History Main / TheHorseshoeEffect

Can be related to EnemyMine, wherein two enemies nevertheless realise they have a common goal and decide to work together to achieve it. Conversely, it can be related to YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters, when enemies ''don't'' realise they have a lot in common. It may also explain why people [[CommieNazis tend to lump Communists and Nazis together in the popular imagination]]. See also VillainHasAPoint and JerkassHasAPoint, when characters the heroes and the author represent negatively nevertheless are in the right for once (and StrawmanHasAPoint, when this happens unintentionally). For more information, see [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseshoe_theory this article]] on That Other Wiki.

This trope is when two groups who are ostensibly ideologically opposed to each other [[NotSoDifferent actually have a lot of ideology in common]].

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', take a race that prides themselves for completely shaping modern Tamriel into what it is today, who bull-headedly [[FantasticRacism looks down on other races]] and [[KlingonScientistsGetNoRespect professions]] that are commonly not used in their culture even though history has shown that they were once skilled practitioners of it, follow a religion that is basically a combination of Men and Mer beliefs while a sizable minority still follows their old religion. All of these can easily describe both the rival[[HornyVikings Nords]] and the [[OurElvesAreDifferent Altmer]] as of the 4th Era.

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* By the end of ''Literature/AnimalFarm'', the oppressive pigs running the farm are scarcely distinguishable (in appearance or beliefs) from the oppressive farmers they deposed. Contrary to CommonKnowledge, this was less about communism in general and more about Stalinism in particular -- Orwell was a Trotskyist and the story favors Snowball the Pig (Trotsky).

* Although both German Communists and the Soviet Red Army are among the main enemies of the Freikorps in ''Literature/TheOutlaws'', the protagonist cannot help sympathy and admiration for their attitude, if not for their ideology. After all, he and many of his comrades are revolutionaries themselves and therefore way more eager to respect other revolutionaries rather than a government which they perceive as weak and corrupt. During his imprisonment, the hero even befriends an activist of the German Communist Party.
* In ''Literature/TheScrewtapeLetters'', the titular demon speaks about how any ideology can be used to turn a human to evil. He encourages creating zealots on both sides, and claims that after death their opposing souls can be blended into a most appetizing wine.
* ''Literature/SmallGods'' features an atheist character of such burning passion that it works just like belief in the gods. This was because he ''very specifically'' didn't believe in Om (in fact, he pointedly refused to believe in Om ''to Om's face''); another character who's a general atheist (in a "they're not real but there's no point thinking about it" way) just gets hit by lightning a lot.
* ''Literature/TheHandmaidsTale'':
** The book depicts radical feminists as having worked together with far-right religious fundamentalists on at least some issues that helped lead to the foundation of the theocratic state of Gilead (after which, the far-right fundamentalists turned around and slaughtered their former allies). Specifically, both had a similar disdain for things such as pornography and prostitution, among other issues.
** The earliest mentions and descriptions of Offred's mother make it sound like Offred was raised in a religious household, what with Offred mentioning that she watched ultra-conservative FemaleMisogynist preacher Serena Joy on TV as a child, or her mother's distaste for pornography and delight in burning it. As we later find out, Offred's mother was on the radical feminist side.

* In ''Literature/TheseWordsAreTrueAndFaithful,'' religious-right Pastor Mandeville agrees with Cassilda Saunders or other radical feminist lesbians on pornography, gay men's sexual freedom, and transgender issues. He even works with them in the Anti-Porn League.

For example, far-right fascist or theocratic governments, to advance the national agenda and engender absolute loyalty to God/the state, will interfere with individual rights such as freedom of speech, interfere with individual-institutional rights such as freedom of the press and media, seize property rights for service to God/the state, enact censorship laws, and even try to control the Individual's very own personal life via ThoughtCrime, punishing aberrant behavior such as homosexuality and the like. Meanwhile, in Marxist-Leninism, an ideal communist society would be a classless, stateless one, but the direct transition of a capitalist society into a communist one is held to be impossible, which is where "the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" comes in: the workers seize control of all private property. The Revolutionary Transitional government will engender absolute loyalty to the state among their citizens, interfere with individual rights, maintain rigid, censorious control of the press and media under the grounds that the state will eventually wither away once the reactionary enemy is defeated, eventually enact ThoughtCrime policies ostensibly to ensure that no reactionaries ever emerge, which means taking control of a person's individual life (up to and including their sexuality ''etc.'').

* An InvokedTrope in ''Literature/TheManchurianCandidate'', where the Communist DeepCoverAgent is posing as a fervent anti-communist, plotting to gain dictatorial powers under the guise of a RedScare.

* In ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'', Malady {{discusse|dTrope}}s how there's little practical difference between the {{omnicidal|Maniac}} chaos of the Voidwoken and the {{despoti|smJustifiesTheMeans}}s order of the [[ChurchMilitant Magisters]] -- in game, they both deliberately inflict terror, disarray, and mass death on the greater population, and both even make use of the Black Ring ApocalypseCult.

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* The song "Won't Get Fooled Again" by Music/TheWho tells the story of an idealistic young revolutionary. In the first few verses of the song, he sings praises of the revolution and how it will change things for the better. By the end of the song his tone is more cynical and disillusioned as he realizes that the new society created by the revolution is no better than the old society (specifically the lyrics "there's nothing in the streets / looks any different to me" and "{{meet the new boss}} / same as the old boss").
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* Demonstrated by ''VideoGame/Frostpunk'' via the Order and Faith paths. The Order path focuses on keeping people productive by suppressing discontent, while the Faith path keeps people productive by inspiring them with hope. However, as the trees go further on, both begin exercising increasingly brutal and oppressive means to enforce the captain's will, and are functionally identical by the time they hit the final law: New Order/New Faith.

The Horseshoe effect, however, argues that this is not so. Rather than a linear spectrum from left to right, political ideologies all sit on a curved, horseshoe-shaped arc, in which the two extremes of the spectrum are closer to each other than they are to the centre of the spectrum, and they have less "space" between them than less-extreme points do (if this sounds like a MindScrew, [[MindScrewdriver look at the page image again]]). This means that the more radical and extreme an individual's political beliefs get, the more they come to resemble the beliefs of individuals on the "opposite" end of the political spectrum.

In the case of the horseshoe effect, however, this is not so. Rather than a linear spectrum from left to right, political ideologies all sit on a curved, horseshoe-shaped arc, in which the two extremes of the spectrum are closer to each other than they are to the centre of the spectrum, and they have less "space" between them than less-extreme points do (if this sounds like a MindScrew, [[MindScrewdriver look at the page image again]]). This means that the more radical and extreme an individual's political beliefs get, the more they come to resemble the beliefs of individuals on the "opposite" end of the political spectrum.

For example, far-right fascist or theocratic governments, to advance the national agenda and engender absolute loyalty to God/the state, will interfere with individual rights such as freedom of speech, interfere with individual-institutional rights such as freedom of the press and media, seize property rights for service to God/the state, enact censorship laws, and even try to control the Individual's very own personal life via ThoughtCrime, punishing aberrant behavior such as homosexuality and the like. Meanwhile, in Marxist-Leninism, an ideal communist society would be a classless, stateless one, but the direct transition of a capitalist society into a communist one is held to be impossible, which is where "the Dictatorship of the Proletariat" comes in: the workers seize control of all private property. The Revolutionary Transitional government will engender absolute loyalty to the state among their citizens, interfere with individual rights, maintain rigid, censorious control of the press and media under the grounds that the state will eventually wither away once the reactionary enemy is defeated, eventually enact ThoughtCrime policies ostensibly to ensure that no reactionaries ever emerge, which means taking control of a person's individual life (up to and including their sexuality ''etc.'').

Although the ideologies of the two governments in the example above are ''ostensibly'' on opposite ends of the political spectrum (such that both states would consider one another mortal enemies), in terms of practical ''de facto'' policies, they end up becoming rather similar.

This theory was first observed in comparing far-right and far-left governments, but is also visible when comparing political groups or organisations on each end of the spectrum. Consider how some far-left radical feminists[[note]]In feminist circles, some refer to such people as "trans-excluding radical feminists" ([=TERFs=]) and "sex worker–excluding radical feminists" ([=SWERFs=]).[[/note]] tend to have remarkably similar attitudes towards prostitution, pornography and UsefulNotes/{{Transgender}} people as do conservative fundamentalists; or how far-right white supremacist groups and far-left black supremacist groups have in some cases been known to collaborate with one another in order to achieve common goals (segregation, for example).

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev373c7wSRg This video]] by Ryan Long highlighting the similarities between racial segregation and PoliticalCorrectnessGoneMad.

!!Note: This page lists examples of works in which two ideologically opposed groups are ''presented'' as having beliefs in common. This page does not pass judgement on whether that presentation is fair, charitable or justified. If you think that a particular presentation is unfair or uncharitable, this page is [[JustifyingEdit not the place to argue the point]].

!!'''Note:''' This trope is about ''ideological'' similarities between ostensibly opposed people or groups of people.

** Thought Slime argues in his [[https://youtu.be/m0ZDHgD9084 video on the topic]] that the sketch is a cynical attempt to invoke the trope rather than an honest attempt to parody it. The "woke" arguments like the one above are ludicrous StrawmanPolitical positions that would get you laughed out of the room by actual leftists and are painfully contrived to match the old-school racist talking points. He argues that the point of the bit is to invoke the GoldenMeanFallacy by positioning the creator's own highly conservative position as being in the center of the horseshoe.

-> ''“The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”''
-->-- ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' (final words)