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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Please point to the statement wherein I said "I hate Republicans"?

    What I did say was that the Republican party is *controlled by* progressives. Progressives are not conservatives. What I did say was that just because you're to the right of Obama, it doesn't make you on the right.

    Not all Republicans are progressives; not all are conservatives. But, those *controlling the party* are progressives.

    I didn't say anything about "true conservatives" or "fake conservatives". However, a true conservative would be someone who's truly conservative.

    Nice try at using a typical leftist tactic, immediately invoking "hate" on the part of those with whom you fundamentally disagree.
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  • Posted by $ Maphesdus 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I agree. While his point about different groups being good at different things does have some merit, it would be foolish to assume all inequality stems from that.
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  • Posted by $ Maphesdus 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    So... you hate Republicans, and don't consider them to be true Conservatives? Who are true Conservatives, then, in your opinion?
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Check
    your
    premises
    Bush is a progressive
    The Republican party is controlled by progressives.

    Just because they're to the right of Obama doesn't make them on the right.

    That view of guilt probably stems from the Biblical admonition that the wicked flee when no man pursueth. It's also, generally speaking, true. It's also, generally speaking, irrelevant.

    Our Constitution granted us NOTHING.
    Our Constitution PROTECTS our freedoms.
    Please cite one example where the Patriot Act was used in violation of a citizen's Constitutionally protected rights.

    I don't know anyone on the right (and I tend not to associate with those who aren't) who favors TSA. Most of us on the right recognize who the enemy is and what we must do to defeat them, but you utopian objectivists, libertarians and socialists won't let us do what we have to do, so the *left*, gets the TSA. Yes, I favor martial law *in an emergency*, but how I define "emergency" and how progressives might define it is a different matter. Chinese troops landing in Manhatten... yeah, martial law.

    There is a difference between a tactic which violates Constitutionally protected rights in order to combat an enemy and a regulation designed to evoke fear and protect against an unimportant threat.

    You're really concerned about Constitutionally protected rights? Fine, then I'm sure you're in favor of citizens being able to carry arms unrestricted on flights, which was the surest was to prevent another 9/11.

    But, this is how we're being double-teamed. The progressives who control the Republican party use the traditional (but false) equation of Republican = conservative to put forward the notion that the right is really just the same as the left, and the middle (which is evil) is really "right". By which tactic the country is slowly pulled farther and farther left.
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  • Posted by MattFranke 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Only the left uses safety as an excuse to undermine individual liberty."
    You really believe that? Wow! I won't even dignify that with a response. (Oh, crap, I just did) :-)
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    some major liberties were removed with the passage of the Patriot Act, a cornerstone legislation at the urging of President Bush and the Republican Party. This includes the reason that NSA is so pesky with all of your private information. In my experience it is always the right that says " if you aren't guilty, you have nothing to worry about."
    Our Constitution granted us specific but not limited to freedoms that the Patriot Act dismantled. It was done in the name of safety and terrorism was labeled a new kind of threat against our citizens instead of calling it what it really is-a tactic. If you cannot fight a faceless enemy you should not be able to tell your citizens they lose precious personal liberties to it.
    Regardless of whether an individual(s) identifies with the Right or the Left, does not change the fact that a majority of the Right is in favor of TSA, martial law in an emergency, accepting out of control law enforcement tactics, etc.
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    No.
    Only the left uses safety as an excuse to undermine individual liberty.

    Check your premises. Just because some people proclaim themselves "on the right" doesn't make it so. Just because someone has safety concerns does not automatically mean they are trying to undermine individual liberty.

    Why was there a shield over the gulch? Why was there a door at the power station which, if opened, would destroy the contents, utterly? Why was Dagny's freedom to leave the gulch conditional? Why was it expressed repeatedly that uninvited guests to the gulch would be unlikely to survive to leave?

    Surely Galt and company were concerned with their safety...
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "I think I agree with what he's trying to say if you discount the left/right stuff, which I think is nonsense, almost another brand of identity politics."
    I was responding directly to this statement
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I am not confusing the terms. Theoretically, both the left and the right use safety as an excuse to undermine personal freedoms, however, the right complains about the loss of freedom in almost every area except safety law and order concerns
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    groups are not irrational to discuss. the left has meaning. it is perfectly rational to intellectually categorize.
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Please elaborate. The right standing behind safety? The right isn't exactly pushing Obamacare; please don't confuse "Republican" with "the right".
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I didn't understand what you're saying. By "identity politics" I meant focusing on how your group has been treated rather than the individual. I don't think you're saying we need more seeing people as groups, so I don't understand.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    I think identifying is EXACTLY what we need more off. example-If the right would stop standing behind safety to the point of making the rest of us lose liberties...
    see? it's fast and most people get it
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  • Posted by Hiraghm 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Try reading the "Hyperdemocracy" essay by John W. Cambell I posted here somewhere. It might help you to better understand what Sowell is saying.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    "Individuals do that themselves" is key.
    If what I called "Corrollary to Point 1" were true, there would be nothing further to say about it.
    That one claim is not true, making this a thornier issue.

    I agree that individuals to engineer their own strengths and try not to get caught up on the nonsense. If I miss some big opportunity b/c I'm short or Albanian, it's hard to bounce back, but it's the only other option. "Identity politics" is a dead-end.

    I think I agree with what he's trying to say if you discount the left/right stuff, which I think is nonsense, almost another brand of identity politics.
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  • Posted by 10 years, 10 months ago in reply to this comment.
    the point is, you cannot social engineer groups' weaknesses into strengths. individuals do that themselves. however, you can penalize groups, by giving them something for nothing which encourages poor performance or by taking something away from a group and possibly giving it to another group. college quotas come to mind.
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  • Posted by CircuitGuy 10 years, 10 months ago
    I don't get the connection between the two points.
    Point 1: Groups may have different strengths and weaknesses on the average. This makes us uncomfortable, but it still may be true. --> Point 1 is true.
    Corollary to Point 1: All inequality is due to this fact. ---> Clearly this is false.
    Point 2: Command economies don't work well and are associated with tyranny.

    I have no clue what he's getting at. I suspect he's trying to say that individualism can overcome our discomfort with groups on the average having certain strengths/weaknesses because we don't have to be average. The cool stuff in the world happens far from the averages. I may be putting words in his mouth. Maybe he's just rambling.
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