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originally posted by: toysforadults
oh look, another in a multitude of threads knocking liberals, this should be constructive and help our nation solve a lot of problems
Culture
2018 was a low point for American culture, such as it is. The idiotic drivel emanating from the university campuses has infected the entire nation like a toxic shock disease. Most damaging, of course is the umbrella ideology of “multiculture” in a society that formerly thrived precisely because of the opposite of that: a common culture composed of ethics, customs, norms, and standards of decent behavior that people not insane could subscribe to. Remove the common culture of a nation and you will not have a nation — it’s that simple. Hence Americans are divided foolishly into battling identity groups who do not believe in a common culture and are doing everything possible to defeat it. They have no idea what E Pluribus Unum used to mean and they have no desire or intention to rediscover it. I return to the cardinal theme of The Long Emergency: that we can’t construct a coherent consensus about what is happening to us, and therefore we can’t make any coherent plans about what to do.
The financial hardships of 2019 provide an opportunity for some overdue mind-cleaning on these matters. There may even be a significant number of survivors among the brain-damaged former thinking classes who refuse to go along with the emperors-new-clothes ideas of recent years any longer. The main thing to understand about the so-called Progressive Left behind this toxic shock is that the whole crusade has been less about ideas of justice or fairness than the sheer joy of coercing others, of pushing people around and punishing them because its fun! The ideologies around that behavior are just window dressing.
You, however, had never quite gotten there, unfortunately.
originally posted by: projectvxn
I know there are problems but being "woke" doesn't solve s# ...
The left is authoritarian. What you state "should" be the premise and foundation of the left is more libertarian, at least in my opinion.
Interesting side note; No argument or issue contains the term "freedom" any more. It's like a taboo subject.
Personal freedom, personal responsibility, individuality should be paramount.
originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: DBCowboy
The left is authoritarian. What you state "should" be the premise and foundation of the left is more libertarian, at least in my opinion.
Come on DC, it's not the left alone that can be authoritarian. It is anyone who is in power, It is the power to impose your will on others that creates authoritarianism. Neither the left or the right can wash their hands of this malady. Power ends up making psychopaths, or at least it is psycopaths that seek it.
So yeah, some on the left hold a vision that they want to impose on society. Granted and first grade material. But ignoring the historical truth that conservatives who traditionally want to hold society in stasis, keep it the same as before because it just worked out so well for those who were successful in that system even thought it was limited to those who fit into the catagories of existence that it allowed for, use authoritarian powers as well is denial.
Interesting side note; No argument or issue contains the term "freedom" any more. It's like a taboo subject.
Personal freedom, personal responsibility, individuality should be paramount.
And here is the quote from OP's point two.
"2) For me the left is all about personal freedom. The freedom to say what you want, to do what you want (as long as you don't harm other people). Respecting others opinions and values is an important factor in being a leftist. ''
You have at times here claimed to have been a liberal, and it that is the case then you know that that above statement is true though you frequently claim otherwise like in your statement above that the left is authoritarian.