> In general, the left seeks social justice through redistributive social and economic policies, while the right defends private property and capitalism.
That’s an extremely left-skewed framing that leaves out a lot of important cultural issues. For instance, the leftists during the Spanish Civil War massacred Catholic priests and nuns and burned down churches while many on the right sought to protect the church and restore the Spanish monarchy.
It’s more correct to say that the right defends traditional institutions, which might include capitalism, but even these vary widely from country to country. For instance the United States never had a monarchy or an established religion; most of the American Founding Fathers would have sat somewhere left of center in the Estates General during the French Revolution, which is where we get the terms “left” and “right” from in the first place. But in an American context, the republic and the constitution are the traditional institutions that the American right has traditionally defended, even though they were established by the 18th century left.
Even when it comes to capitalism it’s not as clear cut. Prior to the American Civil War, the north was capitalist but the south had a precapitalist agrarian economy based on slave labor. The northern liberals, abolitionists, and capitalists formed a coalition to the left of the southern planters. Outside of areas that had widespread slavery, there’s also a long tradition of right wing critiques of capitalism as a destructive change to the traditional patterns of society, and there are many on the far right who seek to return to much older ways that are now lost.
That’s an extremely left-skewed framing that leaves out a lot of important cultural issues. For instance, the leftists during the Spanish Civil War massacred Catholic priests and nuns and burned down churches while many on the right sought to protect the church and restore the Spanish monarchy.
It’s more correct to say that the right defends traditional institutions, which might include capitalism, but even these vary widely from country to country. For instance the United States never had a monarchy or an established religion; most of the American Founding Fathers would have sat somewhere left of center in the Estates General during the French Revolution, which is where we get the terms “left” and “right” from in the first place. But in an American context, the republic and the constitution are the traditional institutions that the American right has traditionally defended, even though they were established by the 18th century left.
Even when it comes to capitalism it’s not as clear cut. Prior to the American Civil War, the north was capitalist but the south had a precapitalist agrarian economy based on slave labor. The northern liberals, abolitionists, and capitalists formed a coalition to the left of the southern planters. Outside of areas that had widespread slavery, there’s also a long tradition of right wing critiques of capitalism as a destructive change to the traditional patterns of society, and there are many on the far right who seek to return to much older ways that are now lost.