Thanks David, I was thinking about this survey. I guess my point still stands—a leftist EA in Scandinavia doesn’t mean the same thing as a leftist in the US, and my guess is that the majority of what these EAs call ‘left’ would be seen as center-left or even moderate right-wing in other countries (such as France or Sweden).
Results don’t vary so dramatically across most countries in our data, with none of the countries with the largest number of EAs showing less than ~35% identifying as “Left”.
The majority of EAs and the majority of EA left/center-leftists are outside the US
David can presumably answer this with the cross-tabs. My guess is that French and Scandinavian EAs also say they are left wing more frequently than right wing.
Also, while you’re right there are geographical differences between countries along the left-right axis, I don’t think you can summarize it as ‘Americans are more right wing’. On many issues US leftists are much more extreme than europeans.
‘On many issues US leftists are much more extreme than europeans. ’ Do you have data for this?
I recall, but can’t find a Financial Times article from year or two ago which gave polling showing that Dem voters in the US appear to be slightly more left-wing on social issues (other than abortion) than Labour voters in the UK. That supports “left is left-er in the US on social issues.” But this was outweighed by conservatives voters in the UK being FAR to the left of Republicans on social issues, so it also supports “US more right-wing overall. And the cliché is that the UK is a right-wing outlier by Western European standards (though I haven’t seen hard data backing that up, and I suspect that insofar as it is true, we’re talking economic left rather than social).
I think left-leaning Americans are often keener on a specific set of taboos around talking in a sufficiently “politically correct/woke”* way. But that is not really the same thing as being more left-wing on substantive issues, not even social issues. (I’m not very keen on that way of talking, but I do believe in trans inclusion, except maybe in some sport, probably support open borders and less restrictive drug laws, probably reject retributivism about punishment, am pro-choice, at least neutral to mildly favourable on deliberately trying to employ more women and people of colour in positions of influence etc.)
*I hate these terms, but there is no non-pejorative equivalent and everyone knows roughly what I mean.
Thanks David, I was thinking about this survey. I guess my point still stands—a leftist EA in Scandinavia doesn’t mean the same thing as a leftist in the US, and my guess is that the majority of what these EAs call ‘left’ would be seen as center-left or even moderate right-wing in other countries (such as France or Sweden).
It’s worth noting that:
Results don’t vary so dramatically across most countries in our data, with none of the countries with the largest number of EAs showing less than ~35% identifying as “Left”.
The majority of EAs and the majority of EA left/center-leftists are outside the US
David can presumably answer this with the cross-tabs. My guess is that French and Scandinavian EAs also say they are left wing more frequently than right wing.
Also, while you’re right there are geographical differences between countries along the left-right axis, I don’t think you can summarize it as ‘Americans are more right wing’. On many issues US leftists are much more extreme than europeans.
‘On many issues US leftists are much more extreme than europeans. ’ Do you have data for this?
I recall, but can’t find a Financial Times article from year or two ago which gave polling showing that Dem voters in the US appear to be slightly more left-wing on social issues (other than abortion) than Labour voters in the UK. That supports “left is left-er in the US on social issues.” But this was outweighed by conservatives voters in the UK being FAR to the left of Republicans on social issues, so it also supports “US more right-wing overall. And the cliché is that the UK is a right-wing outlier by Western European standards (though I haven’t seen hard data backing that up, and I suspect that insofar as it is true, we’re talking economic left rather than social).
I think left-leaning Americans are often keener on a specific set of taboos around talking in a sufficiently “politically correct/woke”* way. But that is not really the same thing as being more left-wing on substantive issues, not even social issues. (I’m not very keen on that way of talking, but I do believe in trans inclusion, except maybe in some sport, probably support open borders and less restrictive drug laws, probably reject retributivism about punishment, am pro-choice, at least neutral to mildly favourable on deliberately trying to employ more women and people of colour in positions of influence etc.)
*I hate these terms, but there is no non-pejorative equivalent and everyone knows roughly what I mean.
Confirmed. And not only that, but French EAs are more likely to say that they are Left, rather than Center left.
I think this is responding to a comment by Larks, not me.
You’re right sorry. Will move it!