Libs, did you have this moment in your life that partially caused you to be liberal?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by FixingLosers, Feb 20, 2013.

  1. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    You were told and taught that America is the most kick-butt country in the world by grown-ups and in schools.

    But after you made contact with the society outside the campus, after you have grown up yourself, you figure "most kick-butt country in the world" doesn't mean you can get a dishwasher, a washing-machine, air-conditioners and a super-size plasma TV for free, or to have your bills paid by someone else.

    Worse, you have to work for it, still worse, you have to work really hard.

    To make matters absolutely the worst, there are countries that actually provide freebies, they are called "welfare states".

    From that moment on, you became a liberal.

    Is this the case?
     
  2. thediplomat2.0

    thediplomat2.0 Banned

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    No. I prescribe to many liberal principles given its philosophical tenets.
     
  3. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I doubt anyone had this line of reasoning, ever.

    Dude, you've got to realize that we're all in the same boat here. You know that feeling you have to want to truth? Liberals feel exactly the same feeling. We all just want what's right.

    Liberals just happen to think it's something else. No biggie.
     
  4. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    My my my, you make it sound all fancy and academic. An example please, if that weren't too much of a trouble?
     
  5. thediplomat2.0

    thediplomat2.0 Banned

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    The work of Locke, Rousseau, Paine, Madison, Montesquieu, Jefferson, and Smith, seven of the first (and most famous) liberal philosophers, are heavy influences upon me. Nevertheless, I said that I prescribe to liberal principles, not that I am a liberal. I am not a liberal, but a syncretic ideologue.
     
  6. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    I'd say I have a hard time figuring the "something else" they want besides the government.
     
  7. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    Ok, first, not all of them are liberal, not even in the classical liberal sense. 2nd, am I the only one smelling the gigantic red herring in the room? Name one Liberal principle that you espouse. Just one.

    Ya know, being mushy and vague about what they believe is an essential quality of a typical liberal...
     
  8. thediplomat2.0

    thediplomat2.0 Banned

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    I am a firm believer in the social contract theory. Furthermore, Locke, Rousseau, Paine, and Jefferson were all liberal in the classical sense, as they all were opponents of the monarchal system of government and/or the divine right of kings.
     
  9. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    Well then I guess your definition is rather non-mainstream then:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism
     
  10. thediplomat2.0

    thediplomat2.0 Banned

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    Actually, my definition of liberalism is based upon a modern theoretical conception of liberalism, and I incorporate modern and social liberal concepts into my philosophy, particularly with regards to the social contract theory. I also, however, go one step further, prescribing to libertarian ideas concerning the use of coercion and the maximization of freedom, and anarchist ideas regarding construction of voluntary, non-hierarchal organization. I would include my views on the nature of the international system, but those are strictly scholarly and occupational, which I do not mix with my political philosophical views. The same goes for my arguments regarding political philosophy, which are very critical of the subject matter as a whole.
     
  11. Athelite

    Athelite Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's pretty laughable. There are probably poor liberals who want freebies, but not the rich ones or those in better financial situation. I have never been on welfare, probably won't ever be for my entire life. What freebies (e.g. food stamps, cellphones, TAX CUTS) I can get from government is the last thing on my mind when I vote.

    American liberalism makes more sense than American conservatism, so naturally I lean towards liberalism.
     
  12. TheBlackPearl

    TheBlackPearl New Member

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    There have been more than 90 scientific studies done on this some using MRI and EEG machines. What they have found is that there are major differences in the way conservative and liberal brains are constructed. The magazine Psychology Today has reported on this several times. For some strange reason conservatives don't seem to take much pride in them either.

    One study concluded that conservatives are incapable of producing the proper level of electrical energy in the region of their brains that is supposed to tell them when reality conflicts with their beliefs. I looked for that study but stopped looking when I came across the following. These should be sufficient. To those who might point out that science is almost exclusively liberal because very few conservatives become scientists I can only reply, "See?!"

    Another article in Psychology Today http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200612/the-ideological-animal says

    The Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin reports that conservatives are just mentally lazy.

    Then there is the influence of the church on young minds. Particularly the Southern Baptist Church. Wikipedia reports

    Now how can any group that stated off like that be expected to produce decent people?
     
  13. samiam5211

    samiam5211 New Member Past Donor

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    Yep, i became liberal hoping for a free dishwasher.

    You are quite perceptive.
     
  14. Chad2

    Chad2 Member

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    I became a liberal after,

    1.) I realized republicans created Americas national debt by giving rich people tax cuts.
    2.) When I realized that Fox news tells its listeners/followers 100's of lies.

    Republican men also refuse to feed Americas hungry children, and republican men refuse to save the 20,000 American women that die each year from not having health insurance. Instead republican men live their lives to defend the rights of CEO's and large corporations.

    I have realized that republican men are no longer men. They no longer defend women and children.


    Which would you choose a. or b.

    a.) respect corporations and CEO's more than women or children, and grow Americas national debt by giving rich people tax cuts.
    b.) respect women and children, and keep a balanced budget and low national debt.

    I would (literally) choose death before I choose a.
     
  15. gophangover

    gophangover Well-Known Member

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    There was a whole lot of events that made me the liberal I am today. The first was seeing the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1962, maybe 63'. Then I saw my first concert, Jerry Lee Lewis that same year. JFK was assassinated, and there seemed to be a big loss of optimism in America. We lived in Alabama at that time, and I liked hanging out with the blacks because they could play pool better. There was a sign at the railroad tracks that read, ANY "N WORDS" IN TOWN AFTER DARK WILL BE SHOT. Truth is, the real N WORDS were white. Went to Hullabaloo in 64 and saw Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels. Then saw Buffalo Springfield that year too. In 65' we moved to redneck USA, and I really grew to hate those morons. In 68' I saw the movie Easy Rider, and that's when I truly became a hippie. That same year some hippies moved into town and opened a head shop, I finally had some friends to hang out with. In 69' my mother married a moron republican, only eight years older than me. Tricky Dick was POTUS when I was in the army, and we all know what happened to that POS. I went to my first Rainbow Gathering in 77', and everybody said "Welcome home." as I was hiking in to camp, and for the first time in my life I felt like I really was home. I've been to about fifteen gatherings, the only bad one was in TEXASS. John Lennon was assassinated in 1980, and Ronnie Raygun took the White House. The U.S. has been in the toilet ever since. Well Bubba gave us hope for a few years, but Shrub Jr. destroyed it all in his first year. In summation, every con I've ever seen has been nothing but a puke, and all my happiness has been with liberals. I've never met a happy, friendly con, never.
     
  16. Icepick

    Icepick New Member

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    In the USA, we have two groups of people; Those who are willing to look at the evidence and form opinions based on facts, and those who watch Fox news.
     
  17. wgabrie

    wgabrie Well-Known Member Donor

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    Well yes, in part, I became Liberal because of the freebie stuff. Not because I want the stuff but because I feel that I wasted my life by NOT getting the free stuff when I could have and I want to prevent other people from going through the pains that I went through.

    Hard work that results in poor health and slow schooling and no better, future job options.

    I'm behind my peers in most everything, but the exception is debt of which I don't have any, but I paid for my lack of debt with extra time wasted by working through it in a slow manner to achieve financing first, before pursuing my own goals.

    I hate it. I feel that I could have done so much, gone so much farther in my life if I did take the freebie stuff. I had a brilliant mind as far back as Kindergarten with an aptitude for Science and advanced math subjects I could have rivaled Einstein if I had been able to squeeze in more education in my 20s back when my brain was more absorbent to education. Now I'm just another person with a dime-a-dozen Associates degree in Liberal Arts.

    Now I'm saving for my next jump into higher education, but I fear I'll be 50 years old before I reach my goals. Lost time is never good and almost always more wasteful than its weight in debt.
     
  18. PrometheusBound

    PrometheusBound New Member

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    Americans refuse to see the ideology of class supremacy in anything. Originally, long hair or beards meant that the hippie couldn't get a job, indicating that he was a trust-fund baby and didn't need one. So this whole New Age movement was started by the spawn of the 1% that you so accurately describe as thieves.

    Like father, like son. Liberals don't have minds of their own; all their opinions reflect feelings of class superiority. You just worship the heirheads who pretend to be Liberal, while trailer-park Republicans worship the heirheads who pretend to be Conservative.
     
  19. PrometheusBound

    PrometheusBound New Member

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    Liberals are frauds. They are agents of the Right Wing; that's why they are called "Limousine Liberals." They don't believe in any of their public stands; they only put items on their fake agenda that they know will disgust, insult, and frighten people and trick us into voting Republican. They represent an old trick of illegitimate power called agents provocateurs. In the 60s they infiltrated the Democratic Party and made it hateful to the majority. Never believe what a public figure pretends he believes in. They all work for the same side.

    Another way they help their Conservative fathers is by hiding the true Right Wing consequences of their phony agenda. For example, "environmentalism" shutting off half the country from oil drilling has made us vulnerable to the transnational oil companies' price-gouging on oil that costs them less than $5 a barrel to produce. Feminism's only real purpose is to double the class supremacists' hereditary power by also having their daughters get set up in top jobs. But people want to believe it isn't so. Those who follow Liberals want to believe their fantasies create dreamworlds instead of nightmares. Those who sheepishly follow the Right-Wing Good Shepherds believe that these heirheads will save them from the purposely disgusting Liberal heirheads.
     
  20. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    Wait, TAX CUTS, as capitalized by you, is the same thing that I thought it to be, right?

    How is something you worked and earned a freebie of any kind in any conceivable way?

    Since neither the federal government nor the state government has a 100% tax rate, are you getting everything for free?

    You libs are so precious, I always enjoy mi self tremendously when talking to you guys. Hahaha, thank you sir!


    Ye know what? I'm gonna take you on this one. 'ver thought about Libertarianism? I mean you can't possibly leave that out of the picture with a lot of annoying libertarians flaunting around?
     
  21. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    TL,DR.

    But I'd say that's quite within anyone's expectation given how many religious nutjobs are cons.
     
  22. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    Actually home appliances are rather emblematic, given the context of my post.
     
  23. caul

    caul New Member

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    I decided to rethink liberalism when my father turned 66 while I was in high school and I started receiving 900 dollars a month for no reason. To top it of, I realized that the reason why my mother didn't have a job wasn't because she couldn't find one, but because she was content collecting unemployment. And that's when I realized that the welfare system is frivolous and doesn't help anyone. The only people who should be receiving welfare are people who are mentally and physically incapable of working.
     
  24. FixingLosers

    FixingLosers New Member

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    First, you mistaken Republican with conservative.

    2nd, I just wanna facepalm as you didn't make any more sense than bugs bunny in a Elvis costume.


    Why do you antagonize these two? Why wouldn't you believe there being a win-win situation, as IT ALWAYS HAS BEEN?
     
  25. danielpalos

    danielpalos Banned

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    I recognized I was a liberal when I recognized the value of our tax dollars.
     

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