Isaac Asimov called it back in 1980.
this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2024
14 points (93.8% liked)
textsfromsolarpunk
238 readers
1 users here now
Inspiring, infuriating, meaningful or amusing, solar and punky text posts. From Tumblr, ~~Twitter~~ X, greentext boards, or wherever.
founded 11 months ago
MODERATORS
Surprise surprise, the biggest supporters of "small government" just want to own everything themselves. Who could've seen that coming?
Oh, right, literally anyone with a brain.
A lot of Libertarianism sounds great on paper, so it's an easy trap to fall into. Once you consider the human element and factors like greed, it stands out as an exceptionally abusable political model; but if you don't think about it critically (which is a LOT of people), it's just liberty this and non-aggression-principle-that and it all sounds just oh-so peachy.... again, on paper.
Communism is very similar in this way. It's great on paper, and then people put it into practice...
There is a big difference though. Communism acknowledges collective goals and responsibilities. Libertarianism denies them.
Incidentally I thought both philosophies sounded somewhat reasonable when I was around 13.
https://www.freedominthe50states.org/personal/texas
breakdown of all the catagories.
Hahaha it's number 1 on campaign financing freedom
Interesting… Overall Texas is 16 and NY is 50.
Edit: as a matter of fact, the bottom of that list looks very blue.
That’s why I provided all the criteria. Some I agree with and others I do not. Taxation seems to weight heavily in their score.
Yes we are taxed heavily in Oregon but it takes money to maintain the roads, etc. the roads are pretty good out here and we have lots of public parks. I mean a lot.
I’m fiscally conservative but I don’t hate taxes. I want something for my tax money and I think Oregon for the most part delivers.
One of Catos complaints is something about building or land use. We do restrict and we should. Air needs to be clean. Same with water. We need nature
I'm not trying to start shit or anything like that, I'm genuinely curious. What do you consider to be fiscally conservative, and how would that differ from what you consider to be fiscally progressive?
Being fine with taxes seems like something someone who would apply a conservative label to themselves appears a bit contradictory. I get it, I'm a libertarian socialist and would abolish taxes (among many other things) given the right conditions. Which might look contradictory on the surface depending on your understand of socialism.
Taxes are a necessary evil of living in a civilized society. As such the state should spend our money on a responsible way and not on pork fat projects.
Not sure you understand conservatives if you think we oppose taxes. We just don’t like wealth distribution.
It depends on the flavor of conservative, it's just been a while I've seen people describe themselves specifically as fiscally conservative. And a lot of the people I've known to use that term are very much free market types that dislike any form of regulation, taxation or government interference in industry/commerce.
Im not going to put a label on you that you don't welcome but your (brief) description of your preferred economic policy is in line with the "left leaning" side of liberals, and old establishment democrats. Austerity politics is big in the DNC, despite their virtue signaling. (I was re-reading this and noticed I assumed you were from the US, apologies if you're not.)
Wouldn't you consider taxes to be a form of wealth distribution? On paper, the wealthy are supposed to pay taxes to fund public projects. That's obviously not how that happens but I'm sure we can both agree that this is how it's sold to us. It's quite literally taking more money from the wealthiest than the poorest and using that money for the betterment of all, which the less wealthy individuals in society benefit the most from.
I’m not opposed to regulation or taxes. Companies are not another form of government and they need checks and balances. Companies serve at the will of the state.
I am just against excessive or needless regulation. We all want safe airplanes as an example and that isn’t something the market should decide.
What sets me apart from most conservatives is I’m not religious. As such I don’t have the moral baggage they carry. I’m not anti-gay or anti-trans or anti-much that doesn’t impact me. You want to hire a hooker? As long as it’s consensual it’s shouldn’t be illegal.
Taxes by itself are not a wealth transfer. They should be used for the generic common good. Law enforcement, roads, parks, etc. that isn’t a wealth transfer. That’s maintaining a society we all want to live in.
Give cash to poor from my tax money is a wealth transfer. If wages are not high enough, increase wages. Don’t take my money and hand it to someone else. The government controls minimum wages and should increase it to avoid wealth transfers with tax money.
And no I would never fit into the democrats. I’m neither woke nor a racist. I’m more inline with old school republicans before the religious right invaded the party.
I see where you're coming from and agree on some points. I have a lot of semantic differences and view things like what constitutes a transfer of wealth differently. The conclusions I draw from those differences are obviously different as well, but taking what you've written at face value we're on the same page.
And your last bit is interesting. Have you read about the southern strategy or the great party switch? The party switch started around the civil war but was only really solidified until the 1980s. If you find your values more in line with old school republicans, you may find more common ground among Democrats. I don't care for either but it's intriguing to me that you're identifying as a conservative but you're saying things that would find you a lot of like-minded company among Democrats. If anything, I'd say you're more isolated and hold broadly unpopular values among conservatives based on their recent actions.
What's "woke" to you? That term has become so watered down in the last ~10 years it's basically meaningless. The Democrats as an institution are definitely racist, I won't disagree with you there. But the Republican party and outlying right wing groups are significantly more racist and oppressive. It's essentially a part of their platform. The Democrats just pretend to not be racist and sign racist legislation when nobody's looking.
In California, something like 53% of the land is public or state property meaning that California has even more land for the public to use than Washington. Poor sap tricked himself into thinking Texas was so great. Texas is a shithole. Sorry not sorry.
This was a huge shock for me when I moved east. I should have looked at the BLM access maps before moving.
Oh yeah, when I first heard of BLM camping, I had to look it up, because there are very few opportunities for it here in the mid-Atlantic states. I had no idea such a thing existed.
Have you tried not being poor and buying your own dirt bike track and forest to hunt in?
TBH, "libertarianism" was originally a left-wing ideal. Proudhon famously said "property is theft" and Malatesta (the most famous libertarian from Italy, where I live) was an anarchist. Right-wingers just co-opted the term like they did with many others.
(like they co-opted d'annunzio, a famous Italian poet. Now everybody knows him as "a fascist" but the nation he founded, the free state of Fiume, was the first nation to recognize the USSR (and the USSR recognized them back, irrc) He was also a member of a left-wing party, saying he was "going towards life" But as always, fascists appropriated a lot of things ideated by him. Worker's unions had real power in Fiume, compare it to fascist Italy where they were basically 100% subservient to the party and you start to get a more nuanced and "controversial" picture of d'annunzio and Fiume. I suggest people that believe him to be a fascist to study him more, that's all, from a guy that lives in Italy and has studied him. Rant over. )
Texas sounds like hell
It's known for it's one star rating
OP learns freedom is for the rich.
I need somewhere to dort bike