by threadbear » Fri 06 May 2005, 16:02:51
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Specop_007', 'R')ealize of course this is coming from a gun owner though, and from that standpoint ALL media outlets are HIGHLY left wing.
Back up Specop.
You're pitching around a lot of terms without making any sort of reasoned attempt to understand them. First off, the whole Democrat/Rebublican thing is a false dichotomy. They are both almost entirely focused on controlling and ripping off thier mignions.
Left and Right wing, as best I understand it is a dichotomy of orientation more towards the poor or more towards the affluent. On the left hand extreme you have the communists. On the other you have the Nazis. The communists (at least in theory) want egalitarian distribution of wealth. How much your parents had doesn't matter. What kind of work you do doesn't matter. What your race is doesn't matter. The purpose of the state is to insure egalitarian distribution of wealth. The nazis are at the other extreme. Race, class, status are all that matters. The purpose of the state is to further the needs of the elite. If they need raw materials, you invade and get them. If the elite don't like other races, you exterminate them.
The other major axis in politics is the control vs. liberation axis. On the most controlling side are, again, the Communists and the Nazis. Every aspect of life is controlled by the state. You don't pee without asking permision. On the other side are the folks who want absolutely no controls...the Anarchists.
There has not been anything remotely impersonating a functioning left wing in this country since the early seventies. Virtually every major institution in this country is run by and for the wealthy elites. Those two camps of elites fall into two almost identical camps: The "conservatives" - to whom race and religion are important, generally take the view of screw the poor. If they cause trouble we'll just shoot them. The "liberals" - think race and religion aren't so important as long as there's a buck to be made. They generally are scared to death of the poor. The like to hire more cops, build more jails, and ban any sort of weapons that the poor might use to depose them. The liberals are also fond of half hearted measures to slightly ameliorate the misserable conditions that they themselves have created for the poor. They are prone to favor things like National Parks and clean air, though they themselves drive SUV's. Their efforts grow out of the tradition of the great robber barrons: Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Hariman, etc, who having defrauded millions of people and found they had nothing to do with all the money they had accumulated and their lives were in danger from angry workers. They then set out to buy the workers off with various manipulative endowments. To describe liberals as "left wing" is a joke.
Getting back to the media...the media is owned and controlled by millionaires. It all works in the ways that benefit millionaires. No exceptions. Some millionaires think Bush is bad for business. So some media is anti-bush. It is NOT left wing.
Personally, I am a gun owner. Have probably as many as you do Specop. I don't fit the above paradigm very well. I am indigenist, which means I think that people should return to an indigenous way of living on and respecting the earth. I think that the poor/rich dichotomy is stupid and that wealth is not a good goal. Sustainability is what matters and protecting the land so that our great-grandchildren's great-grandchildren won't have to wonder what a redwood or an eagle was. Learning to value the earth and it's cycles. That doesn't mean that I'm a pacifist. Creatures kill other creatures. That's part of the way the world is. But they don't do it capriciously. They don't sit behind a computer screen and launch cruise missles at someone else's house a thousand miles away. They don't use smart bombs or carpet bombs. They don't sit in thier air conditioned office in a pin stripe suits and order someone elses kid to go kill for them. That's the cowards way.
Control wise...I'm an anarchist. I don't think that the state has any useful function to play. I think that governments always manipulate the laws to benefit the people running the government. In the United States, the wealthy run the government, so the wealthy benefit. I think that people are best left to resolve their own squables. If they do need to be controlled, it should happen infrequently and should be done in small family groups or clans. Any leaders that exist should be easily deposed to insure accountability.
Ditto me, Smallpoxgirl--Libertarian left, anarchist, but not terribly dogmatic about it. If I were to describe where I sit politically and world view-wise, it would almost precisely mirror your post.
