• Basic Glitch@lemm.ee
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      27 minutes ago

      Ugh George Soros poisoned Progressivism!

      By “affordable” I’m assuming you mean free. Always wanting a handout, of course.

      I just want untaxed inheritance, corporate welfare on top of more tax breaks for me and all my friends, unregulated surveillance and data collection of the plebs so I can continue to make even more money (untaxed obvs), exclusive and elite private universities, and a justice system where I can live free of consequence and purchase a judge at a reasonable price because I believe in being fiscally conservative.

      Food, shelter, and healthcare are things I’ve just never had to think about really. Although, I would also prefer that if too many people are worrying about those things in my immediate vicinity, they be shuffled around or forcibly moved to a different vicinity.

      That way I don’t have to start thinking too much. It’s really unfair when that happens, because it starts to make me feel all kinds of uncomfortable. Uncomfortable is not something I’m used to feeling, and since I don’t like to think about things, I never stop and think about why somebody else being uncomfortable would also make me feel so uncomfortable.

      Logically, the solution is to just put those people somewhere not visible to me, and then complain about what society is “turning into these days” when they slip through the privilege perimeter.

  • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Anti-Conservative

    There is no such thing as liberalism — or progressivism, etc.

    There is only conservatism. No other political philosophy actually exists; by the political analogue of Gresham’s Law, conservatism has driven every other idea out of circulation.

    There might be, and should be, anti-conservatism; but it does not yet exist. What would it be? In order to answer that question, it is necessary and sufficient to characterize conservatism. Fortunately, this can be done very concisely.

    Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:

    There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

    There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.

    For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

    As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny. Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . All that is left is the core proposition itself — backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence.

    So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

    Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whatever-the-fuck-kind-of-stupid-noise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism.

    No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh. The core proposition of anti-conservatism requires no supplementation and no exegesis. It is as sufficient as it is necessary. What you see is what you get:

    The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

    Also, those who insist on political purity tests reveal themselves to be temporarily-inconvenienced-dictators-in-waiting.

    • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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      4 hours ago

      While I am totally in the “bind all and protect all” camp and really against the “in group protect, out group rules” and I think conservatism is often in practice “protect me and rule others”, I am not sure if I agree with it being called conservatism.

      I think fundamentally the hierarchy in right wing politics imply an in/out group. But just like conservatism is a form of right wing political views, so you could argue that the hierarchical political views are a Form of “in group protect, out group bind”.

      Whatever you want to call it, is part of conservatism, I believe. But I don’t like to call it conservatism, so it feels like we are defining two related but different things with the same name, which will be confusing and could be used by e.g. “progressive” capitalists to claim that they aren’t conservative and therefore not “in group protect, out group bind”.

      • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        I am not sure if I agree with it being called conservatism.

        Yes, Wilhoit, if I’m understanding his treatise correctly, addressed this point:

        For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

        The corollary label could be “Anti-Establishment”. Perhaps, “Anti-Authoritarian”.

        • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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          3 hours ago

          I don’t know what the best term is, but I fairly certain conservatism is probably one of the worst. I think tribalism and anti-tribalism would be a better starting point while that was a meaning already too.

          • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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            3 hours ago

            I think tribalism and anti-tribalism would be a better starting point while that was a meaning already too.

            On this, I agree.

            However, I propose that the “Anti-Conservative” label, with all of its flaws, has more utility in presenting its economic and political implications within the admittedly linguistically absurd political discourse in my country (U.S.A.).

            • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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              3 hours ago

              I think, there, we have a disagreement. To me, it would sound like you reject the republicans specifically in a us political discussion, a position that I wouldn’t be interested exploring, because of how strong the tribalism in us politics is. I would just assume that you are supporting the democrats. While with the understanding of the conversation, I would assume you aren’t supportive of any of the us political party and vote for the least bad option.

              In other words, I wouldn’t want to explore your political position if you use that term as I would assume I understood. Consequently I would misunderstand your position. And I think others would do the same.

              If someone would identify as a conservative, they wouldn’t take you seriously anymore, as they would understand it that you reject them, even tho in practice they would agree with you on a lot of stuff and you aren’t necessarily rejecting them.

              • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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                26 minutes ago

                😅 My apologies, I’ve been re-reading this reply many times and I’m not following your argument against the utility of using the “Anti-Conservative” label for myself if someone asks what is my political position (within the United States)?

                Is your thesis that “Anti-conservative” is not specific enough?

                • Tartas1995@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  3 minutes ago

                  My apologies!

                  For a conservative™ (the way most people use the word), hearing “anti-conservative”, probably makes them reject you immediately as from their pov, you reject them.

                  For a left wing person, hearing “anti-conservative” probably makes them assume that you talk about conservative™ and not conservative as you mean it.

                  So in both cases, you don’t have the conversation that you want if you want to promote your political stance, as you kinda encourage them to not engage with your political stance.

    • BlackRoseAmongThorns@slrpnk.net
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      6 hours ago

      Also, those who insist on political purity tests reveal themselves to be temporarily-inconvenienced-dictators-in-waiting.

      I hope this isn’t about leftists refusing to support biden/kamala in the US.

      • TronBronson@lemmy.world
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        4 hours ago

        You didn’t have to support them. You just had to use your brain and choose the lesser of two evils. Like which one of these people is more likely to illegally deport me for exercising my first amendment rights? I think you’ll find the answer to that question soon.

          • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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            24 minutes ago

            Our (U.S.A.) best option for that in recent history was Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election.

            • irmoz@lemmy.world
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              16 minutes ago

              Thats still one of the two parties

              Bernie is certainly a diamond in the rough - but don’t ignore that rough.

              • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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                10 minutes ago

                He is an independent as a Senator. But you’re correct in that he ran as a Democrat in 2016.

    • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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      5 hours ago

      the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

      it’s a nice sentiment, but you really need to have criticisms of the political economy if you want to address the root cause. the reason “the law” doesn’t protect everyone is because the law is set up to prioritize the will of people with money and property over everyone else. I think the more common through-line is anti-capitalism rather than “anti-conservatism”.

      • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        I think the more common through-line is anti-capitalism rather than “anti-conservatism”.

        I will concede that this clarification makes sense if one regards capitalism and conservatism as de facto interchangeable.

        Personally, I like the “Anti-Conservative” label as defined by Wilhoit because it more accurately describes my own political position within the specific constraints of voting and engaging in political discourse as a U.S. citizen.

        • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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          4 hours ago

          Personally, I like the “Anti-Conservative” label as defined by Wilhoit because it more accurately describes my own political position within the specific constraints of voting and engaging in political discourse as a U.S. citizen.

          So as someone who doesn’t actually want to address the systemic mass inequalities, because it might require something other than voting, got it.

          • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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            4 hours ago

            What a vapid and obtuse thing to say.

            What other actions do you want me to take, other than organizing and voting?

            Shall I run for office? Shall I take up arms against the government? Should I abandon my family to do those things? I will have to in order to be remotely successful at either.

            On the latter, I am not a combat veteran. I wouldn’t know where to begin, and I’m not inclined to throw my life away easily.

            Furthermore, I believe wildcat strikes would be far more effective at dismantling the machinery of disenfranchisement, subjugation and oppression than armed revolution.

            • Diva (she/her)@lemmy.ml
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              3 hours ago

              Shall I run for office? Shall I take up arms against the government? Should I abandon my family to do those things? I will have to in order to be remotely successful at either.

              Start by being honest with yourself about what the problem is. That’s why I raise the point that the political economy is at fault and won’t be fixed by simply purging the people you see as engaging in wrongthink. Personally I organize with like-minded people and do direct actions.

              The original work you quote talked a tough game:

              Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whatever-the-fuck-kind-of-stupid-noise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism.

              No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh.

              which you immediately walked back:

              within the specific constraints of voting and engaging in political discourse as a U.S. citizen.

              If you really think that out-groups should not be getting ruled over by in-groups, then you really need to recognize that US hegemony has been the most powerful ‘in-group’ in history. Workers in America get paid more not because their work is more valuable but because money can flow freely over borders while people cannot. Labor aristocrats are the workers who are given a small share of the spoils from the rest of the world in exchange for their political inaction. Capitalism is wildly authoritarian and much of what you take for granted as ‘constraints of US political discourse’ are predicated on the US’s hegemonic role within that system.

              This entire line of argument seems like you’re trying to pose as if you’re maximally defiant against the status quo, but you also want to continue being anti-communist.

              Furthermore, I believe wildcat strikes would be far more effective at dismantling the machinery of disenfranchisement, subjugation and oppression than armed revolution.

              Revolutionary organizing has been far more effective, historically speaking.

    • aidan@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      To be fair, if you saw the movie, he was definitely ready to pull that trigger within the next milliseconds. But yeah shouldn’t be pointing in the air without any trigger discipline

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        19 minutes ago

        Labor. Nobody else is entitled to that which they create.

        Personally I don’t hate a system of Soviets bound by basic principles of individual rights. But radical unions seizing the means of production and the reins of government and creating a system where workers coops are the default form of businesses and there are strict rules for contractors is the system I find is the best combination of acceptable and possible

        • NeilBrü@lemmy.world
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          5 minutes ago

          Every hired worker is required to have equity in the business as part of their compensation.

      • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        Stop calling them the GOP or Republicans

        They’re NAZIS.

        They have Nazi goals, Nazi tactics, Nazi personnel, Nazi legislation, Nazi ideology, Nazi violence.

        They are NAZIS.

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          5 hours ago

          This is completely untrue.

          The GOP was taken over by racist southern dixiecrats.

          Dixiecrats inspired Hitler and the nazis, he wrote about them as the model Germany must follow in mein kampf, and the Nuremberg Laws are just Jim crow without the one drop rule.

          The south are worse than nazis, they literally inspired them, without southern racists we wouldn’t have had nazis.

          • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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            8 hours ago

            Okay but it’s time to normalize calling them what they are like they try to do with their ridiculous “Marxist” slurs

              • FreakinSteve@lemmy.world
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                8 hours ago

                Biden bragged about being friends with republicans.

                Later he said that the “MAGA republicans” were a problem.

                Upon his Harris’s defeat it was obvious that it was ALL republicans.

                They’re Nazis. No other term applies any more

        • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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          13 hours ago

          No.

          I advocate for removing the southern racist conservatives (aka the christofascist dixiecrats) by any and all means necessary.

          Once they are neutralized I advocate for a more balanced status quo, closer to northern European social democracy.

          But mostly, the south has to burn. They are the cancer destroying this country.

          I advocate for a reasonable debate, a fair fight, not corporatism.

          I know that makes me literally worse than zionist super-Hitler to the tankies.

            • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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              5 hours ago

              You clearly didnt read the thread, I said both should wipe each other out and leave us in peace, which is the opposite of zionism.

          • WraithGear@lemmy.world
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            13 hours ago

            Hohoho!, so you’re a leftist then! You do know that status quo is over there on the left yes? Though framing your enemy as the people in the south is self defeating. You want a class warfare not a geo locational line in the sand.

            • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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              11 hours ago

              No I’m a me.

              Fuck all your labels and causes.

              Rightists won’t be happy till we’re all slaves.

              Leftists will never, ever be happy and the more they win the more chaotic things will get as the internal politics of leftism is broken as well.

              I ally with leftists to destroy the right when they are clearly out of control.

              We are not the same.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    15 hours ago

    The fundamental objective of leftism is the dispersion of sociopolitical power as widely and evenly as possible, with an ideal (neither realized or considered possible) in which each person has no more and no less power than any other.

    • comfy@lemmy.ml
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      15 hours ago

      leftism

      What does this mean? It sounds like you’ve described utopian egalitarianism, which is certainly not common in all ‘left-wing’ ideologies.

      • Considering the right side of the court was aligned with the king and the left side was opposed, its essential to what is leftism.

        Many despots assert left-wing alignment that their rule is democratic no matter how autocratic it actually is, so a lot of confusion has been sewn.

  • SirMaple__@lemmy.ca
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    21 hours ago

    Really good film. He nailed his role. So much so it was a little scary how good he was.

      • BigFig@lemmy.world
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        19 hours ago

        The moment I heard “alliance between California and Texas” I was detached from the movie. That is literally the least likely alliance I could think of

        • unknown@sh.itjust.works
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          16 hours ago

          The point of the film is to show how horrible war is in a context Americans can relate to. If they made a more realistic alliance, down some sort of real life right / left politics the message would be lost and it would be held up as some sort of propaganda film by one side of politics with the other side using it to justify why they’re correct.

          So, yes the “alliance between the California and Texas” is a very deliberate choice.

          • infinitesunrise@slrpnk.net
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            15 hours ago

            Also the idea of the two most economically independent and arguably most “separatist” US states forming an alliance in a modern civil war is really not the stretch that most Americans with their ideology blinders on might feel it is. Two large polities that wish to be sovereign lean on each other to support their parallel ends? That’s actually tenable world-building, I think.

            • Yeather@lemmy.ca
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              13 hours ago

              I believe in the lore, California and Texas both secede from the Union following an unpopular president getting a third term. The rest of the Gulf states secede as the Florida Alliance, and the Northwest secede in some other alliance not directly named but usually listed as Western Forces.

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          18 hours ago

          It was a bit much to work with, but once I realized that the civil war itself and the whys weren’t what the movie was about, I went with it. This scene was the most disturbing of them all. Maybe because it’s not that hard to imagine some people going this far. I’m sure there’s some veterans of various conflicts that would agree and saw it happen.

        • _stranger_@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          There are pluralities of leftist in Texas, and wrongists in California. There would probably be two alliances between them, one on each side.

    • cas@feddit.nl
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      20 hours ago

      This scene really got to me, this was the first time I really felt how awful war is

  • cygnus@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Never ask a Lemming what kind of leftist they are, or what is the best Linux distro.