It’s All Relative

Comic Lou Perez expresses dismay in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal at being labelled “far right”:

I’ve been put on a list and not a good one. It isn’t the Hollywood Reporter’s Next Gen Class of 2020 or Forbes’s 30 Under 30—forget the accolade; I’d take being under-30 again. That would be so much better for my career than where I am now: a comedian approaching 39, who finds his work labeled “far-right” in an academic paper titled “Evaluating the scale, growth, and origins of right-wing echo chambers on YouTube.”

Although I’m not mentioned by name, if you turn to the last page of the preprint paper—which has yet to be peer-reviewed or submitted to a journal—you’ll see the words “We the Internet TV” huddled among other supposedly far-right YouTube channels. I was head writer and producer of We the Internet TV before my position was eliminated in October. For five years I was responsible for making hundreds of videos about current events, politics and culture. I was an equal-opportunity offender. Our comedy channel made fun of everybody—left, right, center.

I think he’s missing the point. When moderates and even progressives are being called “far right” it tells you more about the person doing the calling than it does about the called. People tend to make their assessments of where others stand politically relative to where they stand themselves. Most people are centrists in their own minds. If soemone calls progressives “far right”, what can you conclude about the political views of the individual making the determination?