Conservatives have always been regressive, period. Their entire philosophy emerged as a reaction to the “excesses” of the French Revolution. The forward “movement” (if you want to call it that) was from the “divine right of kings” to the “divine right of lords” (chosen by the market).
To quote the infinitely quotable (Wilhout, from the top rope…with a fucking blog comment):
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
The whole “left vs right” divide itself originates from this:
I understand the desire to take the positive aspects of a word, apply them to your political stance, and pretend that you’re part of a movement. But it isn’t true. It reminds me of when lefties (often in a USA centric thread) describe themselves as “left libertarians”. All this crap does is confuse people and make you sound like a pedant.
If you think this is what conservative means and that’s what your politics are, you’re basically just politically homeless…and have been since you started calling yourself that.
I’m there. I vote Democratic but there’s basically no representation for my views to be found.
EDIT: Have you really thought through your political philosophy beyond pleasant sounding notions though? While “conserving the present” sounds nice, taken a bit further you’re basically talking about fighting the Buddhist notion that “no man steps into the same river twice”. Things change and if the government doesn’t change along with them it gets eaten alive. That’s partially, I would argue, what happened with technology in the last thirty years.
The problem with that is it limits the government’s ability to change in ways that have no correlate in industry or culture. This inevitably leads to the government being unable to respond to changes that have already occurred or are currently occurring, and in the case of change driven by industry (i.e., most societal change in the US) that invariably leads to regulatory capture.
Conservatives have always been regressive, period. Their entire philosophy emerged as a reaction to the “excesses” of the French Revolution. The forward “movement” (if you want to call it that) was from the “divine right of kings” to the “divine right of lords” (chosen by the market).
To quote the infinitely quotable (Wilhout, from the top rope…with a fucking blog comment):
The whole “left vs right” divide itself originates from this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left–right_political_spectrum
I understand the desire to take the positive aspects of a word, apply them to your political stance, and pretend that you’re part of a movement. But it isn’t true. It reminds me of when lefties (often in a USA centric thread) describe themselves as “left libertarians”. All this crap does is confuse people and make you sound like a pedant.
If you think this is what conservative means and that’s what your politics are, you’re basically just politically homeless…and have been since you started calling yourself that.
This, at least, is correct.
Welcome to the club!
I’m there. I vote Democratic but there’s basically no representation for my views to be found.
EDIT: Have you really thought through your political philosophy beyond pleasant sounding notions though? While “conserving the present” sounds nice, taken a bit further you’re basically talking about fighting the Buddhist notion that “no man steps into the same river twice”. Things change and if the government doesn’t change along with them it gets eaten alive. That’s partially, I would argue, what happened with technology in the last thirty years.
The government needs to adapt, yes, but carefully. You can’t just run with the first or second option, that’s a recipe for regulatory capture.
It’s not “no change is good” but rather “most change isn’t good, so we need to test them until we find the best change”.
The problem with that is it limits the government’s ability to change in ways that have no correlate in industry or culture. This inevitably leads to the government being unable to respond to changes that have already occurred or are currently occurring, and in the case of change driven by industry (i.e., most societal change in the US) that invariably leads to regulatory capture.