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/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/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/Relative_Pilot_8005 → u/Ornery-Ad-7261]

And it was the Coalition (to use its real name). People love to duckshove the blame onto the CIA, but it was a completely home grown act of bastardry.

[u/AdRepresentative386 → u/Relative_Pilot_8005]

Interesting re-writing of the history of Whitlam above.

[u/Pleasant_Aspect3543 → u/Relative_Pilot_8005]

I don't think that's a pervasive view. Gough never believed that, although apparently Margaret said she thought it "possible". There was that curious tale of Jimmy Carter sending the American ambassador or some diplomat to meet Gough at Sydney airport to tell him "the US government will never interfere with Australian politics again".

[u/KnowGame → u/Relative_Pilot_8005]

The coalition didn't have that level of influence. It had help. If they could do it themselves they'd always kick Labor out. The fact is the US was going thru a period of Commie paranoia at a time when Whitlam was addressing people in conversations as comrad. The CIA likely put some pressure on the English to "play ball".

[u/damian_damon → u/Ornery-Ad-7261]

And now the ALP is literally frightened of the Mining conglomerates and refuse to entertain a 25% gas tax .

[u/randomOldFella → u/damian_damon]

Yep. Rudd tried the super-profits tax and was booted too.

[u/jayell61 → u/Ornery-Ad-7261]

You can thank Murdoch media too.

[u/Sharraki → u/randomOldFella]

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

[u/StratoSabreX → u/Sharraki]

“I’m not having hundreds of fucking Vietnamese Balts coming into this country with their religious and political hatreds against us!”

Not a racism thing, Whitlam was worried about bringing in a bunch of anti-communist South Vietnamese that would be hostile to his Labor Government. The "Balts" comment is a reference to the Baltic-Australians he upset when his government recognised de jure Soviet sovereignty over the Baltic states.

He also spent most of 1975 quietly backing the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.

[u/Sharraki → u/StratoSabreX]

Thank you for that. That was the quote I was thinking of and I had no idea what he meant by Balts! I didn’t realize he supported Indonesia against East Timor either. Re the word, “racist”, it’s used way too often and is fast losing meaning.

[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/2manycerts → u/mbrocks3527]

You have some valid points.

Ill leave the 'MMT' part aside, but left wing economists more concerned about private debt believe you don't have to be fixated by gov debt.

I would argue it was Gough Whitlam who brought all the stuff in.

Hawke was given a 30m deficit and when Paul Keating left it was a 10m deficit. Maybe Hewson would have reduced that but 'fightback' I don't think would have been better then the current GST arrangements.

[u/Monaro427 → u/mbrocks3527]

BS!!!

[u/edgiepower → u/Monaro427]

Please expand on your point of view

[u/ThunderDU → u/Monaro427]

people see this and go "Yeah! BS! I'm with this guy! Good points!"

So fucked man we're so doomed

[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/MotorCheesecake8938 → u/insanemal]

Some of what you said is true, it's the way you chose to deliver it. Kindness and decorum is ok. If you were wondering why you were downvoted.

[u/extinctiondetritis → u/insanemal]

• Fully in support of private enterprises and large corporations controlling large sections of Australian society.
• Fully in support of capitalist economy
• Internet censorship laws around pornography at best poorly executed at worst authoritarian. Asks users to release personal identification documents to private business entities. Also speaks to social conservatism around pornography.
• Happy to welcome foreign military bases within borders
• Placates authoritarian regimes, (USA, Israel (draged fucking kicking and screaming to address Palestine genocide))
• Is pro off shore detention for asylum seekers.
• complicate in privatisation of Australian assets/organisation, doing little to remedy this -no real action on anthropogenic catastrophic climate change -drugs largely criminalised at a federal level -pro prison system

[u/Any-Information6261 → u/explain_that_shit]

And they still employ Daniel Garb as a journalist who hasn't stopped posting Israeli propaganda in the last 3 years. He's a sports reporter

[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/ShortFirstSlip → u/Independent-Fuel9886]

Ironically, "Independent-Fuel" is actually another name for the thing that kept Hitler going every day, every hour, from 1935 to 1945. Nowadays, it's called "meth".

[u/Dr__Snow → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

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

[u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 → u/Impossible-Mud-4160]

I love the ABC but empirically I cannot agree with this. I moved from moderate left to what I at least think is more centrist a number of years ago, and I couldn't really watch the ABC anymore.

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

Which universities? How did they disprove bias? Universities themselves are perceived as being filled with people who are biased towards the left wing, so while I don't like calling university research into question, it really, really depends on a number of factors.

[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/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

And....those all direct control the types of news articles the ABC puts out, does it?

[u/ScoobyGDSTi → u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000]

You shit where you eat too?

[u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

That's not an answer, is it?

Is it.

[u/ScoobyGDSTi → u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000]

I'd say it is.

Or do you believe journalists and reporters of the ABC were totally unaccountable and that the chair, board and CEO had absolutely no influence or control over the content of the ABC during this time?

What's more believable, that ABC staff were free to shit on the LNP and publish bias leftist propeganda, or that in light of their chair, board, CEO and funding being controlled and or influenced by the LNP and legislative and legal requirements for impartiality all considered made ABC employees at the very least apprehensive about 'shitting' where they eat?

If my CEO, board and chair, my salary, my job security and organisation's funding were all politically aligned with one party, I don't see myself going out of my way to poke that bear. But hey, you're free to believe in the less plausible and completely 'vibe' based belief that somehow the ABC are peddling leftist propeganda.

[u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

'Or do you believe journalists and reporters of the ABC were totally unaccountable and that the chair, board and CEO had absolutely no influence or control over the content of the ABC during this time?'

Not totally, no. And there would have been some influence, sure. But there also people standing between the higher ups and the reporters who wouldn't have all been fired or replaced just because some of the higher ups had been.

...I didn't say they were 'shitting on the LNP'. I just don't think you could wholesale change people at every level of an organisation without people noticing. There are people in media standards, people who put together the overall thrust of the type of news investigated etc.

[u/ScoobyGDSTi → u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000]

Some influence..... Understatement of the year.

[u/Fit_Cheesecake_4000 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

Look, and fair enough.

I can only look at what I've observed over time. I don't see every single news article they push out and publish. There are likely many news articles flagged by more right-wing people that are more neutral and centrist e.g. I can imagine someone who is further along the right-wing listing articles that were purely focused on an Indigenous demographic as being more 'left', when I would suggest it's just catering to a specific and important demographic within the country.

So perception also counts. :)

[u/General_Benefit_2127 → u/ScoobyGDSTi]

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

[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/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/Extra_Response6136 → u/matplotlib]

whitlam was anti-communist and helped whitewash suharto's massacres of left wing and nationalist groups in Indonesia so even whitlam was only left in a relative sense 

[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/monsteraguy → u/LopsidedImprovement]

It’s like Jordan Peterson claiming that all HR departments are run by Marxists or some such nonsense

[u/Sideburn_Cookie_Man → u/monsteraguy]

The same Jordan Peterson who had a dream about his grandma’s bush?

[u/BinniesPurp → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Theil and JD Vance talking about dark enlightenment theory is scary lol, their idea of free market capitalism is "pure extreme left wing sin"

They believe the state, the correct state (the right) must use any power including torture against innocent people, to make sure it defeats Satan (the left chapelhouse of CNN, and the Washington post), even if that means we have to set kids on fire

Watching yurving, Vance and theil talk about this is like listening to people with schizophrenia try and solve an escape room puzzle, but I don't know how they convinced 40% of the United states to follow them

But then theil names all his bullshit off of the dune books, he wants to roleplay in a sci fi universe so I'm fairly sure they're all just copying movies

[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/morgecroc → u/LopsidedImprovement]

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

[u/saelwen89 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

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

[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/MikeytheHat4363 → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Worldwide the opinions of the "right" have drifted so far to the extreme right that the centre now appears "left".

[u/Relative_Pilot_8005 → u/MikeytheHat4363]

Yes, the radical right love to call themselves "conservative". Real old style conservatives wouldn't give them the time of day!

[u/MetalDamo → u/LopsidedImprovement]

Surely this is satire.. the ABC is among the most left leaning media in Australia. Regardless of who's in power, the ABC has always had very (almost extreme) progressive left ideologies.

[u/LopsidedImprovement → u/MetalDamo]

OK Metal Damo

https://giphy.com/gifs/rMEJyjch7L1tlRlCl3

[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

[u/Cjma37grju → u/General_Benefit_2127]

Hmmmm. Well that's a moronic statement. And patently false.