[–] gabrielmodesta 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
and resistance to the authoritative nanny state
This is a priority typically held by conservatives, my friend.
Welcome to the middle.
If I argue with a liberal/democrat, they'll see me as a conservative/republican. If I argue with a conservative/republican, they'll see me as a liberal/democrat. I hold very strong beliefs, but as a group, they don't fit at all with either party.
[–] IdeologyIsHuman 0 points 1 point 1 point (+1|-0) ago
This is fine, Breitbart isn’t my comfort zone, and its best aspect is being far removed from an echo chamber because I disagree with Breitbart’s key audience on almost everything. They seem unified with me on the most important issue which is their libertarian stance. I’ve figured out that authoritarians are a true fucking nightmare.
Through my years in college, leftist associates would always seem stupefied that I would spend time on sites like WorldNet Daily, Breitbart, InfoWarriors, etc. because they were told all their lives that to be a conservative was to be insane and crazy. Then they said that only the wingnuts wanted to control you. What really happened all this time is that a cultural divide was being formed to keep millions of people afraid to engage each other in honest dialogue.
Sure, there are a lot of crazy people out there. But most people are reasonable, and if you catch them when they aren't angry and give them respect, they'll hear you out. But your view of them won't be that they are merely wingnuts. You'll grow to see that politics is very rich, tangled, messy and often hard to understand.
This view, however, is nuanced and makes people harder to control with polemics and stereotypes used by the authoritarian left and right in their personal moral crusades of good versus evil. That's why you are either for them, and recite their ideological points correctly, or you are an enemy heathen who needs to be converted or killed.
What do people make of this? have I lost my mind? or am I right to feel disenfranchized with the current state of things?
No, far from losing your mind, you are having it opened to the complexity of the political world. Liberals and conservatives have a lot of common points and culture between them in America, because they are people and want what's best for themselves and their families. It is the individuals who use polemics who benefit from tearing us apart, keeping us at each others' throats so that we never see our common ground.
I have a feeling that this divisiveness is intentional, a kind of balkanization of our country along political lines, but I have no way to prove this.
[–] ElementalPee ago
Is there a sub specifically for left leaning people that have no love for sjw identity politic garbage? Was there on Reddit? Either way, does anyone think it would be worth getting a few people together to start one? I don't like social justice warriors but I also don't really like sitting at the same table as people who want to hate the niggers more and think taxes on rich people are too high.
I would suggest adding the country you're from to the beginning of your post. What is considered progressive in one country may be conservative in the next.
My only recommendation is to not search out a label to apply to yourself. Keep doing the hard thinking for yourself. You don't need a convenient title to give out to your political friends, because that title won't represent you. You don't need to belong to a team. What good has team politics done for anyone? It's only useful if you're intellectually lazy and need others to do your thinking for you.
I'd say you're on the right track by not having any single political group to rely on. Find individual candidates and representatives that the Party of HatiCalamity can endorse. Always judge for yourself, re-evaluate your politician's performance, even re-evaluate your own stances on subjects. It's hard work to be sure, but that's why it's called Civic Duty, not Civic Fun Time.
[–] HatiCalamity [S] ago (edited ago)
Noted, I'll bear in mind notifying people of my country in future. though I'll tell you now I'm from the UK. The reason I seek out political affiliations is because when it comes to the real world my interest in the subject ultimately translates to how I vote in the best interests of my country. that means I need to ultimately come out with an affiliation with a party.
Yes, the individualistic attitude is ideal and I'd love that to be the end goal, but my political interests are also teathered to real interests. There are a lot of parties, a lot of politicians, a lot of policies, a lot of promises and a lot of track records to look at in order to figure out where my vote goes. This is more than I can do alone, I'm just one person. Now it's handy for other people to break that down, but nothing is without bias and while I can look at a conservative's spin on all of this, they're not exactly obliged to engage with me in the way a libertarian community or outlet will. My enemies are a good place to hear criticism of me but not much else which means I'm missing vital bits of the picture. I can't think of everything on my own, and likeminded people can fill in my shortcommings.
[–] thomas_jefferson ago (edited ago)
As abitstiffyinhere said, libertarianism is often painted as more radical then it really is because it is seen as a threat to existing parties. A lot of people I know, and I think a growing majority otherwise, would identify with the politics if they looked past the media representation of it. Further, what I really like about libertarianism, and what people here have already touched upon, is that there is a lot of disagreement between libertarians. Unlike some other parties you will be hard pressed to find two libertarians who completely agree on everything. The base concepts like individual rights and freedom are common to all libertarians but other than that there are a lot of differing opinions within the group. This is kind of inherent in the party in that people who are individualist tend to be attracted for obvious reasons. This makes it hard to win elections, haha. Voltaire kind of sums it up with his quote about free speech "I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it." And that's kind of how libertarians are. They do not agree on everything with really anyone, but will fully support their right to disagree.
[–] Petyr_Baelish ago
I very much sympathise with the statement "In my heart I'm left wing, in my brain I'm right wing."
[–] binky ago
I know how I'm voting.