Template talk:Progressivism sidebar

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Socialism

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Archive 1

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Proposal to fix visual alignment

I am not sure exactly how to do this with CSS, but I propose we fix the alignment of the text in this template. As it's currently built, the text is centered within the container which is pushed over by the "show" buttons. If we could put the "show" button within a full-width container, perhaps we could assign the text to be center-aligned to the container div.

BDS

BDS is a progressive movement? I'm skeptical.[1] Anti-imperialism and progressivism are not synonymous. Just because a large number of BDS supporters are progressive, doesn't mean that BDS itself is progressive. BDS is more of an anti-Zionist movement than social or economic progressivism. ProgramT (talk) 11:30, 22 July 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Color

I propose we restore the long-standing purple for this template. It has a long history in progressivism with Women's suffrage in the United States,Women's Social and Political Union, Socialist Party of Albania, Cidadania and Livres in Brazil, Social Democrats in Ireland, association with leftist anti-fascist republicanism in Spain, Peoples' Democratic Party in Turkey, and the Working Families Party in the United States.

Purple also reflects the intersection of modern liberalism and socialism in the US (and just intersection of left and right more broadly around the globe, considering Progressive conservatism has been a core part of the historical progressive movement (Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower for example). The idea of the mixing red-blue is also demonstrated in academia with the Pink tide characterization ("turn to the left") rather than a full red socialism. The list goes on and on.Aunger67 (talk) Aunger67 (talk) 14:49, 14 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I prefer that the template doesn't use any color. I also wanted to point out that the Socialist Party of Albania, Cidadania, and the Social Democrats of Ireland are not currently sourced as in being progressive political organizations by their respective Wikipedia articles, from what I can see they are just socialist organizations, not all social democrats are progressives and not all progressives are social democrats. The truth is you can connect progressivism with many colors, like green: Democratic Progressive Party, Peoples' Democratic Party (Turkey), Progressive Alliance, Green Party of the United States, Orange: Popular Party, Hankyoreh Democratic Party, Yellow: Participation Party Democratic Independent Party, Blue: Kirchnerism, Democratic party of the United States, Congressional Progressive Caucus, Progressive Alliance, Social Democratic Party (Japan). Including Purple Pink and Red for several other parties and political organizations. The list goes on and on. My point is we shouldn't be choosing colors for ideologies that don't have any one color associated with them. Ideology templates don't need colors and we don't need to be picking one for arbitrary and or personal reasons. Especially when you can associate an ideology with so many colors. I'm also going to note using purple for the template is not a big deal, Aunger67 does make decent points for using the color purple.Zyxrq (talk) 16:18, 14 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

You can find precedents to support a lot of colors for a lot of different ideologies. For instance, blue is generally associated with Conservatism around the world, but it is quintessentially associated with Modern Liberalism in the United States as well. I think the most important thing is trying to find a compelling, global thread for a color. I think the purple-pink paradigm has a stronger thread than other colors (green, yellow) which are maybe more attached to narrow aspects of the movement. I understand Zyxrq's argument, although I think purple is still a bit more compelling than other alternatives (other than pink--which I think also has a decent case).

Something else I forgot to mention about purple is its prominent association with political independents/independence, which is an extremely important part of the progressive movement in its emphasis on independence from excess corporate and government power.Aunger67 (talk) Aunger67 (talk) 17:37, 14 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

As you note above there is no color that is clearly associated with progressivism as the case is with other topics that involve a political color. Therefore, the issue with using a color with the progressism template is that it creates a color association with just one aspect of the topic. The "purple-pink paradigm" in Western society is associated with feminine topics. So, as you stated it is associated with women's rights. So, Wikipedia uses purple-pink for the Template:Women in society sidebar, Template:Feminism sidebar, Template:Anarcha-feminism sidebar, Template:Feminist critique of economics, Template:Radical feminism sidebar, etc. The "purple-pink paradigm" in Western society is also associated with the LGBT movement. See such articles as Pink triangle, Pinkwashing (LGBTQ), and PinkNews and such templates as Template:LGBTQ rights sidebar. Using the “purple-pink” theme creates an undue association with the feminine and feels slightly off when on a male wikipedia article. Also as you noted above progressivism is more than just liberalism (which is about individual equality and rights and is associated with the political color yellow), but it is also about socialism (that is economic equality, which is represented by the political color red). So, from a purely theoretical ideology perspective progressivism is the intersection of yellow and red, therefore some shade of the two. Lastly, the common symbol of progressivism and progress forward is the rising sun. --Guest2625 (talk) 04:05, 16 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

the common symbol of progressivism and progress forward is the rising sun. I'm not sure what symbol you have in mind, the only "rising sun" symbol I can think of is the Japanese one. Are you referring to the logo of the Congressional Progressive Caucus? That's not a very common or recognizable symbol if so. Vanilla Wizard 💙 00:28, 20 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I prefer that the template does not use any color. A theme color for this sidebar poses issues of what purpose it seeks to serve. On certain articles, which the sidebar links to, the color theme could be viewed by the editors working on those articles, as MOS:DECORATION, and therefore go against Wikipedia policy. A sidebar is supposed to be helpful to the reader, and it should not create a distraction or controversy. For many articles, a footer template accomplishes the same navigational purpose in a nondecorative and neutral fashion. If all the editors here can come up with a good theme color sure than something can be added, but it should be a solid consensus. --Guest2625 (talk) 00:30, 15 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

I agree with Aunger67 and lean towards status quo "purple-pink" as my first preference, though I don't strongly disagree with making it colorless. I feel this color has the most intuitive association with progressive thought (not only social progressivism, e.g. feminism and queer rights, but also economic progressivism, e.g. pink being used to represent social democracy as a "softer" version of the socialist red) as per political color. That said, I wouldn't be too bothered by the template having no color because, as I emphasized at the US version of this template, there is no one color that's undoubtedly "the" one true progressive color, and there's certainly no well-established American progressive color. At least not to the same extent as socialism = red or green politics = green, as those associations are obvious and universal. Progressivism & purple/pink is more comparable to Christian democracy & orange, where there there's enough of a known association for the color to be understandable and justifiable, but it's also true that the most prominent Christian democratic parties (such as the ones in Germany and elsewhere) use a wide range of other colors so one could make an argument against it. When deciding what color to display for something like progressivism, the best we can do is try to make an informed decision based on known political color associations to arrive at something that a reader would see and intuitively think makes sense, which I believe the current version does well. Vanilla Wizard 💙 00:28, 20 May 2026 (UTC)[reply]

@Aunger67 @Guest2625 @Vanilla Wizard However if we are to keep the color purple could we make it darker. See color code - #8607fa - Zyxrq (talk) 04:20, 3 June 2026 (UTC)[reply]