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Comment by Proziam | Hacker News Reader

Almost all social platforms on the internet have a left-leaning tilt because, at least partially, the left (historically) organizes much better than the right does. This is one of those "well duh" statements once it's said out loud, considering the left's entire platform is about unification and social issues in most countries. That said, there are signs that point to a change in that recently (the second amendment rallies and sanctuaries around the US as examples).

This is extremely visible on Reddit, to the point that even moderates on the left can find it exhausting.

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I was under the impression that this was because the left skews younger, and Gen X and millennials are more active and capable online.

Age is a component, but it doesn't adequately explain the difference in movements that occur in the real world as well as online. Universities have students organizing protests against right-wing figures quite frequently, and it was almost exclusively the left who pushed for the $15 minimum wage - despite both parties populations being affected heavily.

From what I've seen (living in US, Germany, and Sweden) no matter where you go there is a difference in 'wiring.' [0]And according to some sources I've read there appears to be some science behind that as well.

[0]https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/10/can-you...

Universities skew younger even more than the internet does.

I think there is an element of the left wanting to "fix" the world which appeals to young people, and the right wanting to "protect" the world from bad changes, which appeals to older more cautious people.

The US military also skews young but leans more towards the republican party.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/118684/military-veterans-ages-t...

Looks like there are 1.29 million in the US military (0.3% of US population), with an average age of 34.5. (All figures from top search result of Google.)

59% of millennials lean or identify as Democrat compared to 35% Republican https://www.people-press.org/2018/03/01/1-generations-party-...

[0]There were 18.8 million veterans living in the US in 2017.

I don't know a single person in the military today that is over 30, and I live right by Nellis(Not exactly hard data, of course). Most people go into the military right after high school. I'd be surprised if the average age is actually that high, especially considering you can't even join the military over certain ages - though that depends on the branch and other factors. IIRC you cannot join the marines if you are >30

I suspect you probably are specifically looking at officers, which is an entirely different story.

[0]https://www.ncsl.org/blog/2017/11/10/veterans-by-the-numbers...

Is that true? I've always thought that the right was mildly more hierarchial (which i would describe as "organized") and the left a little bit more grass roots. That said i have no sources and another ancedote doesn't mean much.

The vast majority of large social movements have their origins in the left. Climate change, most social justice movements, the push for higher minimum wage, immigration reform, etc.

In general, people leaning 'right' are less interested in social initiatives on the whole. In the US, one of the most common talking points from the right is the desire to be 'left alone' by the government or social movements.

The only issue the right seems to really be organized about (in the US) is guns, and that's because a huge percentage of military folk lean that direction.

Large grass roots social movements are not the only way to be organized though. I agree that the left seems to better be able to capitalize on that type of movement in recent history, but i dont think it follows that the right is disorganized, just organized differently. (Then again this is the trump ers and he is not really the establishment right wing im thinking of-To me at least he seems to be riding a wave of fairly disorganized [but powerful] right wing populism, so maybe you are right in regards to him)

In what way is right more disorganized or was? Both extreme right and moderate right are full of groups, think tanks, movements, grass root movements and what not. Whether you decide right as economics or as dealing with social issues (women, race) or religious, it was never disorganized.

On English Wikipedia, the tilt is not exactly "left." It's generally more "liberal" (in the American sense). The group of editors that controls American politics articles pretty clearly isn't feeling the Bern, for example.

But this is highly dependent on the topic area. Some pages are controlled by relatively right-wing pro-Israeli editors, others are controlled by pro-Palestinian editors (and many are caught in the tug-of-war between these groups). Different groups control different topic areas, and some of those groups can be extremely right-wing.

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