There is a really big problem.
We actually do not know the terrain. Our map is wrong.
The entire left-right paradigm is bogus.
It is closer to say that most people fall into three camps based on their core value.
- Equality (meaning equality of outcome)
- Safety (conserving the power structure)
- Freedom.
So, although freedom loving people are usually lumped in on the right,
they are not really part of the conservatives.
Both the conservatives and the left (socialists) want the police, because they need the police for their ends.
Further, unfortunately, there is also a fourth group. The oligarchs.
They want power, and the police belong to them. They are the pointy end of the spear that is used to make people do things.
In the end, we are not dealing with a group that is there to protect the people, but we have 2/3s of the people believing so, and needing to believe so else their world crumbles.
People tend to forget that politics is a compass with two axes, not a sliding scale on only one. Furthermore, there are so many beliefs that are not tied to socio-economic orientation that trying to categorise people in such a way is absurd. I'm not the first person to do so (in fact I reference few others), but I've dissected this at length already:
https://kjworldsong.wordpress.com/2020/06/03/another-point-about-false-dichotomies-reality-denial-knows-no-ideological-bounds/
Finally, even my five-thousand-word travesty here barely scratches the surface. Of course, if you want to see some real hypocrisy, spend some time on the blog that I was originally responding to. I think mine is the only dissenting voice in that blasted echo chamber.
Edit: to anyone who actually checked out that article that I linked to, I'd like to know where you think you fall on that satirical little chart that I came up with.