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Ask Pudge, Episode 9: Christianity, Conservatism, Liberalism, and War 6 Comments More | Login | Reply /

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  • It's so easy to knock down straw men. Kinda fun sometimes, too.

    If only I had known that that liberals are driven by "wishful thinking" and and "the notion that we can make life on Earth perfect" and "[maybe] we can all have a Star Trek like existence". Gosh, even though I've never met a single liberal who espouses such a view, clearly you, Pudge, the Champion of Truth and Light, have revealed to me the Way. Never again shall I be so shallow as to believe that differences in core values might lead peopl

    • It's so easy to knock down straw men. Kinda fun sometimes, too.

      Sorry, try again. Actually, YOU are the one with the straw man here.

      If only I had known that that liberals are driven by "wishful thinking" and and "the notion that we can make life on Earth perfect" and "[maybe] we can all have a Star Trek like existence".

      I didn't say that. Listen again. I said it is a core part of the motive of MANY liberals. Not liberals in general.

      Gosh, even though I've never met a single liberal who espouses such a view

      • Agreed that you didn't say "all liberals". My apologies. However, you presented the viewpoint of what describe as "many liberals" and you quite failed to make it clear that this is a minority viewpoint. Instead, you presented a viewpoint that is clearly your own, you mocked it ("Star Trek like existence"?), and used a minority opinion -- one I don't hear -- as a contrast to conservative opinion. You might think it's fair to contrast a minority opinion with what you clearly view as the rational conservat

        • Perhaps a better wording would have been "a significant number of liberals" instead of "many liberals."

          Instead, you presented a viewpoint that is clearly your own, you mocked it ("Star Trek like existence"?)

          Have you listened to Ask Pudge episode 1? Because one of the questions was this [slashdot.org]. So in the full context of Ask Pudge, the whole "Star Trek post economy, everyone's needs could be filled if we'd just abandon capitalism/conservatism/greed" has been referenced before and is being referenced again.

          --
          J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers

          • Well, I certainly wouldn't say that many conservatives are motivated by fear. In fact, I don't think the neo-cons who've hijacked (in my opinion) the conservative party are motivated by fear. (Like many, I feel they find fear is a great tool for public manipulation). So no, I don't think the comparison is unfair for this reason.

            And for the record, my general opinion of what I view as "true" conservatives tends to be people who think that smaller government works better and the government should be stay

            • And for the record, my general opinion of what I view as "true" conservatives tends to be people who think that smaller government works better and the government should be staying the hell out of people's lives unless absolutely necessary. That's a viewpoint I have a lot of sympathy for. It's not a viewpoint that the current administration seems to share.

              You and I are in complete agreement on that. Which is why I've basically exited the Republican Party. Of course, my belief in small government eventually caused me to become an anarcho-capitalist and repudiate politics entirely, so that may have something to do with it, too. But I still wear the name conservative, and I still use it to mean "small government."

              I've definitely had a lot of strange "impedence mismatch" moments with both liberals and "conservatives" when discovering that my definition of conservatism did not match up with theirs. (When you believe that conservatism means government should not define marriage and that thus an anti-gay marriage amendment is wrong, you have a lot of these moments.)

              --
              J. David works really hard, has a passion for writing good software, and knows many of the world's best Perl programmers
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