(no subject)
I've been doing a lot of reading about politics lately. No, this is not going to become a political blog. I can't be that long-winded that consistently. But I have trouble in political discourse in person; I like to rely on things like "evidence" and "logic", neither of which is necessarily quick to have on-hand in a face-to-face chat. To say nothing about my stuttering problem or my difficulty in forming coherent thoughts quickly (for those that I have acted as GM for, that is the one place where improvisation works for me; it does shit everywhere else). I have a couple axes to grind that are near and dear to my heart, and I'd like to tackle them both at once so people who don't like to read political discourse can just stop now and be rest assured I'm not going to come back and spring another politics rant on them later. So if you don't like to read about politics, you're probably better off not clicking the big evil blue bar of text below. Just pretend I agree with you and walk away.
Several of my friends identify as "libertarian", but I've never been able to coax what that means out of them. So I looked around myself and found a document explaining their beliefs. Now, at first it all looks pretty nice. More freedom? Good. More civil liberties? Yes please! Then we get to section 2 and it all falls apart. Their faith in the "free market" is absolutely ludicrous; the past week should have taught people that businesses don't care about absolutely fucking anything but making profits, but libertarians insist that they'll somehow have a "mandate" to be socially and environmentally responsible? Since when have they ever taken such a mandate seriously? This isn't just idealistic, it's mind-bogglingly ignorant of history and a total failure of common sense. Markets should provide for education? So I guess if people WANT to be taught creationism we should oblige! Never mind that the education level of the United States is in a pretty sorry state right now, and letting people get taught what they WANT without any oversight or accountability is only going to make things worse. Matter of fact, giving businesses control of just about anything without regulation and accountability is a really bad idea, and has been since 1928. Oh whoops, did I just make all of you deregulation nuts out to be frauds? Damndest thing. So yeah, I will never, EVER vote libertarian or take your political views seriously if you claim to be one.
Several of my other friends have expressed disinterest in politics, saying they will either abstain or put in a joke vote/third party vote. See, this kind of thing is what we call a "bad idea". A lot of people did exactly this in 2000. This kind of thinking put the missing link in the White House (for the record, I voted for Gore; seven years later, he's won a Nobel Peace Prize and correctly pointed out that global warming is real and man-made while the monkey has presided over the worst administration in US history and guilty of multiple impeachable offenses). And for what? So that they can claim "I voted for the other guy" no matter who wins and skirt any responsibility for doing your fucking job as a member of a democratic nation? Socially and intellectually inexcusable. Get your head out of your ass, study the relevant issues, and vote for the candidates in each office who you MOST agree with. No, you might not agree with any candidate on everything. You aren't going to find a custom-fit candidate in an off-the-rack system. It just ain't gonna happen. But if you don't vote FOR the guy you agree with more, then you're helping the guy you agree with LESS to win (a.k.a. "The Lesson of 2004"). Elect someone whose positions you would most like to see enacted, then engage in protests and letter-writing campaigns to sway those elected closer to your views. Make yourself heard. Yes, it takes work. Yes, it's sometimes hard and nothing is really guaranteed. But, and this is going to really hurt to hear, if you simply lay back and act smug about how you KNEW the guy who got elected was wrong, or act defeatist about how "it doesn't matter who wins it will still be a politician", or just check off the box randomly without giving any thought, or vote straight down the party line without really looking at what each candidate is saying and what they stand for...
Then you're part of what's wrong with US democracy. Not the media. Not the politicians. Not the special interests. YOU.
Several of my friends identify as "libertarian", but I've never been able to coax what that means out of them. So I looked around myself and found a document explaining their beliefs. Now, at first it all looks pretty nice. More freedom? Good. More civil liberties? Yes please! Then we get to section 2 and it all falls apart. Their faith in the "free market" is absolutely ludicrous; the past week should have taught people that businesses don't care about absolutely fucking anything but making profits, but libertarians insist that they'll somehow have a "mandate" to be socially and environmentally responsible? Since when have they ever taken such a mandate seriously? This isn't just idealistic, it's mind-bogglingly ignorant of history and a total failure of common sense. Markets should provide for education? So I guess if people WANT to be taught creationism we should oblige! Never mind that the education level of the United States is in a pretty sorry state right now, and letting people get taught what they WANT without any oversight or accountability is only going to make things worse. Matter of fact, giving businesses control of just about anything without regulation and accountability is a really bad idea, and has been since 1928. Oh whoops, did I just make all of you deregulation nuts out to be frauds? Damndest thing. So yeah, I will never, EVER vote libertarian or take your political views seriously if you claim to be one.
Several of my other friends have expressed disinterest in politics, saying they will either abstain or put in a joke vote/third party vote. See, this kind of thing is what we call a "bad idea". A lot of people did exactly this in 2000. This kind of thinking put the missing link in the White House (for the record, I voted for Gore; seven years later, he's won a Nobel Peace Prize and correctly pointed out that global warming is real and man-made while the monkey has presided over the worst administration in US history and guilty of multiple impeachable offenses). And for what? So that they can claim "I voted for the other guy" no matter who wins and skirt any responsibility for doing your fucking job as a member of a democratic nation? Socially and intellectually inexcusable. Get your head out of your ass, study the relevant issues, and vote for the candidates in each office who you MOST agree with. No, you might not agree with any candidate on everything. You aren't going to find a custom-fit candidate in an off-the-rack system. It just ain't gonna happen. But if you don't vote FOR the guy you agree with more, then you're helping the guy you agree with LESS to win (a.k.a. "The Lesson of 2004"). Elect someone whose positions you would most like to see enacted, then engage in protests and letter-writing campaigns to sway those elected closer to your views. Make yourself heard. Yes, it takes work. Yes, it's sometimes hard and nothing is really guaranteed. But, and this is going to really hurt to hear, if you simply lay back and act smug about how you KNEW the guy who got elected was wrong, or act defeatist about how "it doesn't matter who wins it will still be a politician", or just check off the box randomly without giving any thought, or vote straight down the party line without really looking at what each candidate is saying and what they stand for...
Then you're part of what's wrong with US democracy. Not the media. Not the politicians. Not the special interests. YOU.