Three Languages of Politics

What Hacker News says

1. nickffApr 2025
   Even the language that the different parties use is targeted at certain sets of values; Arnold Kling wrote this short book on the subject ("The Three Languages of Politics"): https://cdn.cato.org/libertarianismdotorg/books/ThreeLanguag...

   "The Righteous Mind" by Jonathan Haidt is another, more nuanced (and complicated), but extremely interesting take on the subject of how values drive political affiliation.

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2. GiorgioGSep 2021
   > They’ll willingly sacrifice anyone in the top 50% to elevate the lowest of the low, no matter how little they try or deserve it. > This is broadly true in all leftist policy, from higher education to taxation to the way we structure kindergarten. Success, achievement, and work ethic are to be admonished. Leftist pseudomorality establishes the victim as the highest achievable social status, rewarding those who take more from society than give to it.

   Maybe you should spend some time away from the news media and consider how we're all being bamboozled by the both parties, "right" and "left". Consider reading freely available "The Three Languages of politics" (summary here: https://quillette.com/2018/08/08/the-three-languages-of-poli... and enlighten yourself as to why the conservatives and progressives can never agree - because they're not talking about the same things.

   The democratic and republican parties take advantage of this because once you're talking their language, you'll never be convinced to switch sides. If anything can bring this country down it's both of these parties tearing us apart.

   I'm an independent and I've voted for both parties over the years. Don't be a lemming - these two parties are just vying for power, anything the 'little people' like us get is just a side-effect.

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3. anonuser123456Jan 2021
   Arnold Kling's "The Three Languages of Politics" has a good answer to a piece of this puzzle.

   In short, the major political 'camps' think about events with a different dimension. Conservatives think in the 'civilization vs barbarism' axis. Progressives think on the 'oppressed vs oppressor' axis. Libertarians think on the 'authoritarian vs freedom' axis.

   The same event, when viewed through the corresponding filter, has different interpretations.

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4. lliamanderJul 2019
   > now they send me emails telling me that as a liberal, I am radical, insane, an anti Semite, and hate America

   Political rhetoric has always been inflamed. I see it from my liberal west coast politicians. I see it from friends and family. You yourself have said that all conservatives are alt-right.

   > If there are conservatives that don't engage with the world like this, I want to get a drink with them, on me, because I've lost hope.

   The truth, I suspect, is that they are probably all around you. Most people are not particularly introspective or philosophical when it comes to politics, but if you dig in you'll generally find there are good reasons for them believing the way they do (even if, in the end, you find those reasons unconvincing).

   Dr. Haidt has done reasonable job (as a liberal) of trying to understand the conservative mind. I also recommend Arnold Kling, an economist who wrote The Three Languages of Politics, and Thomas Sowell, who wrote A Conflict of Visions.

   I should also add that there is an increased intensity with some of the rhetoric, but I think that has more to do with people (on both sides) sensing that we may be undergoing a shift in the political landscape, and that more is at stake than usual. If so, it's not the first time it's happened in U.S. history (they happen approximately every ~40 years, from what I've read). Hopefully it will pass in a few years, but we'll see.

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5. trtsMay 2023
   There is a framework I recognize as similar put forward by Arnold Kling that I think of often, the Three Languages of Politics, that suggests part of what makes political discourse so often fruitless is that the primary value axes differ for three major political interest groups:

   Conservatives: Civilization vs. Barbarism Libertarians: Freedom vs. Coercion Progressives: Oppressors vs. the Oppressed

   His thesis was that polarization has been increasing because there is often no natural policy alignment across these axes, even while many would probably agree on some fundamental Western tenets of rights and justice.

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6. adolphJul 2021
   > That compromise doesn’t exist in SF. The political space for it to exist doesn’t exist. There is a refusal to admit the problem on one hand. And a vilification of the incumbents as idiots, or worse, in bed with the criminals, on the other.

   In "The Three Languages of Politics" Arnold Kling classifies three basic perspectives that can become central in a person's mind in such a way that expressions of the other perspectives are incomprehensible. The perspectives are described through axis of 1) oppressor-oppressed, 2) civilization-barbarism, 3) freedom-coercion. In the original article the author describes social media communication on the part of government staff that highlights the oppressor-oppressed without acknowledging other perspectives. Similarly people victimized by or by witnessing crime or crime-hype may find civilization-barbarism the most salient perspective. Without a consideration for all axis a productive conversation is unlikely.

   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17831052-the-three-langu...

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