Since I'm going to be discussing primarily politics on this blog, I figured I would discuss my political views. I did this at great length in my original blog, but I'll provide a more condensed summary here to avoid having to port a lot of that stuff over later.
Long story short, the terms that would best describe me are "liberal", "progressive", "social democrat", and "left libertarian." There isn't really a single label that really encapsulates my views, but I'm trying to point out where I stand. On the political compass test, I generally score in the ballpark of -5, -5, which puts me in the bottom left, where I am left wing on economic issues and libertarian on social issues. I don't tend to take my views to extremes though.
Social issues
I am very liberal/libertarian on social issues. I'm pro choice, I'm pro gay marriage, sympathetic to LGBT+ issues. I'm for social equality for people of all races and genders. I support ending the war on drugs, the prison industrial complex,our massive spying programs, although I'm not an extremist. I might want to get rid of the war on drugs, and I might support legalizing marijuana, but I don't support a full scale legalization of all drugs; I just think we should focus on rehabilitation and save criminal penalties for the dealers. I also might support some spying programs, but they should only be done insofar as our constitution's original approach toward privacy and search and seizure allow. Essentially, with a warrant and probable cause. On some issues, I'm a little more moderate. I have mixed views on immigration, and support both more border security and a path toward citizenship for those already here. Same with gun control. I support fixing loopholes while also supporting some level of second amendment rights.
Economic issues
Economics is my main focus this election cycle. I believe that while capitalism is a good system on the whole, in the sense that it provides a lot of stuff, it is very deeply flawed and requires significant overhaul to fix. I largely support Bernie's platform. Higher minimum wage, universal healthcare, free education, etc. However, I do go farther in some ways. I believe we should implement a universal basic income to ensure every citizen has the ability to live without work. I see this as the only way to solve poverty, since jobs will never produce a good living for all, and I also believe forcing people to work is more or less de facto slavery and that it's unneeded in modern times and actually harmful. I'll port some articles from my old blog on this later.
Generally speaking, I believe the economy is made for humans, not humans for the economy, and that we need to stop treating people as means and treat them as ends. Our economic system, while very functional, fails on many levels to do this and reduces human beings to mere tools for wealth accumulation. I believe this alienates us from our lives, and that the structure of the system ultimately benefits a few at the expense of the majority. My views are ultimately a mixture of pro capitalist views combined with some anti capitalist ones. I believe it's important to understand both sides of the story and use them accordingly. Meanwhile, our current system and mainstream ideology, even on the left, only tells one side of the story.
As such, I'm significantly to the left of the current democratic party to an extent, but I would still say I'm largely to the right of socialism and communism. I believe capitalism is a necessary system to have at this point of time, and that we need to keep it. However, I am deeply critical of it and also believe that we need to enact some very serious reforms to make it work for the benefit of all. My ideal system is capitalistic, but also has a lot of safety nets, unionization, and even workplace democracy. Over the longer term, I would also like to see automation replace jobs, so that we can finally live in a post work world where we're free to do whatever we want to do. I don't see work as a good thing. I see it as a necessary evil and believe we romanticize it too much. I think people should have the option to seek it, but I disagree with our current system of forcing it on everyone under the threat of poverty if they refuse.
Foreign policy
I would consider myself a pragmatic non interventionist/pacifist. I am largely anti war, and I dont believe in involving ourselves in every conflict around the globe. Having grown up and seen the consequences of our interventionist foreign policy in the war on terror, I think that intervening too much militarily does more good than bad. Still, at the same time, the US is essentially to world security, and our presence in a lot of places like Europe and eastern Asia largely keeps the peace, and that if we weren't there, some rival powers like Russia, China, DPRK, etc. would step up and control the world. So I do have a streak of realpolitik in my foreign policy, and do believe some of our actions are done for the sake of national security, and that we have to do them to keep us safe. However, I also think we should be mindful of the consequences of our actions and only intervene when absolutely necessary.
The political system
I believe in democracy. I think if we don't have a democratic system, the alternatives are oligarchy, a dictatorship, or anarchy. None of these options are preferable. Generally speaking, while people may be correct in criticizing many as being unable to make good decisions due to ignorance, if we don't allow everyone to have a say, we then have to worry about who does. And often time, this devolves into a group of people with an investment in the status quo imposing it on others regardless of their thoughts and interests. This leads to authoritarianism and a general lack of freedom. As such, I believe our system should be as democratic as possible, that representatives should be directly accountable to the people, and that money should be taken out of politics. I have an article in mind that discusses my ideas of how to fix America's political system that I will port over once my old blog is up.
Generally speaking though, I'm very anti authoritarian and am very critical of those with power. I believe power is necessary, but it needs to be treated like fire, with lots of respect and reverence to avoid burning oneself. Since power is necessary, we need lots of checks and balances to keep it in line, and we need the people to have input into who our leaders are. Leaders exist for OUR sake, not for their own. They are servants of the people. They are accountable to us.
Conclusion
You can probably get a good idea of where I am at politically from this post. All in all, I'm liberal, progressive, maybe even a social democrat or left libertarian. I generally align pretty well with Bernie Sanders, although on a few things I may be more extreme and tend to have my own left wing philosophy that may differ from him and the democratic party line. So I guess the best say to approach me is as, say, a left wing independent. I'm liberal on social issues, left wing on economics, a pragmatic noninterventionist on foreign policy, and am fairly skeptical of authority and support a political system accountable to the people.
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