“Left” and “right” mean very different things for different people. People can’t even agree on the definition. Just to give you a clear example: today’s “leftists” are pro-immigration, while practically all leftists before 1990 were not so much pro immigration.

I take “right” to mean authoritarian, and “left” to mean self-organizing.

No healthcare is free. It is paid. Whether through taxes or mandatory insurance schemes. The money doesn’t grow on trees.

It is a US BS narrative that ‘socialized healthcare’ is lefty silliness. And while there are conservatives in Europe who float the idea of abandoning government-organized healthcare every once in a while, every time they do they are met with a lot of frantic finger-pointing across the Atlantic. Everybody else sees a societal value in taking care of each other without any, or at least many, preconditions, like employment.

Europe is not one homogenous political body. Much like the US on the state level isn’t. The only difference is that the US shares a party structure on both state and federal levels. But there are just two relevant parties, twice as many as in North Korea! The party spectrum has always been broader in European democracies. As a result, the European Parliament often creates strange bedfellows.

There are marked differences between European countries and what they consider left and right. You’re looking at a lot of separate and shifting Overton windows. The suggested social cuts of the center-left Labour UK government would probably cause another revolution in France. The right-wingers of France are pro-Russia. The right-wingers of Poland absolutely aren’t. The list goes on.

It’s hyperbole mainly

Well it is relative to the country situation

Take Francois Hollande. In American politics he would indeed have been at the left.

But in French politics, on was considered at the rich of the current situation. And at the very right of what you would expect from a left wing man.

Remember that you’re Singapore’s leftist is your Cuban’s libertarian.

We have one odd leftist party in Germany that is basically Putins press office. Maybe they meant those.

I’m just gonna post the Cory Doctorow quote

"Take politics: One common refrain is that ‘‘I don’t even know what right or left even mean anymore, they’re just tribal identities.’’ Many years ago, I said something very like this to Steven Brust, who skewered me with his response:

‘‘‘Left’ and ‘right’ mean the same thing today that they’ve meant since the French Revolution. Ask someone, ‘What’s more important: property rights, or human rights?’ If they answer: ‘Property rights are human rights,’ they are on the right.’’"

“Why do people call their government right wing despite not having slavery?”

Since when is the lack of healthcare the norm, and healthcare the “leftist anomaly”?

The US really made the world so much worse, it’s crazy.

Basically extreme right in Europe is about at the same level as extreme left in the USA. That about explains how bad your country is right now

There is far more to politics than just healthcare.

Right wingers believe everything should be up to the individual, you should get no help from anyone else. Typically with the ironic championing of corporations over people.

Left wingers believe we’re stronger if we work together in the public interest.

Healthcare is just one small slice of the political pie, which is such an obvious human right that only the fascist fuckos you have over there think it’s up for debate

Easy because the standards… in short the democratic party would be considered far right of acceptable in their country… our republicans would just be laughed out as so fringe it’s ridiculous.

Left vs Right depends entirely on where the centre lies. Even our (norway) most right-leaning loon party is for public health care.

Public health care is not a leftist idea - it is just good business. Canada has better life expectancy than the US and our healthcare system costs less than the american one. No canadian has ever gone broke or lost their house because they get sick. when a working-age american dies of a preventable disease, their education, skills, and experience die with them. keep your people healthy and they will be more productive and will pay more taxes because they will earn more over their lifespan. american media tell americans that healthcare is communist for one reason only: to protect the wealth of healthcare investors. you have been ridiculously bamboozled.

The 2-party-system in the USA compares to most European parties as follows:

• GOP: far-right and radical-right parties like AfD
• Democrats: all the rest, but mostly center-right and center-left parties

Caveat: more and more of our center-right parties vie for the far-right sector

Left and right started as arbitrary concept based on where political parties sit in a parliament and they totally depend on the circumstances of the political system. In European history at the time democracies came into existence you could have separated idiological streams into e.g. republicans (as in people who aim for a republic) and monarchists. Also the more political parties with different topics there are the more difficult it gets to assign them to either left or right. As another commenter stated… dividing a political system into left and right helps to define a common „enemy“ which moves away the political discourse from other topics that matter.