this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2023
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Which is weird since conservative politics is all about cutting funds for schools, gutting the department of education completely, no pre k or free lunches for kids, and getting rid of a large portion of our law enforcement. Just doesn't make sense why any one who cares about education or safety would be conservative
I'm pretty certain neither party supports this. After 2020, every state and city, including dem-run ones increased police funding.
If you're talking about republicans complaining about the FBI because it went after Trump, they're just as likely to abolish prisons because some jan 6ers got convicted. These people like those institutions too much when they're doing their primary purpose of neutralizing leftist political movements.
Also you're not private property nor do you own significant capital. It's not your law enforcement.
Then why conservative when they actively hate children and society in general? It seems insane to lean that way.
Economic issues always come down to economic incentives. You care about property values because your home is an investment. You care about stocks because you have a retirement plan. You care about not being a burden on your children when you're old and having inheritance to leave behind when you die. You care about crime because you have things to steal and a life to lose.
I don't have property. I will never retire. I will never have children. I am nothing and no one and that will never change.
When I was younger I was a pretty typical liberal. By 30 I was a Marxist-Leninist and desired nothing but the complete destruction of the demon shithole country called Amerikkka. 😘
I am a machine that exists to create value for my boss. I'll never doubt that.
That's a well intentioned sentiment. So don't tske any of this as an attack, just a clarification.
We aren't just all on this journey together, some of us are oppressed by others. Our problems aren't abstract, they are a consequence of the ruling class engaging in warfare on the rest of us, and that's what the person above was getting at.
We know we're people, but we also know that we aren't people to the ruling class.
Optimism is for older generations, who lived the before times when life got better year-after-year.
That has never happened in my entire life.
Currents of "optimism" or "pessimism" are meaningless. Actions are all that matter. And it's not just you out there.
Industrial production, mostly with simple hand tools and feeding steel parts into welders and presses.
It's so fucking hot. It's so fucking hard. I'm so fucking tired. Everyday forever until I'm too old too work, and then I'll take out a 9mm retirement plan.
Replacing pensions with 401k was a stroke of genius for the ruling class. Now every worker is invested in the stock market and is forced to pray to the money line so they can retire, which means they vote for whatever party promises the most economic growth. Truly masterclass.
Nothing about the way everything's going is designed to let me feel like a person. Money's a requirement to simply exist. Everything's a race to get enough money to sustain myself. I'm simply a worker who generates profit so my parasite of a boss and the associated shareholders can hang out on yachts. My job is nonsense too that doesn't help anyone. I'm estranged from my family for gender and lifestyle reasons, can't make friends because I'm always exhausted from work, can't go to therapy except sparingly because it's too expensive.
No matter how much validity my humanity holds, none of it really matters if none of it can be expressed due to a combination of alienation and dead eyed pessimism about climate change.
And no, we all aren't on the same journey together. The economic strata that sits above mine has nothing in common with me.
Thank you. And well that's all fine and good to hope and imagine, but I've been trying to actively change things for the past 20 years through socialist organizing. Goes well sometimes, goes poorly most of the time, gotta keep trying anyway .
No offense, but it seems pretty naive to say things will get better. I try not to jump on conservatives when they are willing to engage, but that's a pretty rough take.
I hope you find some comfort one day.
Not in my case. I grew up pretty conservative she moved right libertarian until learning economics in college which moved me left. I bought a home and have two kids and am squarely on the left. I care about schools and crime which is why I want more funding for education and programs that actually decrease crime.
Healthcare is the big one for me. We should not be forking over 20% of our paychecks for healthcare. People on the right are fucking nuts to believe that the cost is because of too much regulation considering we have the least regulation and pay twice as much with now limited options. We need Medicare for All.
I care about schools. I want them to be free and public.
I care about crime. I want to abolish the police and use that money to on social safety net programs including healthcare, social workers, housing, and more which is proven to reduce crime.
I care about children. I want paid parental leave for both parents, guaranteed job return, free childcare, free healthcare for children, and a monthly check for groceries.
Conservatives want none of that, and actively work against every point. Centre/centre-left only want some of that performatively and will undermine any implementation of these programs. The only people working for this are the "hard left." And because of decades of anti-communist propaganda, no one will touch it.
The only reason I can think of to be conservative and "socially liberal" is to protect your own capital at the expense of others while not wanting to feel bad about doing it.
Not Pre-K for most parents, and schools are only "free" and "public" for now, thanks to conservatives and liberals alike. College, tech college, and other educational programs are also not free and need to be. Private schools need to be abolished.
First, okay? I said me, not everyone. Second, that's objectively not true. If you care about a data-driven argument that shows how policing increases crime, see Alex Vitale's End of Policing. You can download it for free in a bunch of different formats here.
Ah, so you truly are a conservative. A person's worth is only equal to their productive in the blood-soaked economy machine. A child can't have a job, jackass, that's why giving new parents a check for groceries helps their income as their total costs rise.
You need to do some self-crit and question everything you have been taught. For example, there are more people in prison right now in the USA than there have ever been in a gulag. If you genuinely want to learn more about communism from a communist perspective, there are plenty of places to turn. You can start on the Prole Library with some shorter introductory works. You can watch Parenti's famous yellow lecture for a short introduction, and you can watch Richard Wollf's introduction to Marxian Economics on YouTube. You can read The Jakarta Method, Blacks and Reds, or listen to a few podcasts like Blowback to learn about the propaganda machine at specific times (e.g., Iraq, Cuban Revolution, Korean War, Afghanistan in order of seasons of Blowback).
But you're going to have to stop trying to win internet arguments by being a smarmy ass and put in the effort if you really want to learn how a better world is possible.
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