Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Are You Leaning Far Enough to the Right to be Considered a Fascist?

loquitur · 03-19-2008, 11:49 AM

Host, you object to pension funds being protected by the government? That's who the biggest shareholders are, and that's who is getting bailed out. Pipsqueaks like me are barely a hair on the pimple on the ass of the market. Even rich people don't account for that much. It's mainly institutions, the biggest of which are the pension funds.

Roachboy, the "tendency to naturalize social inequities" that you see me doing is simply a recognition that different people are good at different things and have different priorities. One of my friends is extremely good at making money, seeing opporutnities, and he's very good at it. He's a wealthy man. I'm not nearly as focussed on money - I need to be creative - so I'm in a line of work where yes, I make a decent living, but I'll never be rich. Other people may value leisure time, or have lower risk tolerance, or avoid stress, or seek fulfillment in other ways.

There are tradeoffs everywhere, and I have enough respect for people as individuals to recognize that they are allowed to make their own choices and choose their own muse. They take the risks they find congenial, they follow the paths they find useful, and they are entitled to those. This is part of the reason why I asked in that other thread why it is that people find economic inequality so bothersome. There are plenty of inequalities between people - in terms of talent, intellect, physical abilities, attractiveness, musical talent, etc etc etc. We don't object to those. I would argue, in fact, that economic inequality is just one more kind of human diversity.

Again: I have enough respect for each individual's own sovereignty to recognize that each person is more than just the size of his/her wallet. It's not a question of someone with means being more deserving or more moral, because they're not, they're simply better at certain kinds of activities - but I think the flipside is that they are not more immoral either. And their activities do tend to benefit a lot of other people as well.

As for fascism, I find it curious that my view on economics is called right-wing, and according to the OP, tending to fascist, when my basic credo is that people should be free to follow their own paths and make their own lives as they choose -- but you and host seem to feel that my liberty and my very brain have to be put at the service and direction of others who supposedly know better than I how I should be spending my time and my money, and that the force of government should be behind that compulsion -- and that, supposedly, is enlightened and liberal.

I just don't get it. I'm a classical liberal. I don't feel a need to force other people to do things my way. But I don't want them telling me to do things their way, either.

03-19-2008, 11:49 AM	#131 (permalink)
loquitur Junkie Location: NYC	Host, you object to pension funds being protected by the government? That's who the biggest shareholders are, and that's who is getting bailed out. Pipsqueaks like me are barely a hair on the pimple on the ass of the market. Even rich people don't account for that much. It's mainly institutions, the biggest of which are the pension funds. Roachboy, the "tendency to naturalize social inequities" that you see me doing is simply a recognition that different people are good at different things and have different priorities. One of my friends is extremely good at making money, seeing opporutnities, and he's very good at it. He's a wealthy man. I'm not nearly as focussed on money - I need to be creative - so I'm in a line of work where yes, I make a decent living, but I'll never be rich. Other people may value leisure time, or have lower risk tolerance, or avoid stress, or seek fulfillment in other ways. There are tradeoffs everywhere, and I have enough respect for people as individuals to recognize that they are allowed to make their own choices and choose their own muse. They take the risks they find congenial, they follow the paths they find useful, and they are entitled to those. This is part of the reason why I asked in that other thread why it is that people find economic inequality so bothersome. There are plenty of inequalities between people - in terms of talent, intellect, physical abilities, attractiveness, musical talent, etc etc etc. We don't object to those. I would argue, in fact, that economic inequality is just one more kind of human diversity. Again: I have enough respect for each individual's own sovereignty to recognize that each person is more than just the size of his/her wallet. It's not a question of someone with means being more deserving or more moral, because they're not, they're simply better at certain kinds of activities - but I think the flipside is that they are not more immoral either. And their activities do tend to benefit a lot of other people as well. As for fascism, I find it curious that my view on economics is called right-wing, and according to the OP, tending to fascist, when my basic credo is that people should be free to follow their own paths and make their own lives as they choose -- but you and host seem to feel that my liberty and my very brain have to be put at the service and direction of others who supposedly know better than I how I should be spending my time and my money, and that the force of government should be behind that compulsion -- and that, supposedly, is enlightened and liberal. I just don't get it. I'm a classical liberal. I don't feel a need to force other people to do things my way. But I don't want them telling me to do things their way, either.