[jensen123]

> The "Guardian-reading lentil-munching sandal-wearing lefty" is a popular caricature

I find some of these caricatures interesting. Like how many leftists are vegans or vegetarians, and how many libertarians are meat-lovers. You would perhaps think that diet should have no correlation with political opinions, but it certainly seems to have.

Or take clothing. Among leftists, there seems to be more people wearing stuff like sandals, colorful clothing, dreadlocks, piercings etc. than among right-wingers or libertarians. When I see pictures of libertarians or right-wingers, they often seem to be wearing conformist looking clothes, such as suits. Is there a reason for this?

In order to do well economically, you probably need to be careful not to offend other people, so you cannot express yourself too much. People who express themselves more (wear what they want to, rather than what is inoffensive), are probably more likely to become economic losers. And if you're an economic loser, I guess left-wing politics (tax the rich!) is appealing.

[c594815]

Right-wing, besides being capitalist, also means being conservative. Which implies respect for tradition, etiquette and savoir-vivre. Other than diet, another interesting aspect is architecture. Leftists like brutalism and modernism, while right-wingers like traditional architecture, have a look here: https://www.facebook.com/ArchMMXII.

[theoh]

That's an oversimplification of the story in relation to architecture.

A lot of modernist architects have espoused socialist views, but someone like Mies van der Rohe also built some work for the Nazi regime. The modernist architect Philip Johnson was a notorious Nazi sympathizer.

There's an article here that starts to unpick the architecture/politics relationship in relation to one architect's work: http://archinect.com/features/article/4618/peter-eisenman-li...

Since architecture requires significant wealth and organization, it's rarely, if ever, something that comes out of anarchism. So statism or philanthropy is often behind it.

[dagw]

another interesting aspect is architecture. Leftists like brutalism and modernism, while right-wingers like traditional architecture,

On the other hand, preserving old traditional buildings tends to be a leftist cause, while wanting to bulldoze them and replace them with new modern buildings tends to be a right-wing cause.

[digi_owl]

And this is why i find the concept of a dual axis political sorting better.

One axis is economic, the other social, with the traditional left-right divide being mapped to the social axis.

Here is the tricky bit, that once you start mapping liberal and conservative on the economic axis things tend to reverse compared to the social one.

So quite often social conservatives end up in the economic "liberal" (or laissez-faire) end.

[arethuza]

"When I see pictures of libertarians or right-wingers, they often seem to be wearing conformist looking clothes"

Isn't simply a case of advertising that you are part of a particular social grouping (or at least aspire to it) by conforming to the styles used by that group?

NB My own favourite example being spotting genuinely posh people by the colour and state of their cords trousers... (is it an ex-army thing?).

[m0nty]

> if you're an economic loser, I guess left-wing politics (tax the rich!) is appealing

That is, in itself, an appalling caricature, albeit some left-wingers might be in that category. It's like saying all libertarians/right-wingers are Gordon Gecko "greed is good", devil-take-the-hindmost callous money-grubbers.

[vixen99]

It's you who has used the word 'all'. Replace all with some in your counter example and both are undoubtedly true. Appalling? I agree.

[pessimizer]

Replace "all" with "some," and every political grouping becomes lentil-munching sandal wearers, including Trump voters.

[m0nty]

The use of the word "loser" (which has emotional connotations) is mostly what I object to here.