Left-wing or Right-wing?

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This thread reminds me of an old joke: An Economist is someone who sees something working well in practice, then rejects it because it doesn't work in theory.

I'm a left-libertarian market ultraminimalist who believes in a voluntarily funded court and police system. With a bit of transhumanism and a lot of open-source post-scarcity thrown into the mix.

What would a voluntarily funded police and court system look like?

Last edited by Stannis on 13 Apr 2014, 4:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

I wish I had wings.

Right wing

I honestly have no idea....it all really depends, and I don't mind admitting I have some conflicting views that I really don't worry that much about.

I'd say I'm a liberal in the same sense Thomas Jefferson was a liberal. But I'm strongly against forced redistribution of wealth in the vein of Obamanomics. I also lean strongly in favor of Christian evangelicals and most of their views. I'm pro-life but support abortion in rare, exceptional circumstances. I'm against war but understand the necessity of it to protect our homeland and that of our friends...heck, if I had my way I'd move to Ukraine, grab an AK47, and show them at least one American believes in their cause and is willing to give them more than "sanctions."

I'd say I'm right of most Republicans in power, but I still don't view myself as a hardliner. I'm free to change my mind any time I feel I'm shown good reason to.

All over the place.

I'm right-wing (some leftists would say far-right) on some issues, and left-wing on others.

Either an establishment US left neoliberal with a skepticism towards internationalism, OR somewhere in the domain of a liberal Republican intellectual. Take your pick.

Both of which is to say that I'm probably mildly right wing in the big picture, but more caucused with left-wing politics in the current US schema.

And where do you think you've been? Not seen hide nor hair of you since last year!

HA HA HA HA! Sorry, distracted.

'Voluntarism' can only be meaningful whenever all factors are equal.

Since it always implies that the wealthy are able to enforce harsh social contracts, voluntarism, or economic libertarianism is always a right wing phenomenon.

I find right wing politics to be based around short sightedness and the wealth that it does create is usually unsustainable because it relies on individuals or 'great men'. The Irish celtic tiger collapsed because too much faith was put into fragile industries and the corporocrat friends of the right wing political elite that had their snouts in the trough. Wealth creation of the sustainable sort, with a strong foundation, can only come about through commonality of interest and looking after the least in society. That is why I consider myself left leaning.

Anyway, wealth creation for the sake of wealth creation isn't always the be all and end all. Especially if your government hoards the wealth among its rich friends and/or wastes it on things that don't benefit the people.

For example, in spite of the USA having the most wealth its usually the Scandinavian countries (with somewhat socialistic policies) that enjoy the highest average living standards, even though they are hardly the wealthiest.

In spite of living in the world's fifth largest economy I find myself drawn to Sweden.

I don't know about hardly the wealthiest:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... P_(nominal)_per_capita

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_co ... y_GDP_(PPP)_per_capita

From those evaluations, the Nordic nations are pretty comparable to other nations. The GDP vs GDP per capita distinction is important. Of course, these issues are somewhat complicated as well, as many of these Scandinavian nations show signs of being redistributionary neoliberals.

I don't think the left-wing/right-wing dichotomy even works. Myself, I'd say I'm a libertarian socialist; a contradiction in many people's eyes, but a valid viewpoint nonetheless. Basically, I'm a big believer in individual freedoms and liberties, but I'm also a believer in social programs like public healthcare. In other words, I like a government that's willing to help, but doesn't interfere with people's everyday lives.

Of course, if I had to actually force myself to choose between the left and the right, I'd go with the left. Left-wingers tend to be more agreeable than right-wingers.

Last edited by mr_bigmouth_502 on 14 Apr 2014, 3:46 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I vote left.

My actual beliefs are far more radical, but as the Left tries to help the people, while the Right only tries to help THEIR people, I have to side with the clear greater good.

I think that all of our our societal, economic, political, and cultural social structures are based on fundamentally flawed premises & need to be re-examined and intentionally re-built from the ground up, but until that happens I'll vote for the lesser or two evils every time, thanks.

Mainly left.