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Monday, October 29, 2012

“Right” and “Left” depend on context « JD2718

“Right” and “Left” depend on context « JD2718:


“Right” and “Left” depend on context

Picking a fight with a comic strip?  Yup. And xkcd, at that.
CongressRandall Munroe has done a superb job creating vertical time lines for the House and Senate, showing the ebb and flow of different parties. Look here, it’s really cool.
But left and right change meaning over time. Different place, different time, different context. The slaveholders were to the left and the abolitionists to the right? Whoa, Nelly, er Randall.  In today’s context, the Republicans are on the right. But the party once was home to advocates of public education, sufferage, abolition, and temperance (hmm, temperance? just ignore that).
Munroe really did make a cool chart. And he gets lots of things right. I hope he fixes the chart.