Labels are everywhere, all of the time. Many people find an issue with it--for a reason I don't understand. Labels are very helpful--although, yes, they can be abused. A great example we see a lot today is mental illness. I'm not one for believing that everyone actually has some sort of mental illness--there are many factors in life now that can cause the illusion of mental illness (e.g., fluorescent lights, blue light, chemicals/inedible trash in our food, lack of rest, etc., etc., ...), but is it actually mental illness? I say no.
But this text isn't about mental illness.
I hear many people say they are "independent," whatever that's supposed to mean. I understand the thought process behind it when you don't know the definition of the left & right, but when you do, 'independent' sounds foolish--because it is.
This is the importance of civics & American history. Back when we still had colonies, & we were still referred to as "the Great Experiment," we had some differing beliefs about how the country should be run. Some wanted another England, & others wanted to experiment with a smaller government size. They split themselves into the Democrat Party (big government) & the Republican Party (small government). This was made--not to segregate, but to establish where everyone stood. Was there most likely some malicious people at the time? No doubt about it. But ultimately, it was simply meant to identify one another. It's only become a 'problem' because we think it is. The only thing that has changed from then to now is the popularity of extremism.
Since the left are advocates for big government, & the right are advocates for small government, what would be those extremes? Well, that's simple. The further left you go, the bigger the government gets, until it controls every aspect of life, which would be fascism. The further right you go, the smaller the government gets, until there is no government, which would be anarchy. This is an established fact--to disagree with it would be A) be foolish, & B) would be like arguing that I didn't write this on my laptop, but rather the laptop wrote this on me. C'mon.
Of course, there are variants of the left & right other than just government size. There is also how strong the government is, & how much they are allowed to control, who is in the government, how it is run--all that stuff. Most of it is up to personal decision--but overall, your beliefs will align toward big government or small government. 'Medium,' I would say, differs from person to person. I wouldn't say there is a set 'middle ground' because there is a lot to take into account, & you can't be in the middle of them all because some of them contradict one another.
"independent" doesn't exist. What does exist, on the other hand, is ignorance. Which isn't a totally bad thing, but it's frustrating nonetheless.
I've noticed that a lot of people choose to be "independent" because, "well, I don't like labels..." What? What do you mean by 'you don't like labels'? You're actively labelling yourself by calling yourself an "independent," I hope you know that. Labels are good. When they became bad, I don't know. Are labels abused? Most definitely, but that doesn't mean labels are bad in & of themselves. It's only us--we are bad, don't blame our foolishness on labels.
