The media often uses complicated political terms but never tells you what they mean, so here’s a breakdown of these words. These words are essential to understanding modern politics

• Left Wing: Someone who is left wing is progressive, they are optimistic about humanity and want to rapidly progress, they also prefer permissiveness which is where the law allows things that many would view as immoral-such as the LGBT movement. the more left wing someone is, the more likely they are to favour very radical change to government and the society
• Right Wing: These are the opposite, they value tradition and morality more and are normally religious. They want to learn from the past, continuing what works and gradually changing what doesn’t. They believe that gradual change is better as it upsets less people and doesn’t destabilise society. More extreme right wing want immediate change, but not to bring society back to its peak in the past-for example many traditional Americans view the 60’s as America’s peak, when America had economic prosperity and cultural and global dominance
• Populism: Currently it is more associated with the Right but that hasn’t always been the case. Populism is simply trying to appeal to the people, this often means pointing out many problems with the country and putting the blame on certain things or groups. They could be correct in their views and many argue they are essential to politics to pressure the main stream parties into acting in the interest of the everyday person
• Nationalism: This is having pride in your nation and its culture and identity. Most people are nationalists to a small extent but like everything in politics it has a spectrum. More extreme nationalists will say their nation is much better than others, tending to be racist and xenophobic-hatred of immigrants- arguing that the other races and nationalities will make the country worse and less united
• Authoritarianism: A system of government where the government has a lot of power. This could be through harsh laws, strict policing and even spying on their own citizens depending on how authoritarian it is. Usually authoritarians are more right or left wing than central
• Liberal: Moderately left wing
• Conservative: Moderately right wing
• Communism: Everything that makes people different such as religion or culture should be ignored and people should reject these as they divide society. The government should completely run the economy and society should work together for a better future rather than competing. Eventually society will have no economic or other divisions and will be able to function without a government
• Fascism: The government and the people are tied together and strong united. The people exist to expand the country; the men are soldiers and the women raise soldiers. They usually look to a peak in the power of their nation to aspire to, such as -the WW2 Italian dictator-who looked to revive the Roman Empire. They tend to be extreme nationalists and extreme traditionalists
• Socialism: An umbrella term which encompasses many ideologies. The basic goal of the ideologies are to get rid of wealth inequality and inequality in general. Communism is the most extreme form of socialism. They tend to be anti capitalism but some more moderate forms will work within capitalism to achieve equality
• Capitalism: Belief in economic competition between people in order to achieve a better economy. Less restrictions on companies by the government and less tax and less welfare

Equipped with these definitions, you will be able to read through the biased of the media and come to your own conclusions in politics.