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Comment by donsupreme | Hacker News Reader

3 points·donsupreme··5 comments

The mentioned study is somewhat myopic - a look at elected officials shows an opposite effect:

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/03/10/the-polariz...

PG's graph is from a battery of questions about very general things, like whether there should be a better safety net, immigrant friendlier policy, stricter environmental policies etc. Even if voters didn't change their policy opinions, it could be that as the elected officials veer further right due to lobbying or whatever, and then citizens have more stern answers to this poll as the actual enacted policies get more divorced from voter opinion.

I believe this is not true. I believe that the "overton window" [0] has shifted right, far more than the left walked out of the room: the window of discussion leaned back into racism, anti-unionism, anti-abortion, selfish, anti-tax rhetoric.

The L has not moved very much, the level of street complaint, and asserts to the need to defend ground are not "moving futher left" they are a digging in, in-place.

Due respect to the writer, I think they're wrong.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window

Uh, did you know that is a cognitive bias?

The liberals have moved further left into progressives. The Conservatives have moved a little bit right. I used to be liberal like everyone else until they moved left and made me a moderate relatively speaking.

I know former liberals who left the USA because of how far the Liberals have moved to the left. Rather live in China or Japan than the USA. Many tried for Canada but had a hard time getting an immigrant visa. In Japan you can start a business and sponsor yourself by hiring a business to do your paperwork.

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