Hey, I like a nice pack of abs as much as a curved figure.
Why do you lean left? -
- Thread starter Dave.
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Sister services, email, and search will continue to be negatively effected by the attacks. I made a thread to talk about it, if you're into networking.
You could just live outside those cities or get a degree aiming for a specific high paying job. Being highly educated is meaningless if your major was gender theory or something like that.
Me too, I used to hate guns. The riots this summer are what changed my mind, now I'm a ghoul who thinks it should be legal to kill people if you catch them trying to vandalize your property.
Clown world.
Fun fact: In the 2017 Australian Same-Sex Marriage Plebiscite, the 8 higest "No" voting electorates were held by Labor. This is significant because Labor is considered the more progressive party of the Australian two-party system. Meanwhile, around half of the top 10 "Yes" voting electorates were Liberal; which - despite its name - is part of the conservative LNP Coalition that's been in power since 2013.
Whilst the media down here has done its best to try and introduce the same partisanship that's infected the USA (gg Rupert), outside of a few loudmouths on each side of the fence, not that many people down here are buying into it. Most people down here generally don't tell others who they vote for, and - in a lot of cases - won't stick with one party for their entire voting life.
I find the LNP pretty ordinary (though less bad than they were pre-pandemic, when they were fucking abysmal) at a Federal level, and have only voted for them once (1996). At state level, it's Liberal all the way for me. In my state, Labor is controlled by its hard right faction. Said faction is made up of conservative Catholics and the state branch of Australia's shittiest union, and are the pack of world-class cockheads one can imagine.
As for me, I'll put it the same way that an older gentleman I know once described it. This chap, who is one of the nicest people I've ever met, is a paid-up member of the Liberal Party, yet we agree on many things relating to current and future social and economic challenges faced by Australia. He sees the political spectrum as a clock, with 12 o'clock being dead centre. He describes me as "5 to 12", whereas he's "5 past 12". A simple but effective metaphor that all but the biggest autist can easily visualise, and a very fair call IMO.
Ridge Racer
kiwifarms.net
I did use to be Democrat. I supported gay marriage, was okay with people owning guns, and was pretty neutral on abortion (didn't know if I was morally okay with it, but felt how I felt about the issue shouldn't affect if people are allowed to do it). I didn't like Republicans (and still don't like Repub. politicans- in fact, I may hate them more now than ever. Not necessarily their voters.)
However, the Democratic Party and a fair amount of their voting base has lost their minds. Now they support war, censorship, "unpersoning" others for holding the "wrong" opinions. It's sickening. Not even mentioning recently their support for the so-called "peaceful protesters" of Antifa burning down their cities and those strong people of color looting stores, while calling the rioters at Capitol "terrorists" and planning to censor anyone with a right-leaning political view. Don't get me wrong, the "Right" would likely do the same thing if they were the ones with power (much like the Religious Right of the '90s), but Republicans seem to be more interested in being the "graceful losers" (emphasis on the words "losers") if it means maintaining the status quo and lining up their own pockets with tax payer money. It's people's distaste for the "status quo" that enabled Trump to be president in the first place, but people don't seem to see that (or perhaps they refuse to see that).
Sorry for my rant. Thank you.
However, the Democratic Party and a fair amount of their voting base has lost their minds. Now they support war, censorship, "unpersoning" others for holding the "wrong" opinions. It's sickening. Not even mentioning recently their support for the so-called "peaceful protesters" of Antifa burning down their cities and those strong people of color looting stores, while calling the rioters at Capitol "terrorists" and planning to censor anyone with a right-leaning political view. Don't get me wrong, the "Right" would likely do the same thing if they were the ones with power (much like the Religious Right of the '90s), but Republicans seem to be more interested in being the "graceful losers" (emphasis on the words "losers") if it means maintaining the status quo and lining up their own pockets with tax payer money. It's people's distaste for the "status quo" that enabled Trump to be president in the first place, but people don't seem to see that (or perhaps they refuse to see that).
Sorry for my rant. Thank you.
Subtle
kiwifarms.net
Many Americans (about eighty percent) live in urban areas out of economic necessities and not by choice. Having degrees for a specific high salary job is no longer a given. STEM, Law, Business degrees are all entwined by their outrageous costs and elitism. They're exclusionary, not inclusionary and are often not a guarantee for attaining a high paying job, both because they're oversaturated and because you will require extracellular activities (a so-called "job experience" that really means fuck-all) in your resume to be accepted into a high paying job. TL;DR here is that Neo-Liberalism will probably fuck you over by design.
Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, I guess people who live below a certain level of income are pretty screwed when it comes to social mobility. One solution would be for them to band together and use their combined income to benefit their group as a whole. Make a tribe and work hard to better your group's situation over the course of decades.
I don't think socialism the answer. Giving the poor money doesn't mean they'll actually do anything with it-- in some socialist countries, many people choose not to work because they can leech off the taxes of those who do work. They're content staying poor.
Not to mention that government officials like to skim off people's taxes. It's a system in which the ruling class and the lazy benefit and people who work need to work twice as hard to move up in the world.
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I'm a bleeding heart like my blue parents. Traditional right wing views are fine as long as someone isn't yelling everyone should live like them - its the same principle a lot of rightwingers have towards the left.
I still lean left, but by questioning a narrative in some circles I cannot be called left. I have a feeling that a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum here might feel the same: you don't come to this site because you go with the grain, you come for sherlock holmes autism, TRUE and HONEST content, and the chance to insult people and get it out of your system rather than to fester and be passive aggressive mad. Whether your family wonders why you can't accept all tenants of god or why you won't donate to the cause(tm) of whatever lives mattering, it sucks when people don't think you're on the team/tribe when you wonder something aloud.
I still lean left, but by questioning a narrative in some circles I cannot be called left. I have a feeling that a lot of people on all sides of the political spectrum here might feel the same: you don't come to this site because you go with the grain, you come for sherlock holmes autism, TRUE and HONEST content, and the chance to insult people and get it out of your system rather than to fester and be passive aggressive mad. Whether your family wonders why you can't accept all tenants of god or why you won't donate to the cause(tm) of whatever lives mattering, it sucks when people don't think you're on the team/tribe when you wonder something aloud.
The stupid political compass tests put me in the center-left, but I have no idea where I stand. I'm not well versed in politics.
Like most people that posted, most of the things I believe in will make me literally Hitler in the eyes of the left, but at the same time, I don't fit in with the right.
Like most people that posted, most of the things I believe in will make me literally Hitler in the eyes of the left, but at the same time, I don't fit in with the right.
Subtle
kiwifarms.net
We have had such tribes in history, namely the Jews and look how they've being treated for being a well-off minority. I can concede that someone will likely abuse of socialism (or welfare systems) while staying unemployed. However, in the case of Nordic countries (or even Anglo-Saxons for that matter) having social nets aimed at lifting people from abject poverty hasn't resulted in higher unemployment, so I believe that most people do want to work and have a purposeful life.
With that being said, I am happy to agree to disagree. Thank you for the conversation!
Yep. Hatred of Jews is really just anger at the ruling class. What the left calls the bourgeoisie being corrupt, the right calls the Jews engaging in Jewry. If some other tribe took over no doubt they'd be at the receiving end of the same kind of salt.
I don't know much about socialism in Nordic countries, it's possible they've done something to actually make it work.
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The exaggerated version of “leftism” (to the limited extent it retains any of the fundamentals) that is displayed by so many of the exceptional individuals who are documented here does not correspond very closely to leftism-in-fact. I mean just imagine MovieBob attending a meeting with community activists, let alone linking up with Naxalites or other hardened third-world badasses.
Commitment to an egalitarian distribution of resources and worker self-determination predates the performative anti-gamergate movement. God willing, it will outlast it, as well.
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To me, part of the Nordic approach is that they’re not quite as socialist as either their supporters or detractors would like to believe. Norway took their oil profits and put a fuckton of money into the state’s sovereign wealth fund. They’re basically making smart bets on the global stock market and using the investment income to fund their social safety net. So despite having those genuine commitments to taking care of their poor citizens, their success is linked to the capitalist global market. Same way China (post-Deng) is more pragmatic and tolerates private market functions to an extent, letting billionaires accrue lots of wealth, etc., so long as they keep from being too strong.
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Please define "left leaning" for the purposes of this topic, if you would.
If it's socially liberal but economically conservative, then that marks one as one of the false left, the neoliberal who has caused so much disaster in the world.
If it's economically liberal, and manages to be so based on class without a whiff of anything else resembling identity politics, than that is legitimate left. Social issues are a smokescreen.
If it's socially liberal but economically conservative, then that marks one as one of the false left, the neoliberal who has caused so much disaster in the world.
If it's economically liberal, and manages to be so based on class without a whiff of anything else resembling identity politics, than that is legitimate left. Social issues are a smokescreen.
Because my left leg is shorter.
But in reality, I lean a little to the left because while I'm not the biggest fan of paying higher taxes to support people who can't be arsed to get a job, I understand what it is like to feel like you won't ever get ahead, especially when it comes to medical debt and education costs. Everyone deserves an honest shot, and I think that some of the more liberal ideas like basic medical insurance being affordable to slightly over minimum wage workers and education not costing as much as a house make that a lot more possible.
But in reality, I lean a little to the left because while I'm not the biggest fan of paying higher taxes to support people who can't be arsed to get a job, I understand what it is like to feel like you won't ever get ahead, especially when it comes to medical debt and education costs. Everyone deserves an honest shot, and I think that some of the more liberal ideas like basic medical insurance being affordable to slightly over minimum wage workers and education not costing as much as a house make that a lot more possible.
The Curmudgeon
kiwifarms.net
Sometimes, I feel like maybe the old definitions of left and right are becoming irrelevant if they're not already. Horseshoe theory feels a lot like a fact these days. I wish I had the wisdom to think of new terms and designations, but I'll leave that someone who cares about it more than I do.
I used to be more liberal up until seeing how Obama took a dump on the Iranian election crisis in 2009 and now I just want to see the federal guv’ment dissolved
It's already been done: the two axes of social issues and economic issues.
Most people who claim to be left-wing are only social left, which means things like pro-abortion, pro-LGBTQ, pro-identity politics, etc.
Somehow, however, most people who fall into social leftism tend to be economically conservative, very FYGM, don't want to hang around poor people, et cetera. Often-cited example is someone like Samantha Bee who didn't want her kids' school integrated yet is somehow considered left-wing.
Economic liberals, who honestly believe in programs that actually lift every citizen (instead of special interest groups and only when it doesn't actually hurt themselves) out of poverty are extremely rare.
Both parties in US politics are economic conservatives, not true leftists. They only differ on social wedge issues as described above.
Unions. Republicans actively work against the labor movement. Democrats do not.
Unions are the best institution we have to address societal problems without government. Low wages is the obvious one. Want health insurance? Unions. Upward mobility for low-wage non-college educated white? unions. Want to do something about the black unemployment rate? Opioid epidemic? Low marriage rates? Organized working class participation in electoral politics? Unions solve everything.
Unions are the best institution we have to address societal problems without government. Low wages is the obvious one. Want health insurance? Unions. Upward mobility for low-wage non-college educated white? unions. Want to do something about the black unemployment rate? Opioid epidemic? Low marriage rates? Organized working class participation in electoral politics? Unions solve everything.
Samson Pumpkin Jr.
kiwifarms.net
blue is the conservative colour
The weird thing is is that I agree with a fuckton of liberal politics - anti-military, anti-religion, pro-choice, pro-LGB... but modern liberalism is just so unbelievably fucking aggravating. No, I don't want to hear about how your OnlyFans is empowering (it isn't) or how trannyism is progressive (it isn't) or how we need to dismantle the random-shit-that-you-just-decided-exists-suddenly among other bullshit, but I also don't want to hear about how we're all entitled to guns and being all anti-divorce pro-traditionalism and how The Niggers suck ETC
grain of salt, however, i'm canadian and gun violence is essentially unheard of
I prefer liberalism because. between choosing one of two mounds of manure, I think I'd just barely prefer the one that caters more to me because EVERYTHING IS MEANT TO BE MADE FOR ME SPECIFICALLY AND CATERED TO MY PERSONAL LIKES AND DISLIKES
grain of salt, however, i'm canadian and gun violence is essentially unheard of
I prefer liberalism because. between choosing one of two mounds of manure, I think I'd just barely prefer the one that caters more to me because EVERYTHING IS MEANT TO BE MADE FOR ME SPECIFICALLY AND CATERED TO MY PERSONAL LIKES AND DISLIKES
Also something something the delusion of free choice so nothing ever changes 
