Epiphany.
I've finally figured out what is wrong with America.
It all came from talking to a friend... well, friend is a weird term, but I suppose it's the best one for someone I met online, never met in person, been talking to amicably for years and really want to fuck.
But anyways, he's a gay republican. Large C conservative. Pro-life, and in favour of a flat tax rate, against Keynesian economic theory (the dominant global theory currently). This is pretty typical republican stances. And it's TERRIBLY hypocritical.
Allow me to explain briefly Keynesian theory. In a nutshell, the theory states taxes should be high when times are good, and low when the economy falters. Governments should run a deficit in bad times, and a surplus in good times. In this fashion, the economy levels out through government action, and we don't get things like The Great Depression (or the current troubles in Greece). Recessions may last longer, but they don't reach terrifying lows such as that. There's alot more to it, but that's as good an explanation you'll get in 1 paragraph.
We all know the Great Depression had unemployment numbers high. High enough to kill. People died of starvation because they couldn't afford to eat. People lost houses, lives, and died destitute on the streets.
Current republican platforms reject Keynesian economics in favour or Chicago School theory (twisted further by something dubbed Reagonomics) which can be summarized even more simply: the markets are always right, taxes should always be low, and governments should not interfere at all. If the markets crash, they will correct themselves faster without interference from outside sources (read: governments).
This theory lead to the Great Depression. It's not a debatable point: it's a fact. Just as it's a fact that the current economic downturns avoided the levels seen then because of government intervention (Canada, the US, and everyone else all lowered taxes and increased spending during the recent recession, even when controlled by conservative/republican governments).
If you're against Keynesian economics, you're in favour of an economy with less control, and has historically gotten bad enough to kill people. Ergo, you're in favour of letting people die if that's where the economic winds blow.
So the standard republican stance is; you are against Keynesian economics and against abortions.
That is, you are in favour of allowing an economy to get so bad people die, but in favour of keeping an unborn fetus alive. Or not even a fetus, but a collection of cells that will one day become a fetus.
For killing people who are alive... against killing people not yet born...
Huh.
I've explained this to him, much more angrily than I have now, but he didn't change his mind. Even after the hypocrisy was left as bare as I have left it now, he still debated the point that recessions kill less readily than an abortion does.
And it was then that I realized there's a reason for this: his country has ENSHRINED his right to have this opinion in its constitution. No matter how wrong, hypocritical, or just plain AWFUL his opinion is, he's entitled to it. Even when science and history and everything in the world points in the completely opposite direction. This is a country that considers ignorance a god given right that nobody can take away.
And for the first time in my life, I became angry over political discourse. Angry, because there's over 7 billion of us, and when there's so many of us we cannot allow public policy to be shaped by ignorance. For if we do, we will surely wipe ourselves out as a species.
It is my greatest hope to see humanity listen to reason, listen to science, listen to history, and shape public policy around what works. It is my greatest fear that we will not, and it will spell the doom of us all.
It all came from talking to a friend... well, friend is a weird term, but I suppose it's the best one for someone I met online, never met in person, been talking to amicably for years and really want to fuck.
But anyways, he's a gay republican. Large C conservative. Pro-life, and in favour of a flat tax rate, against Keynesian economic theory (the dominant global theory currently). This is pretty typical republican stances. And it's TERRIBLY hypocritical.
Allow me to explain briefly Keynesian theory. In a nutshell, the theory states taxes should be high when times are good, and low when the economy falters. Governments should run a deficit in bad times, and a surplus in good times. In this fashion, the economy levels out through government action, and we don't get things like The Great Depression (or the current troubles in Greece). Recessions may last longer, but they don't reach terrifying lows such as that. There's alot more to it, but that's as good an explanation you'll get in 1 paragraph.
We all know the Great Depression had unemployment numbers high. High enough to kill. People died of starvation because they couldn't afford to eat. People lost houses, lives, and died destitute on the streets.
Current republican platforms reject Keynesian economics in favour or Chicago School theory (twisted further by something dubbed Reagonomics) which can be summarized even more simply: the markets are always right, taxes should always be low, and governments should not interfere at all. If the markets crash, they will correct themselves faster without interference from outside sources (read: governments).
This theory lead to the Great Depression. It's not a debatable point: it's a fact. Just as it's a fact that the current economic downturns avoided the levels seen then because of government intervention (Canada, the US, and everyone else all lowered taxes and increased spending during the recent recession, even when controlled by conservative/republican governments).
If you're against Keynesian economics, you're in favour of an economy with less control, and has historically gotten bad enough to kill people. Ergo, you're in favour of letting people die if that's where the economic winds blow.
So the standard republican stance is; you are against Keynesian economics and against abortions.
That is, you are in favour of allowing an economy to get so bad people die, but in favour of keeping an unborn fetus alive. Or not even a fetus, but a collection of cells that will one day become a fetus.
For killing people who are alive... against killing people not yet born...
Huh.
I've explained this to him, much more angrily than I have now, but he didn't change his mind. Even after the hypocrisy was left as bare as I have left it now, he still debated the point that recessions kill less readily than an abortion does.
And it was then that I realized there's a reason for this: his country has ENSHRINED his right to have this opinion in its constitution. No matter how wrong, hypocritical, or just plain AWFUL his opinion is, he's entitled to it. Even when science and history and everything in the world points in the completely opposite direction. This is a country that considers ignorance a god given right that nobody can take away.
And for the first time in my life, I became angry over political discourse. Angry, because there's over 7 billion of us, and when there's so many of us we cannot allow public policy to be shaped by ignorance. For if we do, we will surely wipe ourselves out as a species.
It is my greatest hope to see humanity listen to reason, listen to science, listen to history, and shape public policy around what works. It is my greatest fear that we will not, and it will spell the doom of us all.