[Meta] Why is it that so many bad charts we see here are based on the Nolan chart?(self)
I've seen a number of bad charts with the same two axes: a left-right axis and authoritarian-libertarian axis of some sort. Setting aside the common mistakes like "the Nazis were lefties", why do you think it's always these two axes?
Because it's easy to conceptualize even if it makes no sense when you try to apply it to real ideologies. It's mathematical, no different than doing algebra in high school and graphing lines and curves.
Thing is, real ideologies can't be boiled down into something like "economic freedom" and "political freedom." How do you describe anarcho-syndicalism? How do you reconcile the low economic freedom in Nazi Germany and the USSR with the fact that Nazi Germany was far right thanks to their support of a hierarchical society, nationalism, xenophobia, racism, and support from other right wing groups (non-Nazi conservatives)? Shit, how do you describe modern day PRC?
The pro-union laws that the left wants and the anti-union laws that the right wants are both economically interventionist. But things like the Nolan chart can't distinguish between them; they'd both register on the left because "less freedom".
They're taught at school and used by journalists.
It gives a false sense of intellectualism to those who make them.
It does a good job of pointing out the problems of the more traditional left-right spectrum. It just does a really bad job of fixing those problems, and throws in a few new problems for good measure.
Because it fits into how political divisions are conceptialized in the Liberal-Democratic West, especially the Anglosphere. For example, social conservatism linked with authoritarianism in these charts, which is not necessarily true, but is assumed to be true in modern political discourse.
Would it be possible to make one of these visual spectrums that was accurate? Would there even be a point if it was?
It wouldn't really be possible, no. Political alignment is ridiculously multifaceted, and any given position could be supported from a philosophically right wing or left wing point of view. In my opinion the closest you could get would be something graphing more/less hierarchy, but that runs into the problem of the USSR. At least it doesn't ignore the existence of ancoms?