this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2023
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They aren't useless, but they are pretty broad strokes that will always have a use as long as we're talking about any de facto two party states (e.g. those with FPTP voting systems).
It's also worth remembering that the population of one country's idea of left wing politicians might actually end up being right wing elsewhere (for instance, people in the US saying their democratic party are lefty when in most of Europe they would be considered center-right or just plain right-wing).
That's not what makes the terms useful.
US Democrats aren't left and the term is still useful in European politics.
I'm not really saying what makes them useful, that's a long list. I was more going for saying they're not useless, but are potentially pretty ambiguous without additional context due to how people use them.