Political Confessional Threadi

[Elok]

Inspired by something Lori said in (checks) the Kamala-is-a-commie thread, this is a thread where we identify the political faction or party we identify most closely with, and explain why a thing they did or do is or was stupid, wrong, cruel, or embarrassing. Please do not point out the misdeeds of a party you don't belong to or identify with, and especially not one you actively oppose.

I'm a registered Libertarian, so: the Libertarian Party is generally a clown show which fixates on a boutique cluster of extreme niche issues at the expense of making a broader case for classical liberalism. The Mises Caucus or whatever appear to be troglodytes but the guys they were fighting don't seem much better. Reason magazine in particular tends to recycle a lot of the same talking points over and over again instead of branching out into new territory when I know there are a lot of new frontiers to explore. They're almost certainly in hock to their wealthier donors. John Stossel comes across as an oily huckster, which isn't surprising as he's a Fox News transplant. I've caught the Cato Institute engaging in blatant statistics-fudging bull**** at least once (though that was in the cause of defending increased immigration, not something outright evil). While the Second Amendment is here to stay for practical reasons, it really doesn't make any sense that gun ownership is an inalienable right while the far more vital and versatile ability to drive a car is a license you must earn and keep via good behavior. People who defend capitalism by condescendingly explaining that rich people are just creating more value and therefore deserve it? Need a good hearty dick-punch. Ayn Rand was just plain awful, obviously. Probably more but that's enough for now.

C'mon, everybody! Own your team's terrible, terrible ideas and practices!

[Lorizael]

There's no ever-expanding, all-consuming, telepathic technoblob party of course, and I am officially unaffiliated, but I mostly vote Democrat and have only done so since 2016 at the national level.

Let's see... the lefty focus on billionaires and how much money they "have" is misplaced, misunderstands what money is about, and misses the true scale of the problem. The Democrat party should absolutely kick Bill Clinton to the curb; he's clearly a sexual predator. Israel is plainly the villain right now and pointing that out is not antisemitic. Free speech is sacrosanct and beyond applications of the First Amendment, we would be better off as a society if we did more to encourage the free exchange of ideas. Copyright is something we made up a couple centuries ago for the explicit purpose of incentivizing creativity and we shouldn't pretend that "theft" is at all applicable to the concept of intellectual property. (Currently, this complaint is directed at kneejerk opposition to AI.) Nuclear power is good. NIMBYs are bad. We should protect the rights of trans people but pretending that gender identity is a "real" category is just another form of gender essentialism, which we need to do away with eventually. Oh, and there's almost certainly no determinative gay or trans gene (but it doesn't ****ing matter because human dignity isn't contingent upon genetics). Heh, IQ tests do measure something beyond how well you do on IQ tests and that something is heritable (but same disclaimer as before).

That's probably enough for now.

[BeBMan]

I lost my political home when the Beer Drinkers Union went downhill

[Dauphin]

I’m not eligible to vote. I’m not a citizen of the country I live in.

But were I to vote, I’d pick the candidate or party based on the character of the person running / people running the party. Are they trying to govern, trying to make lives better vs enriching themselves and their cronies, targeting hate and distrust against minority groups, etc.

The problem with those people that I would vote for is that usually a good moral character isn’t a vote winner. Too concerned with being right than being effective. They need to learn: Don’t go high, be ready to go low but for the right reasons.

Pre-2016, I used to vote solely on policy. That just seems quaint in today’s environment. That said, I still won’t vote for anyone with stupid economic policies (as I see them) even if they meet my character criteria.

Historically I would have been right wing of a liberal party or left wing of a conservative party. Until the polarising of positions I was generally not concerned if my preferred party was in not in power.

[Bereta_Eder]

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[Bereta_Eder]

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[Aeson]

The party who's platform I most identify with would be the green party. As they've never held any significant office, I don't think they've done anything of note on a national scale to judge the methods of application of that platform. Ideologically, I'm opposed to political parties existing, so their very existence is probably what I disagree with them about most.

(I would suggest that instead of spending money on political campaigns, they and their donors use the money for environmental and social action directly.)

[ricketyclik]

(Capital A) Anarchism ftw!

[Aeson]

To the extent I agree with Democrats or Republicans about any given issue, my problem with them is they only pay lip service to those issues, and their "solutions", if any, end up being just handouts to big business.

D's supporting EV rebates for new sports cars being green washing for instance. Or Rs claiming to support a balanced budget amendment while merrily increasing deficit spending. Or either saying they are anti-war and then ... war.

[Bereta_Eder]

snip snip

[BeBMan]

Oh. Now that I read elok's thread for real it says to critisize the party we are in

I don't feel particularly impressed by any side of the political spectrum these days so I'm free to moan about everything and everyone

[My Wife Hates CIV]

The Democrat party should absolutely kick Bill Clinton to the curb; he's clearly a sexual predator. So someone said...

I made a lot of money with Clinton as president. I am doing very well with Trump as president. I don't need a president for moral quidance. I know how to be a good person. I need a president to make me money. Simple said. Should be simple to understand. Somewhere everyone gets lost.

[Lorizael]

lol surprise surprise MWHC did not understand the assignment

[Dauphin]

Or he is coming out as a Democrat.

[Elok]

It's a brilliant false flag operation. All across the internet, democratic operatives are getting loaded and posting awful takes to discredit the Trumpian right. This time he got a little too loaded and mixed up which side he was supposed to be.

[Agathon]

I'm a registered Libertarian,!

There's an old philosophers joke that there are actually two types of libertarians: true libertarians and American libertarians. The latter don't actually have anything against government doing stuff or intervening in the market – they just don't want the American government doing it because they think the latter is hopelessly useless.

Which are you?