Has your politics moved or has the country’s?

[Siciliancitrus]

I used to consider my politics pretty middle of the road/slightly to the right. Obviously views evolve and a country’s situation changes, but fundamentally I don’t think my core values have changed. It seems that the country has lurched hugely to the right though. Political parties seem to be competing as to who can punch down the hardest. What am I missing? What’s driving this change? I hate it.

The failure of the previous and current governments to actually do what the electorate has consistently voted for. People are now becoming more volatile as the democratic system isn't working as it should. And yes its scary.

I know what you mean. I am moderately economically conservative and socially liberal. I used to consider myself a Centrist and somewhere between the true Tories and the Left, but now I feel like my views are to the left of the majority. I have stayed in the same place but the country has definitely lurched to the right in quite a big way.

I’ve always been moderate left. For me the Blair/Brown governments were the best of my lifetime. My perspective seems to be regarded as verging on communism now. The Overton window has definitely shifted right.

I can’t work out how widespread the punching down is - i.e. how much is convenient for politicians to punch down on groups of individuals to avoid discussing systemic changes, how much is media, how many when online are bots. Misinformation seems to abound too.

My personal experience it feels like what is considered radical left now - was just left wing in the 80s, and what was more centred ground is now left and what was right wing is now centre ground..

Whatever, I hate the fact that left wing and right wing are used as insults rather than people listening to other ideas - everything feels so polarised these days.

The polarisation is on another level now, obviously exaggerated online. It helps politicians avoid talking about complexities and nuances. Polarisation helps them do a crappier job.