https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Nolan_chart_normal.png
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nolan_Chart
As a populist, the way the political spectrum is commonly conceived is deficient.
The Nolan Chart for example is a purely quantitative way of conceiving it.
Libertarian or minimal government intervention on top, centrism or moderate intervention in the middle and authoritarian or maximal intervention on bottom.
Liberal is defined as socially libertarian and economically authoritarian and conservative as socially authoritarian and economically libertarian, but in reality this’s not the case.
For example, liberals can be every bit as socially authoritarian as conservatives, anti-free speech, anti-gun, some feminists are anti-prostitution, ecological and scientific authoritarianism: anti-homeschooling, carbon taxes, forced inoculations, identity politics, ethnic, racial, religious and sexual authoritarianism: socioeconomically and politically propping foreigners, immigrants, minorities and women up at the expense of citizens, the majority and men.
Conversely conservatives can be every bit as economically authoritarian as liberals, corporate bailouts, subsidies and welfare, raising taxes to pay for the so called wars on drugs and terror (in reality they’re wars for drugs and terror).
And of course in practice there’s very little difference between liberals and conservatives.
For me, there’s a qualitative dimension to the left/right political spectrum in addition to a quantitative one, which I’ll get to in just a bit.
So quantitatively left is libertarian, quantitatively centrist is communitarian, where government locally or moderately socioeconomically intervenes and quantitatively right is authoritarian or totalitarian, where government federally or maximally socioeconomically intervenes.
Being socially libertarian and economically authoritarian or socially authoritarian and economically libertarian isn’t liberal or conservative respectively, it’s just being socially libertarian and economically authoritarian or socially authoritarian and economically libertarian.
So you see the Nolan Chart is all about how much government intervention there is, but not at all about what kind of government intervention there is.
Just as there is quantitative left, libertarianism, and a quantitative right, authoritarianism, there’s a qualitative left, and a qualitative right.
So what are they?
The qualitative right is elitism or conservatism, the notion that the upperclass ought to have more positive and negative rights than the working and middle classes, and that citizens, the majority and men ought to have more positive and negative rights than foreigners, immigrants, minorities and women.
The qualitative left is at times egalitarianism or progressivism and at others reverse elitism or reverse conservatism, the notion that the working and middle classes ought to have more positive and negative rights than the upperclass, and that foreigners, immigrants, minorities and women ought to have more positive and negative rights than citizens, the majority and men, at least until they’re socioeconomically and politically equal, if not until they’re the new elite.
So what is populism then?
Populism, which’s the antiestablishment in the west, is socially elitist, and economically egalitarian.
Conversely, unpopulism, which’s the establishment in the west, is socially egalitarian, and economically elitist.
There’s also qualitative centrism, which’s collaboration between elitism and egalitarianism, socially progressive conservative and economically social corporatist.
There’s also a difference between separatism and patriarchy, or matriarchy on the one hand, which can be seen as part of qualitative centrism, and supremacism on the other, but I’m not going to get into that just yet.
To recap, quantitative right-left: authoritarianism, quantitative conservatism, communitarianism, quantitative liberalism and libertarianism.
Qualitative right-left: elitism, populism, centrism, unpopulism and egalitarianism.
Bearing all that in mind, I’m a communitarian, and a populist, altho qualitative centrism has some appeal to me as well.