Harken Raiser

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,992
I'm already not a liberal, liberals are too pro-capitalist for me. I do vote Democrat though, for lack of a better option.
 
May 17, 2019
2,649
tribalism is a symptom, it doesn't happen on its own and it's an effect rather than a cause of anything. when the material conditions of the world change the ideological tribes people identify with will similarly shift.

Gotta disagree again, but that would involve another debate entirely. My problem with the idea of the ideaological revolution is that it will be a sudden shift, rather than a turn decades in the making. However, those turns are stifled by the inability to sift through the mountain of daily information in the modern world. Maybe fifty years ago a radicalization might have been possible, but it is no longer possible to supply people with a proper binary.
 

samoyed

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
15,191
I'm not liberal, liberals are just the political machine that most closely aligns with my views.
 

Deleted member 15440

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
4,191
Gotta disagree again, but that would involve another debate entirely. My problem with the idea of the ideaological revolution is that it will be a sudden shift, rather than a turn decades in the making. However, those turns are stifled by the inability to sift through the mountain of daily information in the modern world. Maybe fifty years ago a radicalization might have been possible, but it is no longer possible to supply people with a proper binary.
climate change is that shift. we are quickly reaching an inflection point where people will be forced to confront the reality that if the first world is to continue on as it has for the past hundred years, billions of people will have to be liquidated. with liberalism having been a large cause of this situation and obviously being totally incapable of providing a solution we will have fascists who are ready and willing to commit genocide opposed by people radicalized into real leftist politics.

and everyone you see here typing up apologia for imperialism and war will be on the fascist side.
 

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,608
No one is going to convince me that people shouldn't have rights and no one is going to convince me that the past 40 years of wage stagnation is good for society, so no. Nothing can make me not liberal.

I could go back to not identifying as a liberal/democrat like I did about 10 years or so ago, but I'd still be championing those causes regardless of how i want to carry a title.
 
May 17, 2019
2,649
climate change is that shift. we are quickly reaching an inflection point where people will be forced to confront the reality that if the first world is to continue on as it has for the past hundred years, billions of people will have to be liquidated. with liberalism having been a large cause of this situation and obviously being totally incapable of providing a solution we will have fascists who are ready and willing to commit genocide opposed by people radicalized into real leftist politics.

and everyone you see here typing up apologia for imperialism and war will be on the fascist side.

Look, I have to be honest here. Liberalism has not been the cause of this. Economic liberalism? Yeah, sure. Liberal as the way the layman understands it? No, definitely not. However, there is another issue of what other choice is there even? Fascist authoritarianism the the base form of human morality, as sickening as that is. Every system eventually moves toward it. Fascism is easy, simple, and makes supporters feel "safe." I hate that, but it will be the victor in the end.
 

Sean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,591
Longview
Given the implication of the question - Fuck no, nothing could ever make me slide right and turn into a conservative monster.

Going right means giving up empathy, compassion, and reason. It means not giving a shit about the world or anyone else. You have to be a weak willed, pathetic piece of shit to think People of Color are less than you if you're white or that women are your subservient brood mares if you're a man. You have to be completely incapable of critical thinking and rational thought to bury your head in the sand and not care about climate change and the insane downward spiral that we're in. And you have to be a completely dumbass motherfucker to give up all power and rights to corporations and value them over people.

The Nazi-filled right is completely incompatible with who I am as a human being on a fundamental level. Republicans/Conservatives might as well be from an entirely different country and culture.
 

Deleted member 15440

User requested account closure
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Oct 27, 2017
4,191
Look, I have to be honest here. Liberalism has not been the cause of this. Economic liberalism? Yeah, sure. Liberal as the way the layman understands it? No, definitely not. However, there is another issue of what other choice is there even? Fascist authoritarianism the the base form of human morality, as sickening as that is. Every system eventually moves toward it. Fascism is easy, simple, and makes supporters feel "safe." I hate that, but it will be the victor in the end.
i don't believe you can separate economic liberalism from any other definition of the word. it's all one piece.
 

samoyed

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
15,191
I think the question you really wanted to ask was "could anything make you conservative?"
 

Tracygill

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,853
The Left
I'm not sure that's a good reason to wipe them out. More importantly, what are you basing this on? Liberalism (as opposed to leftism) has a far better record with economic growth, human rights, or almost any other useful metric.
How are the metrics for the climate and the environment?

What about poverty?
So what happens if we measure global poverty at the low end of this more realistic spectrum – $7.40 per day, to be extra conservative? Well, we see that the number of people living under this line has increased dramatically since measurements began in 1981, reaching some 4.2 billion people today. Suddenly the happy Davos narrative melts away.
Moreover, the few gains that have been made have virtually all happened in one place: China. It is disingenuous, then, for the likes of Gates and Pinker to claim these gains as victories for Washington-consensus neoliberalism.
Take China out of the equation, and the numbers look even worse. Over the four decades since 1981, not only has the number of people in poverty gone up, the proportion of people in poverty has remained stagnant at about 60%. It would be difficult to overstate the suffering that these numbers represent.
 

skipgo

Member
Dec 28, 2018
2,568
At the very barest minimum i'll always fight and defend for LGBT rights, and traditionally that is a liberal position. So I guess no?
 

Deleted member 18360

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Oct 27, 2017
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An instructor of mine described the difference between left and right political philosophy as being equivalent to democracy and fascism, respectively. Both are acutely aware that they're threatened by overthrow from the masses, however democratic people believe that individuals can be socialized into rational actors by institutions like public education, thus ensuring the security of the system, while fascists simply see this as a waste of time and use primarily force, coercion, and hierarchical structure.

Maybe not everything about the democratic attitude will be easy to scale up effectively, but the fascist alternative is just so absurdly cynical. I also think it's basically been proven now that if you give most people the opportunity to help themselves and realize themselves, that they actually will. So no, I have difficulty imagining scenarios where I might turn conservative, unless I became so defeated that I lost all idealism.
 

samoscratch

Member
Nov 25, 2017
2,864
I'll always be progressive, because it just makes logical sense in terms of policy and how we treat each other, how business is run etc..
 

Mahonay

Member
Oct 25, 2017
33,363
Pencils Vania
I consider myself a progressive rather than liberal.

Nothing would ever turn me towards being conservative. I'm soon 33 and I'm only becoming more open and more progressive.

To become more right leaning it would go against ALL of my personal beliefs, and would involve turning my back on my family and loved ones.

I'd rather be broke and destitute than ever become a fucking fascist. In fact, I'd rather die.
 

samoyed

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
15,191
The way fascists behave and their blatant disregard for other life is actually stunning example of why some people turn to fascism if only for self protection.
 

Arkanim94

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,408
Bold of you to assume I am a Liberal.

I will never be a Conservative/right wing dude thought.
 

Deleted member 40797

User requested account closure
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Mar 8, 2018
1,008
I'm a socialist rather than a liberal, so the answer to your question is: the series of books and conversations that convinced me of socialism.
 

Deleted member 40797

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1,008
What does liberal even mean

Wikipedia said:
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on liberty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but they generally support limited government, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), capitalism (free markets), democracy, secularism, gender equality, racial equality, internationalism, freedom of speech, freedom of the press and freedom of religion.
 

Anomander

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,480
Only if God is proven to be real and any of Abrahamic religions proven to be his command. I won't be able to resist a tyrant and don't want to be eternally tortured and burned in hell.
 

Deleted member 4346

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
8,976
I'm already not a liberal. I'd define myself as a socialist. What did it for me? Well, I was never a strong believer in capitalism. As a black American, capitalism is clearly not, nor was it ever, a meritocracy, and it isn't the most efficient system necessarily (without artificial scarcity, capitalism doesn't function in the modern Western world, lol). Obama's presidency pushed me over the edge. Using the language of progress to protect the status quo, being paid to try and compromise with, and ultimately lose against, the worst of the American right, it was a waste of such a charismatic political talent.

At this point the Democratic Party, for me, serves as the only available vehicle of progress towards eroding American capitalism. I'll vote for Dems where it makes sense and I'll vote independent where Dems don't advance us. I'll remain a registered Democrat like I have for almost 20 years until there's a better alternative.
 

iapetus

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,085
c) Not gonna lie, there's a chance that a huge pile of money might do it.

Conservatism is great for people with a huge pile of money. The thing that always amazes me is that the people who seem drawn to it are so often people without a huge pile of money, who conservatism works hard to prevent from ever getting a huge pile of money.
 

Rivenblade

Member
Nov 1, 2017
37,225
As I get older, I feel myself being driven further and further left. I'm more of a socialist leftist than a liberal at this point. I'm 38.
 

Chairman Yang

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,587
Neoliberal economic policy is what fucked up South America in the 80s, what is fucked up Greece, and yet you still have proponents of it. The Chicago School of Economic thought should be thought of nearly on the same level as fascism. Milton Friedman was a war criminal.
I'm assuming you're referring to Chile? It's doing well economically. Most Chileans seem to accept that Pinochet's actions improved the economy in the long run. The problem was the toppling of democracy and death squads, not "neoliberal economic policy", which has been enacted democractically in the vast majority of cases.
 

Chairman Yang

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,587
How are the metrics for the climate and the environment?
The metrics are poor. But that has little or nothing to do with neoliberalism. It has a lot to do with people voting for parties that are either unwilling or unable to fix things.

The metrics of non-neoliberal economies have been far worse, historically. The Soviets and pre-reform Chinese ran rampant environmentally, especially relative to the relatively small size of their economies.

Neoliberalism has done more to help poverty than any other system yet devised. The writer of the points you mention, Hickel, tacitly agrees with that. If you're interested in reading more, check this: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/2/12/18215534/bill-gates-global-poverty-chart

Neoliberalism is far from perfect. But I haven't seen a convincing alternative demonstrated.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
I don't think anything will make me non-acceptant of ethnicities, genders or sexual orientations. It is a core value that people should be accepted for whoever they are. Vive le difference.

Could something make me skeptical of the merit of high taxes, socialized benefits? Sure, the level of taxes vs benefits should always be up for debate.

Or skeptical of the kind of social justice that involves people tribalistically shitting on one another? Yes. In fact it is for the reason in my first paragraph that I began to question the value of the kind of social justice that involves people hating on each other for not throwing up the right tribal symbols. Saying the right or wrong words. My core value of liberalism has eaten away at a kind of cheap tribal liberalism.
 

Orwell

Banned
Jun 6, 2019
345
I don't think anything will make me non-acceptant of ethnicities, genders or sexual orientations. It is a core value that people should be accepted for whoever they are. Vive le differance.

Could something make me skeptical of the merit of high taxes, socialized benefits? Sure, the level of taxes vs benefits should always be up for debate.

Or skeptical of the kind of social justice that involves people tribalistically shitting on one another? Yes. In fact it is for the reason in my first paragraph that I began to question the value of the kind of social justice that involves people hating on each other for not throwing up the right tribal symbols. My core value of liberalism has eaten away at a kind of cheap tribal liberalism.

I'm curious about your definition of tribalism. Can you give an example of liberals tribalistically shitting on other groups of people who don't deserve to be shitted on?
 

Shy

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
18,520
Liberals ?
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If someone is only concerned about economic justice and does not care about social justice, they ain't a socialist.
Nope. But i'll tell you what they are though.
6RvNCbK.jpg
 

Deleted member 4783

Oct 25, 2017
4,531
I'm assuming you're referring to Chile? It's doing well economically. Most Chileans seem to accept that Pinochet's actions improved the economy in the long run. The problem was the toppling of democracy and death squads, not "neoliberal economic policy", which has been enacted democractically in the vast majority of cases.

Oh yeah, economy is doing great if you take this quote from Parra "Hay dos panes. Usted se come dos. Yo ninguno. Consumo promedio: un pan por persona"
Also, I want to see your receipts on "most Chileans agree" thing.
 

Prolepro

Ghostwire: BooShock
Banned
Nov 6, 2017
7,310
Im farther left than liberal, but it would take somehow convincing me that regressing humanity would be the answer for its survival, which I can't imagine ever being the case.
 

BocoDragon

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
5,207
I'm curious about your definition of tribalism. Can you give an example of liberals tribalistically shitting on other groups of people who don't deserve to be shitted on?
In my view it's all around us in our age. The liberalism that shits on people for making the wrong jokes, having the wrong opinion about how much taxes vs benefits we should have, being the kind of bigot that is obsessed with trying to accuse other people of bigotry... I could go on really. It's been the story of this decade. Intolerance in the aim of promoting tolorance.

Liberalism is a generally good tendency. But like any tribe possessed of its own righteousness and trying to battle other groups in the name of ideology... it can get nasty.

I'd almost be curious to meet liberals who are so hunky dory that they don't see any of this nastiness. Do they see something I don't about the inherant righteousness of their side? Or do I see something they don't?