[KC Burke]

The whole reason that "left wing" and "right wing" entered into our vocabulary was to differentiate between the various flavors of Socialism (e.g. Communists on one side and Fascists on the other).

In some sense, what you claim may have some truth in it, but the origin that I put most faith in goes back further.

At the time of the French Revolution, the Estates General was called. The Royalist supporters sat on the Right half of the hall, and the proponants of the new ideologies sat on the Left side of the hall. Ever since that time, revolutionary ideologues have lambasted all opposition as "from the Right" and alligned with old interests, corrupt monarchy, and old power.

At that time in our nation, despite its feelings of fraternity with French in throwing off an old maonarcy, the Federalists and Adams were as leary of the Left as Jefferson and the Republican-Democrats were fond of them.

[otness_e]

At the time of the French Revolution, the Estates General was called. The Royalist supporters sat on the Right half of the hall, and the proponants of the new ideologies sat on the Left side of the hall. Ever since that time, revolutionary ideologues have lambasted all opposition as "from the Right" and alligned with old interests, corrupt monarchy, and old power. Yeah, I never bought that explanation on the origin of the terms of "right" and "left", because, technically, depending on where they are sitting, "left" and "right" are randomly placed and opposites. For example, the king would have the right be left and the left be right if he sat, say, near the door. It's literally meaningless since it's not fixed. I heard another story, though, one that, at least to me, made far more sense: I heard that the origin of the terms left and right had their connections to the Book of Revelations, specifically those on Jesus's right were turned into sheep and those on Jesus's left were turned into Goats, and the former were saved while the latter were damned. I know it was in a book named by this guy named Daniel, he was apparently a mystic who supported Woodrow Wilson.