Well, Al, I am puzzled by your animosity. Never mind. Now lots of people in this thread have expressed views on what's right or left. I started off by saying that people don't mind being called lefties but, in my experience, no-one likes to be called right-wing. They are handles that we use whether you like it or not. I did not set myself up as an arbitrator because I'm not arbitrating. Maybe you meant something else. I also said it was a can of worms (I was bracing myself). Nothing is going to get people feeling more defensive than if they think they're being branded right-wing. So tell me what I got wrong. I don't mind, honest. Here it is again:

Being opposed to abortion doesn't make you right-wing. Campaigning to have it banned or restricted is right-wing behaviour. Standing outside an abortion clinic harassing women and their doctors is positively fascist. Being religious does not make you right-wing. Telling lies to your children about God and making them go to faith schools when there are other choices is right-wing. Forcing people to pay homage to your particular version of God under pain of mutilation or death is fascist. There are degrees. Believing in the continued existence of the state of Israel now that it's here is not right-wing. That happens to be my view and I don't think I'm that right-wing. Justifying the repressive treatment meted out to Palestinians by the Israeli regime (note careful inclusion of the word regime) is definitely right-wing. That is not to say that there should be no criticism of the other side, by the way. Building a wall that divides farms and families, stealing the best land, imprisoning a million and a half people in the world's biggest slum and making Arabs wait at road blocks for three days is fascistic behaviour. Which is not the same as calling people fascists. Clement Atlee was left-wing, but on his watch gay men were harassed and imprisoned and he didn't do much about it. If that were the case today, I should think we'd be calling him pretty right-wing owing to his presiding over an intolerable situation. These things have a habit of evolving.

We either have a conversation about this or we don't. If we do, it helps to define terms. Sometimes, illustration is an effective way to do that. So tell me which of my examples are wrong.