Untangling the Tangled, a little more

[bellatrys]

The thing I was trying to say in the last two posts, which keeps getting lost in the thickets of detail, I'll try to spell out a little more (beyond FISCAL CONSERVATIVISM = SOCIAL CONSERVATIVISM = FISCAL CONSERVATIVISM = LIBERTARIANISM) and show how under it all, when you dig down past the ZOMG! Naked Boobies On TV! Dudes Kissing! Ebol Bishops

Comments

The funny thing is, the mindset is very un-Christian

[bellatrys]

not to mention un-Buddhist, un-Hindu, un-Jewish, un-Moslem, but since so many of them plume themselves on being better/realer Christians than the rest of us, or on being Christians vs non-Christians period, I say again 'tis quite ironic: the whole "Poor people must deserve their sufferings otherwise they wouldn't be poor" is explicitly debunked in the Gospels and repeatedly. At least the irreligious Objectivists are being internally coherent...right up until they try to explain why "De'il take the hindmost" isn't a sociopathic philosophy but instead is REALLY for the common good.

But honestly, I *don't* understand why the "fiscal" conservatives are supposed to be okay - granted, I was raised a theocon of the "Special Option For The Poor/Pity The Third World & Give Them Your Pennies" paternalist sort, but since when was "Fuck The Poor" *ever* a Liberal Moral Value? When did "Greed IS Good, Reagan WAS Right After All" become a legitimate Leftish position? What's there NOT to be ashamed of - even if there truly *is* no bigot baggage attached - in objecting to paying a living wage, to raising the brutally-inadequate minimum wage, to creating and enforcing legal protections for the (disproportionately-poor) victims against the depradations of corporations? To being always on the side of the social predators, and objecting to any attempt to resist predation by the preyed-upon? Why is this supposed to be tolerable, if not admirable? King John and the Sherriff are *not* the Good Guys in the story, people! (Unless you're Ayn Rand, that is.) "I"m not a bigot, I just think it's okay to exploit everyone equally!"

Seriously, it makes me wish for an Insta-Karma power to smite them with - and also to make sure that I never leave them in the same room as my purse...

Re: The funny thing is, the mindset is very un-Christian

[violaswamp]

King John and the Sherriff are *not* the Good Guys in the story, people! (Unless you're Ayn Rand, that is.) "I"m not a bigot, I just think it's okay to exploit everyone equally!"

Possibly they don't realize it's exploitation. They think of "the economy" or "economics" as some abstract subject.

Also, King John and the Sheriff raised taxes, so I just bet there's some libertarian somewhere who thinks the corporations are like the poor people of Nottingham. (Never mind that King John taxed the poor to give the rich even more luxury, which...sounds a lot like mainstream corporate Repub-and-Dem policy, actually!)

Also...

[violaswamp]

...if you ever feel inspired to post about how these attitudes are un-Christian (-Hindu, -Jewish, -Muslim, etc.), I'd be very interested in reading that post. I will admit to being a cynical nonbeliever who thinks there's plenty in religion to support these attitudes, but I would love to hear from those who think otherwise.

Well, things like "you think those people killed in that construction accident

[bellatrys]

were all sinners?" rant that Jesus goes off on when some of the disciples start wondering what sin someone committed to deserve being born disabled, or was it their parents' sins instead? And the Lazarus & Dives story, which has been a watchword for the karma of the wealthy in the English folksong tradition for generations. And the Beatitudes - all of which fit into the Jewish injunctions of duty towards the poor and condemnations of those who "eat up the poor like bread" - just like zakat; the Vedas and other Sanskrit writings are full of the same sort of injunctions against greed and selfishness and for sharing as necessary for redemption through dharma that you find in the "give all to the poor and follow me" parts of the NT.

The *obligations* of society to look out for the poor and condemnations of the callousness of the rich have always been honored more in the breach, but it has also always required the whole "we just need to bioengineer smaller camels" memesmithing same as modern Prosperity Gospel preachers, because everyone has similar stories about greed & hubris...