If there is a single divisive issue at any given time, wouldn’t people notice that it abruptly changes? Why would there be a lot of overlap between one team today and one team yesterday? The kind of change that seems to me more likely for people to not to notice is if there are many issues and the axis only refers to the arbitrary alliances at a given time. If a small issue switches sides, most people don’t care and so there is a lot of overlap.
But people don’t just identify with the conflicts of the previous generation. They identify with the conflicts two hundred years ago that introduced the terms “left” and right” and the conflicts a hundred or more years before that under the names Whig and Tory. If the axis were randomly shifting with time, wouldn’t that be enough time to destroy the relationship? Do you think that people are mistaken in seeing a similarity?
If there is a single divisive issue at any given time, wouldn’t people notice that it abruptly changes? Why would there be a lot of overlap between one team today and one team yesterday? The kind of change that seems to me more likely for people to not to notice is if there are many issues and the axis only refers to the arbitrary alliances at a given time. If a small issue switches sides, most people don’t care and so there is a lot of overlap.
But people don’t just identify with the conflicts of the previous generation. They identify with the conflicts two hundred years ago that introduced the terms “left” and right” and the conflicts a hundred or more years before that under the names Whig and Tory. If the axis were randomly shifting with time, wouldn’t that be enough time to destroy the relationship? Do you think that people are mistaken in seeing a similarity?