The terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ were defined by the left. Anything that opposed International Communism, be it free-market classical liberalism, Throne-and-Altar European conservatism, or Naziism or fascism (actually distinct phenomena) was defined to be ‘right wing’.
The same trick is used now-days by the American left: paleoconservatives, neoconservatives, libertarians (as long as they talk about economics often enough), nativists, and actual racists of the KKK or neo-Nazi varieties are all called ‘right wing’.
The terms left and right have no useful meaning, unless you happen to be a leftist, in which case you use them to feel good about your own idiocies by imagining that Russell Kirk and David Duke, Edmund Burke and Adolph Hitler are all cut from the same ‘right wing’ cloth.
Wrong. See this article.
Thank you. The_Reader_David. This seems to be a very good explanation of what to a logical mind appears impossible! It truly does seem that “right-wing” has become a label applied to anything that isn’t “left-wing,” which means there are a whole lot of very odd bed-fellows!