Is mumsnet right wing?

[BrilloPadHairball]

There are so many benefits bashing threads on here I’m really starting to wonder. Do the majority of people posting on mumsnet lean heavily to the right?

But what's the point when person A has a completely different understanding to person B about what 'right-left wing' means, and person C has no clue at all?

Let's just be specific! Health, welfare, education, economy, foreign policy, human rights, women's rights... why do we need to reduce it to left-right. It's newspeak, designed to narrow the range of thinking. On a website dedicated to discussion, can we try to stop using these words?!

MN is made up of people from across the Political Spectrum, so of course that includes the far Left and far Right!

You will likely notice more those that are opposite to your view, so think there's bias in that direction.

I'm a swing voter, roughly 50/50 Labour / Tory.
I'd say MN is somewhat left of centre generally.

People usually lean more right as they get older. Someone in their 50s or 60s is more likely to have conservative views than someone 18-30.

No! If anything I'd say its got a hefty chunk of left wing people.

BBC has an inbuilt establishment biased and a Liberal bias. That's why it gets attacked from left and right.

MN is incredibly socially conservative.

@tattygrl "JKR has become absolutely abusive."

Could you point me to some of her abuse, please? I understand why people think she's wrong-but I haven't seen her being abusive.

Left and right wing descriptions of political positions have been around since the french revolution where, IIRC, they originated.

If people want to wade in and add their thoughts without knowing what they are? more fool them. It's a daft thing to do.

It is perfectly possible, as a person, to hold broadly right or broadly left views, but have differing opinions about a range of other topics.

We have elections here in Germany soon. There is a thing called the Wahl-o-Mat (vote-o-mat) where you can answer a tonne of questions and at the end you get a list of how the parties measure up to your views. I usually skew so that the SPD (like Labour) match 85%+ and the AfD (far right) match about 6%. That means 6% of what the AfD stands for match what i believe. That would, in some circles, brand me as a nazi even though it is patently untrue. Even when i answer as much as i can with a far left position, i rarely get more than 90% match with the Marxist-Leninist-Party of Germany.

And God forbid you're trans/NB.

What do you imagine MN posters are going to do to them exactly? They disagree with their ideology and stand up for women's rights. So?

Can’t say but there is a strong streak of contrarianism and cruelty here that aligns with right wing policies, or at least indifference to the results of right wing policies. Its where unspoken cultural beliefs about power and weakness intersect with authoritarian policies that divide people into worthy and unworthy.

They won’t answer, because it would be admitting that pointing out a man is a man is apparently abusive. Apparently we can have gender critical views as long as we never point out individuals who abide by its very hypocrisy or are a clear example of unjustified placement within female spaces.

In what way?

I agree with this. I think it's part general social trends, and part the FWR thing.

Wut?

People who don't want kids sterilised are right wing?

Or people who want women to have rights, are right wing?

Or people who think females are human and entitled to some rights are right wing?

Can you explain this please. Thanks.

I’ve been on MN for 20 years. I’d say it’s changed and become somewhat more right wing but also classist and disablist. So many threads implying that loads of people are playing the benefits system and yet it’s harder than ever to be awarded PIP. And the threads about dismantling the NHS aren’t that grounded in facts, more opinions based on a tiny bit of experience. The nurse bashing threads are horrendous and are always borderline misogynistic.
The vitriol towards Angela Rayner about being common and working class went hand in hand with saying Labour didn’t have any w/c MPs anymore and was full of left wing luvvy elites who didn’t understand the salt of the earth red wall. Clearly
bollocks, hypocritical and nonsensical when you have folk like Johnson who’ve never done a days honest work and Sunak who’s married to a billionaire, never met a w/c person.
The biggest change is the FWR board. Hive mind that attacks posters even if they are GC but deviate slightly from group think.
Makes me laugh when someone says look at all the Labour supporting threads, the site must be left wing. Every week there’s a ‘KS doesn’t know what a woman is’ or Labours hasn’t got any plans’ or ‘Labour will abolish private education’. Very few bashing the Tory’s actual record.

Right or wrong, views that aren't trans inclusive are more common on the right than the left ATM.

The open acceptance of such views has opened the door for other unpleasant views such as racism and homophobia that would not have been tolerated here ten years ago.

That's what I mean.

I do suspect some posters are actually political shills. The number of scary "VAT on private schools-the sky is falling" threads is suspiciously high.

Exactly @CurlewKate Otoh maybe that’s why MN skews right now as most on here are higher rate tax payers who can afford private schooling 🙄

People get aggressive pretty quickly wrt differing views, which skews political threads mostly to Labour

Not all threads but many

Ah the voice of reason 😂 tell you what maybe let us know your opinion on the Tory’s record eh apart from on niche topics related to the culture war ?

Oh you

😬

Yup Could say the same about you 😉

Laughing 😂

Point made by some. Pro Labour and all that so much personal anger. It’s a nice day have a mellow in the sun.

You’ll never be able to answer this OP as there will never be collective agreement on what is right wing.

For some people not being overtly racist or xenophobic is enough to class themselves as left wing.
Then the car lobby comes along and all it takes is ULEZ/LTNs etc to encourage some to conveniently forget they were apparently left wing and to disregard the state of healthcare, education, child poverty etc and boast about getting Labour councillors/mayors etc out.

Some people will outwardly claim support for Labour but keep their dirty little secret between themselves and the ballot box.

This was in part why Brexit came as a surprise to many - outward claims of liberal values., but inner hidden fear, prejudice and suspicion.
Political parties thrive on chaos and suspicion. If we’re too busy blaming each other, we’re not blaming them.

Yet strangely enough the most homophobic views I’ve come across recently is from trans activists…