Yet again, Americans choose to be the odd ones 🤔

Wait!!! I just had a weird realization. The right is represented by blue in Canada and the left is red?!!!

I was thinking to myself, I follow American politics (not as much as before) but I have no idea what's going on in Canadian politics! I think I should!!

I sat there watching some YouTube videos made by a guy I used to like watching before coming here and I was confused as hell with the colours he was using!!

I had to research it to make sure that I understood it correctly.. only then I discovered that actually everyone uses blue to represent the conservatives except the US 🥔🤔 and so we have a similar situation here like the metric thing? Can someone explain why this became the case? 🥔🤷🏾‍♀️

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bijouxbroussard · F

Here they used to call Communists "Reds", too. Not sure how things got turned around, but they did.

BittersweetPotato · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard Yea that came up in my search. Also, someone said that before the 80s the US parties were not as distinct and that both major parties were sort of mixed (idk how true that is) and so maybe this is why the colours got mixed up since there were liberals in the conservative party and vice versa, I really don't know

bijouxbroussard · F

@BittersweetPotato Yes. Political parties and political ideologies were separate issues; there were conservative Democrats (especially in the South) and progressive Republicans (particularly in the North). But many of the Democratic conservatives switched parties after the Civil Rights movement. And the Republicans pretty much drove their last progressives and liberals out when the MAGAs came into power.

BittersweetPotato · 31-35, F

@bijouxbroussard Interesting. I didn't know that. It may have been nice if it remained mildly mixed, maybe people wouldn't be as divided and as famatic about their political affiliation?

bijouxbroussard · F

@BittersweetPotato Indeed, and it says a lot that people with differences were once able to coexist in the same party. While there are still a few conservative Democrats, the Republicans pretty much shame their members into lockstep.

MethDozer · M

@BittersweetPotato that's the other part of it. Prior to recent history we didn't really label one party conservative and the other liberal. They were more mixed and nuanced and people here didn't really think of them by philosophical left and right, conservative/liberal grounds as much so things associate with those concepts weren't really applied to each.

bijouxbroussard · F

@MethDozer Yes. Individuals sometimes described themselves by ideology, but the parties themselves were judged largely on their platforms.