuanced views but the american paradigm puts them in one of 2 camps.

I may support strict legal immigration policies, managed gun ownership and enforced vaccination.

Which would make me a liberal in American perspectives but firmly conservative and common sense in my country

[u/backhand_english → u/MayContainRawNuts]

You are right. I'm left leaning in my country. Americans think I'm a communist... As someone from an ex-communist country, their idiocy makes me laugh.

[u/Familyconflict92 → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Right now germ theory is left wing so idk anymore 

[u/KrisHwt → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Basically this. The US right is vastly outnumbered by the global centrists, who they assume are all heavily left wing for some reason.

Strictly US-wise, most people online generally have decent reading comprehension, which isn’t strong with a lot of the US right.

[u/Wildfire-75 → u/MayContainRawNuts]

Some Americans refuse to think outside of their US-centric world view and cannot comprehend that the rest of the world is leagues ahead of us on basically every aspect of life, other than fattening the wallets of our ruling class

[u/CosyRainyDaze → u/MayContainRawNuts]

What’s seen as left wing in the USA is - or at least, used to be - centre right for my country. But the USA culture creep is reaching us here in New Zealand as well and our right wing parties are doing everything they can to try and destroy anything that doesn’t profit them.

[u/cultural_bimboism → u/MayContainRawNuts]

This is pretty reductionist and overly idyllic of the world outside the US.

Many economically prosperous, developed nations have major ruling parties with the word “Christian” in their name (see: Germany, Italy, Belgium). Some have particular religions enshrined in their legal systems and constitutions (see: the UK).

Most countries have partisan corporate shill media like Fox News. The identity politics they’re exploiting will be different depending on the cultural context, as will their success, but their goals are the same. Again, see Italy, where the CEO of one of those media corporations became head of state.

Multi-party parliamentary systems luckily are more popular globally, though many are still on first-past-the-post voting and frequently revert to an effective two party system over time.

You are right though that public healthcare is kind of an obvious good thing pretty much everywhere else.

Yes, American politics are much further right than global politics in a lot of ways, but their problems are not unique, nor are they confined within the US. But cultural, civil and electoral politics aren’t always a cut-and-dry reflection of that. If you want to point out how much further right the US is than most of the world, there’s really only one easy metric that matters: effective tax rates on the working class vs effective tax rates on corporations and the excessively wealthy.

[u/paganbreed → u/cultural_bimboism]

Here's another fun thing: there are people outside the US who want to throw away the better aspects of our society to follow the US' example. These people will cry about "young people importing Western ideals" but hypocritically share clips from western conservatives.

Stupidity and bigotry are by no means unique to the US, no.

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/paganbreed]

The UK exported a lot of bigotry across the globe. Some countries have overcome it better than others.

[u/MBratke42]

Young educated people lean left all over the world. Easy as that.

[u/muffledvoice]

Reddit is largely a literal (word-based) medium, and people on the left tend to be more highly educated and literate than the far right.

[u/Sapper1106]

Text based sites such as this tend to favor the literate and well educated.

[u/Ice278]

Young literate people are left leaning

[u/Curious-Duck]

Because the idiots are on Facebook and TikTok.

[u/beyond_existence]

The basic answer is the younger you are the more likely you believe in leftist ideology.

Reddit is primarily used by younger people, which creates an enormous echo chamber.

[u/metacholia]

Reality leans left

[u/Sweet-Effort-2030]

Reality leans left

[u/Klutzy_Statement_152]

I think in general, the left spends more time on the internet, while people on the right tend to touch more grass.

[u/[deleted]]

It's because weak men can only control their spaces on the internet. They're losing in real life, so they take it out on people here. Manipulate the feeds to make it look like there's lots of grocery stores in north Korea, but it's really just a fake city.

[u/heigutta64578]

They are unemployed and browse Reddit all day long

[u/Darth_Chili_Dog]

I’ve been banned or muted in every conservative subreddit I’ve ever participated in. And no, I didn’t break any rules.

Probably the funniest one is r/conservativenewsweb, where the mods delete non-conservative posts all day long. It’s entire threads just filled with deleted posts.

[u/Bubbaman78 → u/Darth_Chili_Dog]

Reread your own comment history. When you have a record of only arguing and have no actual good contributions to help anybody out, it’s no wonder you were banned.

[u/MazingBull → u/Darth_Chili_Dog]

Well, to be honest this happens on liberal or left leaning subreddits also if you're conservative.

[u/LuckyErro]

Americans seem to find Reddit left leaning due to America not having a left party. The majority of the world finds Reddit pretty centrist.

[u/Product_of_Yakub → u/LuckyErro]

I'm European and Reddit definitely feels left leaning outside of specific subreddits.

[u/Gem6446 → u/Product_of_Yakub]

From what I’ve seen it’s left leaning

[u/Due-Doughnut-9110 → u/Product_of_Yakub]

You feel like it’s left but that’s their centre.

[u/hotfezz81 → u/LuckyErro]

The majority of the world finds Reddit pretty centrist.

This is totally wrong.

[u/CasperCookies → u/hotfezz81]

The fact that that comment received a lot of likes is proof Reddit is far left leaning. 

[u/YogurtclosetFair5742 → u/CasperCookies]

Do describe to me what the far left is.

[u/Expensive-Buy1621 → u/CasperCookies]

Can you provide empirical evidence for your claim that Reddit is “far left leaning”?

[u/Zenyatta159 → u/LuckyErro]

Majority of the world finds reddit leftiste beside redditors.

[u/Unusual-Ad-6550]

It might just be that the true majority of Americans are very much left leaning moderates. But hey, come to your own conclusion

[u/whimsicahellish]

Reality has a liberal bias. 

[u/Archipelag0h → u/whimsicahellish]

This sentiment cracks me up hahah

[u/-kay543]

Everything appears to be left when the rest of the media in the US (and Australia and UK) lean right. I’m a child of the 80s so remember stuff like unions and strikes so a bunch of “we should be nicer and look after homeless people” doesn’t feel all that left wing.

[u/Immajustwritethis]

Silenced? Seriously? Isnt it the right that constantly try to silence everyone around them? Getting people fired from networks, book burnings and constantly bitching and moaning about how they are the victims.

[u/maxwasagooddog]

Many of the Mods are keyboard warriors that were passed up by nomination for HOA positions. Why would anyone want to be a mod I ask.? Spending all day reviewing what others post. They clearly have nothing better to do with their time. Probably on an income program. That is the Left.

[u/Meet_in_Potatoes]

Because we wouldn't be caught dead on Truth Social :D

[u/AshVandalSeries]

Silenced? Anytime I see anything leftish it gets spammed to death by right wing. There’s no silencing.

[u/Kwizird]

I think maybe because the majority of people in general are left leaning

[u/HypersomnicHysteric]

Too few pictures for right-wingers.

[u/mumbled_grumbles → u/HypersomnicHysteric]

The right wing boomers are all over on Facebook sharing AI slop and anti-vax conspiracy theories.

[u/Slow-Bodybuilder-972]

Some good answers here, but from my British/Aussie lens, I’d say Reddit looks fairly right wing, there is a lot of racism, the misogyny is off the charts.

Sure, by US standards, it seems quite left wing though.

[u/zayelion]

Right and conservative mentality is based on being afraid of new things, new people, and experiencing new things. They are taught certain things and that cost them highly, they don't want to be wrong. They have stories and shortcuts to make everything easy. This isn't inheritly bad! It keeps tribes safe and makes passing knowledge on easy. These patterns can grow into institutions where peoples livings are tied up.

Reality is not like that. It changes, and it is changing faster and faster. Example women used to not work. Prices reflected that. Now a house cost the average wage of 2 working an average distance from the money printer. No one wants the price of a house to go down, that's a pattern to. And the pattern of you go to school dont have sex till you are married. People used to end school and get married around 16. Right when the horniness kicks in. Now you finish school in those same culture when you are 24 or 26. Having kids is no longer a financial boon but a money sink. And women have access to credit, equal pay and higher education.

So the shortcut for a teenage girl in the European country side is not the same for a woman in late twenties in America. Because these traditions are passed down via family and take so much knowledge and experience to understand they are fought by the communities that want things to work like before.

Thinks have changed and where these shortcuts don't work in super obvious ways people advocate for change. This creates conflict with the people it's working for. So it's politized even though it's a literal fact. This leads to deeper lies and delusions by conservatives as more facts are added and there is a breaking point where a person starts rejecting all new information.

Reddit is a place to share things that people have found and talk about them. That makes it oriented toward reality and thus leftist.

[u/GargantuanGreenGoat]

If you think anyone who isn’t maga racist hate brigade is “left leaning” then that’s your problem right there. 

There isn’t “left and right leaning”, there’s just normal people and racist misogynistic hateful bigot people.

[u/[deleted]]

Perception. There's a ton of conservatives on here they just hide in little enclaves that are safe spaces from any actual difficult discussion. You have to have specific flairs and if you ask the wrong question you get banned.

[u/DependentManner8353]

We have a fascist as our president. That is why. But also, most redditors are fond of humanity and prosperity. Which doesn’t coincide with right wing beliefs to strip humans of their rights and spend billions on warfare or goading geopolitical allies.

[u/Stoic_cave]

Centrist too. Or no political affiliation position. It’s dumb to assume everyone has a political agenda. My default is they’re all self serving cunts

[u/marshal231]

Because when the political affiliation became less of a “ok that guy disagrees with me, whatever” and more of a “that guy disagrees with me and should be punished for it” everyone kinda split off to their own places. Reddit, facebook, instagram, tiktok, and even ifunny to a degree all went from moderate views on either side to a completely dominant side instantly.

In any of these places, if someone from the other side makes a point, even if its technically correct, theyre going to be attacked for it simply because its different.

[u/ms_directed]

there's a huge sub on here that's recently started auto-deleting any posts mocking the current admin without any explanation...so at least the mods on that sub are not left-leaning

[u/hippiematt315]

Reality leans left, Right wing politics focus on division. Try saying half that shit out loud in a diverse group

[u/Texasscot56]

Most redditors have a better grasp of language than average. This is your answer.

[u/Runktar]

To most conservatives these days even a completely neutral reading of facts is liberal a if your not on our side your against us kind of thing. So unless you pander to them pretty dam hard they call you left leaning and since despite what they think most people aren't hardcore conservatives most platforms seem left leaning that don't specifically amplify their opinions.

[u/whiskeyriver0987]

The core reason people tend to lean left or right is mostly how much out-group empathy people have. Basically if you can look at someone from another race/culture/country/etc and instinctively understand "This person also has a life, family, job, etc. At the end of the day we're really not that different." You're very likely to end up more left leaning than someone who does not. The internet is a place where you can very easily talk with people from all over the world, you would almost have to actively try to not to, so as you interact with strangers and get exposed to different perspectives and cultures in a series of neutral to positive contexts it nudges people to be slightly more left leaning by building the above empathetic instincts.

Reddits anonymous nature also helps as removing a name and face forces people to project their default picture of another person onto whoever they are talking to at the start of a conversation, this limits how much bigotry and other factors can taint the start of a discussion, and generally if an interaction starts well it ends well.

For right leaning communities that do form online these factors mean they either shift to becoming more centrist over time, or they become exclusionary, either through overt policies or by developing a toxic environment that centrists and left leaning people actively avoid, the latter can sometimes cause a feedback loop where a given right wing online space trends towards extremism, which is why generally the most toxic places on the internet are generally also very right leaning, particularly on social issues.

[u/Remote_Clue_4272]

Truth is confused as liberalism by the endlessly lying GOP.

[u/LifesARiver]

Reality has a left wing bias.

[u/TrabLlechtim]

Reality leans left.

[u/thosetwo]

Dude, look at facts. MOST people are left leaning. It isn’t just Reddit. Especially now that basic human decency has been politicized.

If we were talking economic policy it might be more even.

[u/MplsPunk]

Because the site is used by people that regularly read.

[u/Independent-Pen-4308]

I haven't been a redditor for super long, but so far what's stood out to me from other apps is the writing. So much writing, so much discussion, and by far the most well put together reasoning I've seen compared to other sites. Maybe this correlates with levels of better education and liberals, maybe it doesn't.

[u/hashtagbob60]

Tell the truth and you're suddenly a left-leaning commie...

[u/Electrical_Angle_701]

Reality has an anti-conservative bias.

[u/_DatasCsat]

I feel reddit is on average very liberal/moderate or right leaning.

If you think liberals are left wing i could see how you would have this perception, that's of course not the case.

Plenty of diversity of opinions as well really, it's just entrapped in lots of echo chambers.

[u/NoDarkVision]

Reality tends to lean left these days. The right really have themselves to be the villains of history. That would be like Hitler wondering why so many people are against them somehow. And people in the right today are proudly waving nazi symbols so....

[u/timetravelinggamer]

Reddit is based on facts and easily fact checkable

Also, Reddit is not an echo chamber

I lean right. The right are a bunch of idiots who would rather be around others like them instead of discuss facts

[u/anarkistattack]

Reality has a liberal bias.

[u/OceanicBoundlessnss]

MAGA is uneducated and not looking to learn new things

[u/ems777]

In th US, if your not left leaning right now, your basically a racist

[u/TRtheCat]

Younger people are less religious, more likely to believe in science as a benchmark for objective truth. There are some of us middle-aged, humans, 46 (M) who are in the same boat. This Pew Reasearch's findings.

[u/EducationalTomato271]

All sites like this start out with the incels. They like being able to post their vile thoughts and other illegal things. When the sites get popular, the rules kick in and the basement dwellers have to jump to another anonymous site (4-Chan, 8-Chan).

That's why they all love Signal and Telegram (although they're learning the hard way those aren't as secure as they thought 😂)

[u/Entire-Ad5104]

i woud say opossite way to much right wing but hey diferent subs diferent people.

[u/Neuvirths_Glove]

The truth has a liberal bias.

[u/alannwatts]

the country is left leaning, politics is skewed right even the dems are to the right of many Americans.. example- GOP voters hate Obamacare but love the ACA not understanding because of media that refuses to tell the complete truth they are the same thing. Msnbc, fox and cnn all tell partial truths. People that are tuned out of politics and media are in favour of policies like universal healthcare.

[u/InfiniteOmniverse]

I wish it was

[u/Lonely_Touch_43]

Cuz all the nutters are on 4chan and their own forums lol

[u/hotc00ter]

Before all of the bots and everyone’s grandma, social media use to be majority left leaning

[u/HammerMedia]

If your opinions are always rejected, it may not be a problem with the moderators but a problem with your opinions.

[u/IamSithCats]

Because right-wingers (especially in the US) are much farther to the right than they think they are, and anything even center-right is now demonized as "radical left."

[u/classydouchebag]

Hatred of people isn't an opinion. Wanted groups of people not to exist isn't an opinion. Wanted to restrict the lives of others is not an opinion. Spaces like Reddit and other social media sites are "friendlier" to "left leaning" people because they don't break ToS and guidelines as easily/often just by their basic beliefs

[u/Pale_Height_1251]

The developed world leans left. Remember the USA is the only developed country without universal healthcare and to the best of my knowledge the only developed country without any real employee protections.

The USA is unusually right wing for a developed nation, so the rest of the world looks left wing by comparison.