Right-wing? Left-wing? Socialism? Explain it like I’m five.

This article explains terms as they’re used in the US, not globally.

Birds-eye view of a beach with red and blue umbrellas. Photo by Aviv Ben Or.

We all want the same things in life. We want freedom; we want the chance for prosperity; we want as few people suffering as possible; we want healthy children; we want to have crime-free streets. The argument is how to achieve them…

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I didn’t grow up talking about politics with friends or learning why it matters in school, so as an adult I struggled to see how all these terms related to one another. I find it easier to grasp topics when I can compare and contrast them, so this is my attempt at a meaningful comparison.

I could focus on all the problems with each viewpoint, but I think the media covers that enough, so instead I’ll focus on what a person with each point of view might believe is good.

If you can’t explain the opposite point of view, you probably don’t understand your own point of view well enough!

I cite no sources because these definitions have been pulled from hundreds of different places and merged together for ease of understanding. Do your own digging on topics that interest you.

Let’s cover politics first (“left vs. right”), then economics will follow (“capitalism vs. socialism”).

Politics

A few terms that will come up below:

• Equal means “exactly the same” — for example, everyone gets the same meal in the cafeteria.
• Equitable means “depending on need” — for example, those who are more hungry get bigger meals.
• Fair depends on your point of view, as you’ll see.

Umbrella terms

The terms “left” and “right” refer to opposite ends of a range of political ideas. Most political ideas fall somewhere on that spectrum as follows:

• RIGHT-wing ideas are based on the idea that existing social orders and hierarchies are natural or desirable, and are often intended to preserve the way things are or to let things evolve on their own. Hierarchy and inequality are viewed as natural results of social differences or the effort put in to get ahead. It’s “tough love” and “survival of the fittest” (people competing with each other will naturally lead to more optimal outcomes for society).
• LEFT-wing ideas often explicitly take action to reduce unjustified inequalities between people and move society forward into a new and different future. They support social equality and/or equity. They typically involve a concern for those in society perceived as disadvantaged relative to others, because “survival of the fittest” amplifies small differences between groups, leading to polarization and an increasing wealth gap. It’s “one for all and all for one” (each person should act for the benefit of the group, and the group should act for the benefit of each person).
• MODERATE ideas are somewhere in the middle.

Fun fact: The terms “left” and “right” were first used during the French Revolution to refer to seating arrangements in parliament. Those who wanted to overhaul the way France was governed sat to the King’s left, and those who wanted things to remain as they were sat to the King’s right.

Political parties

Only 4 parties in the US have recently gotten more than 1% of presidential votes. They boil down to the following core ideas:

• DEMOCRATS (colored blue 🟦) are a moderately left-wing party also referred to as Progressives or Liberals. They believe the government should often act to protect human rights and promote equity. They tend to support “progressive” taxes (meaning the tax rate gets progressively higher as you earn more money and are more able to afford it) and capitalism with MORE regulation (to protect people from powerful or corrupt corporations).
• REPUBLICANS (colored red 🟥) are a moderately right-wing party also referred to as Conservatives or the GOP (Grand Old Party). They believe the government should often step back to let people pursue their own goals, and have harsh punishments for crimes. They tend to support tax cuts for the wealthy (so that they can hire more people and “trickle down” their wealth) and capitalism with LESS regulation (so that the economy can grow faster, leading to more prosperity for everyone).
• Right-LIBERTARIANS (colored yellow 🟨) are a primarily right-wing party with some left-wing ideas. They’re economically conservative and culturally liberal, so they generally support lower taxes, capitalism with LESS regulation, individual rights such as gay marriage and gun ownership, and replacing government programs like welfare/prisons/social security with private contracts. (Point of confusion: Outside of the US, this party is often called Liberal, and instead the word Libertarian refers to LEFT-Libertarians, a type of Anarchist. The color yellow is consistent though, so you can use that reliably if you’re unsure.)
• GREENS (colored green 🟩) are a left-wing party focused on the environment, social justice, nonviolence, and grassroots democracy (meaning bottom-up/people-focused, as opposed to top-down/corporate).
• INDEPENDENTS (colored gray ⬜) have no particular party association; their ideas can fall anywhere on the spectrum.

Note: Just because someone claims to belong to a party doesn’t mean their values are ALL aligned, it just means that label best suits them for now.

You can find more detailed comparison between liberal and conservative values here if you’re interested in specific issues.

Economics

Let’s start with a few terms that will come up below:

• People use the MEANS OF PRODUCTION (like land, factories, and offices) to create things.
• GOVERNANCE refers to everything involved in governing a community via laws, policies, agreements, etc. Your employee handbook at work is an example of governance.
• A STATE is an organization with an exclusive right to use certain kinds of force and violence (law and order, prisons, etc.) within a certain area. For example, the United States is one large state that unites 50 smaller states.

A state uses governance, but governance doesn’t require a state (as in the employee handbook example).

Types of economy

Economics is a HUGE field but everything can be broken down into two main types of economy: capitalism and socialism. Just like the words “right” and “left”, these words refer to opposite ends of a spectrum of economic ideas:

A CAPITALIST economy has PRIVATE control of land, factories, and offices (the “means of production”), for profit — like when you start a small business and hire people to work for you. After you pay your employees, you keep any excess profit. If you grow your business, you’ll make even more profit for yourself. Your employees also want to work hard to get promoted and make more money.

• A primary goal is growth of the stock market and economy.
• Self-interest is a primary driving force of behavior.
• A core idea is that overall wealth is based on a society’s productivity, so more productivity leads to better society.

A SOCIALIST economy has SOCIAL control of land, factories, and offices, generally for use rather than for profit — like when a group of people start their own community garden together. You all eat your fill of zucchini. You learn about gardening from each other and all become better at what you do, expanding your garden to support a thriving community.

• A primary goal is “social good” and equitable treatment of everyone. Nobody should be allowed to be so poor that they’re forced to choose between feeding their children or going to college.
• Social responsibility (caring about the people around you) is a primary driving force of behavior.
• True socialism is rare on large scales (Europe is primarily capitalist, not socialist like many people think — it’s just farther left on the spectrum compared to the US). You can have socialist organizations within a capitalist society, like with the community garden example.

A MIXED economy is one that has elements of capitalism AND elements of socialism. In practice, every economy in the world is mixed.

COMMUNISM is a type of socialism that has COMMON control of land, factories, and offices. Common control is a type of social control mentioned above, specifically where everything is shared by everyone.

• A primary goal is the elimination of social classes (poor workers vs. rich investors) through the empowerment of the workers.
• Communism could come about either through worker revolution or through temporary state enforcement. The idea is that eventually, things like money and the state would no longer be necessary and workers would become self-managing. No country has ever gotten that far in practice.

ANARCHISM is a type of socialism that does not have a state. The word comes from “an-” (meaning WITHOUT) and “-arch” (meaning RULER). It still has governance, just no state to force compliance through things like prisons. The people must keep each other accountable (and this takes skill to do effectively).

• A primary goal is to help each other live up to our full potential, through the elimination of involuntary hierarchies (such as patriarchy/sexism, white supremacy/racism, the destruction of the environment, and the violence that the state uses like prisons).
• True anarchism can’t come about through state control like with communism; the ideas need to be learned and practiced on a small scale and grown over time. Worker cooperatives are successfully doing exactly this — and as it turns out, co-ops tend to be more resilient than traditional businesses during pandemics!
• The word “anarchy” is sometimes used to mean “chaos”, but this is actually incorrect — when all hell breaks loose, those with weapons and physical strength become in charge, which is definitely a hierarchy. 💩

Words mean things, but sometimes people intentionally confuse or misuse words in order to win an argument or to claim “their way” is superior. To many people, socialism sounds like a dirty word that only refers to corrupt state disasters, when really it’s an extremely broad term that applies to a lot of different things that are working well in practice (like community gardens — so much zucchini!)

It’s also helpful to recognize the difference between philosophy and practice. The philosophy of “cut taxes on the wealthy so they have more money to hire more workers and everyone wins” sounds great in theory, but if it’s not implemented effectively in practice, the outcome can be completely different than what you hoped for — search online for “horse and sparrow theory” if you’re interested in more.

Resources

These definitions are meant as stepping stones rather than the final word. If you want to learn more, I recommend starting with these:

• Left vs. Right infographic from Information is Beautiful.
• Wikipedia is great for going deeper on concepts.
• Crash Course is super fun. They have quick playlists on YouTube for things including US Government & Politics, Economics, and Sociology.

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