I spluttered on my tea recently when reading the claim that facts have a left-wing bias. I suppose the proponents of this view weren’t keen to outline the numerous major left wing experiments over the last century. Like the USSR, all of Eastern Europe, Cuba, North Korea or the latest experiment — Venezuela. Of course, much of the left dismisses these cases. Supposedly, these countries either ‘implemented socialism incorrectly’ or for the more moderate left, these countries were ‘too’ left wing. Moderates apparently believe countries that are ‘moderately’ left-wing perform well.

So let’s look at facts in countries where more moderate leftist policies were implemented. How about Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain (the so-called PIGS). Experiments in massive social programs, surely left wing. How are the facts working out there? Or what about the Scandinavian countries? These countries, in fact most of the countries in Europe, have been performing pretty poorly since the GFC. For example, the economies in the Eurozone put together are less than 1% larger than they were before the GFC (here is more evidence). This is the Europe that is ‘celebrated’ for its big government, socialist tendencies. Maybe not as hard left as North Korea, but still left-wing.

The US and Australia have been performing well by comparison. In particular, The US economy is 10% larger than it was before the GFC. But the standout is Australia: our economy is more than 20% larger than just before the GFC. Australia and the US are far from being poster children for left-wing developed countries.

So how can anybody really believe that facts have a left-wing bias? Even if you lean to the left yourself, the facts speak for themselves.