Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
Muscular Liberalism is liberal fascism, plain and simple.
No, it isn't. Facism is more of a coporatist authoritarian model.
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
People often mistake 'fascism' for 'nazism' and think that all fascists are racists or intolerant towards other religions or whatever.
Got to love the irony in that statement...
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
Let's have a look at Mr. Cameron's proposal for liberal fascism;
1)Everyone must act the same, and respect the rights of all people
2)Everyone must think the same, and endorse Liberalism
3)Everyone must be the same, and become 'British'
That's not what he said at all and I think you're trying to shoehorn something into your viewpoint.
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
The problem with 1) is that you are effectively forcing everybody in a so-called free state to obey the law, unflinchingly, unfailingly.
For the most part, is that not what is desirable? People obeying the Law as the Law is decided by the people?
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
The rights of British subjects are not claimed to come from God, as in America. They are granted to the public by the good will of the Monarch and the acts of Her parliament. British subjects have no innate rights, whatsoever,
Again, untrue. We have quite a few rights as it happens and all of the ones used by America in their Constitution and Bill of Rights were lifted, for the most part, from English Law. Go check out the Magna Carta and the Bill of Rights 1689 just to start you off. Just because we don't have a Constitution written down and nailed to a wall in some museum somewhere, doesn't mean we don't have one at all. Ours is scattered across nearly 1,000 years of history and evolved over time.
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
The problem with 2) is, as has been pointed out by joechip, that you cannot have freedom of thought and simultaneously denounce freedom of thought.
Again, that's not what he is saying, is it? He advocates freedom of belief, speech etc, but within norms judged acceptable by society. Marching down Luton High street during a parade chanting "Death to British Soldiers", "Death to the UK" and "Sharia in the UK" is deemed as unacceptable by British society and should not be tolerated.
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
The problem with 3) is that 'British' is a totally made up identity that has always, ALWAYS been used to oppress people. London has used 'Britishness' for centuries to justify their oppression of Welsh, Scotian, and Irish people.
Oh please. The Scottish gave as good as they got for the most part and, what is often forgotten, it is they who requested to join the Union, not us taking them over. They also invaded and declared war on England far more times than we did them and only invaded them to neutralise what was a stronghold of French imperialism and a desire to take over England. But lets just blame the English for everything and gloss over history, shall we?
The Irish suffered mainly at the hands of the Normans at first, then at the hands of Scottish settlers and land owners who did quite nicely out of the plantations. In fact, the Scots did very nicely out of Empire indeed. A very big tangent to go off, but you cannot merely simplify history to justify a dubious point.
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
Of course, that leaves out the brutal atrocities that were committed overseas in the name of making British the indigenous people of the Empire. Tell me; how can you at once be free and required to identify yourself in a certain way?
Do you feel Canadian? Are there not values inherent to most ordinary Canadians that define your nation? Or do you believe that association with your home country is merely just a matter of fact that you live there?
Originally posted by SmedleyBurlap
Who loves corporatism more than the party of Thatcher?
It's hardly corporatism as your trying to paint it. It's called free-market capitalism and it is certainly better than the over-bloated socialist economic model used by labour, which ended up, in 2010, with the Government accounting for over 50% of the UK GDP. Unsustainable.
