Frank, what's really needed is compulsory education in critical thinking skills and common debating fallacies. This should be an essential part of every high-school curriculum.

It won't help us on OLO, but would surely make the world a better place for future generations.

I'm skeptical your suggestions would help, but I'll go along with it if you get enough interest.

I don't think that you will find anyone that labels himself "right wing" due to the association with racist / xenophobic persons. The more common term used recently is conservative.

If you look at the Nazis (national socialists) economically they would be considered left wing (socialist), likewise the liberals are liberal economically but not in any other field such as immigration civil rights etc.

Similarly people describing themselves as progressive generally try to lapse to old type socialism and any country with the word democratic in the title generally is a dictatorship.

In Australia presently the "left" would encompass anyone who voted for the Labor party, only few of whom are left wing as per izzo's interpretation.