So, for the most part, this blog is me discussing my own brand of economic progressivism. I don't really discuss social issues a lot, quite frankly because I find most of them boring, cut and dried, and of relatively minor importance. It's like discussing the ethics of laws against murder and stealing. Most of them are so cut and dried and should be widely accepted in society that I'm shocked we're still having these debates and discussions. And I seem to spend more time tone policing my own side's terrible marketing on these issues than actually ripping into the right wingers, which gives people the idea I'm some social conservative. While I am more conservative on SOME issues, I'd say ultimately, I'm a left libertarian who accepts most liberal positions on social issues, but sometimes for different reasons than liberals. That said, I'm going to go down a list of many social issues and give my opinions on them.
Religion- Many social issues, especially pre 2016, come down to religion. This shift in mine in 2012, in which I left conservatism, in essence, began when I lost my faith in Christianity. I was an atheist for a while, but am now "spiritual but not religious." No, I will not be discussing my personal spirituality. It's very personal and I don't believe most would understand. Either you have an experience or not, and I don't think it matters either way because unlike Christianity I believe we all go to the same place anyway. And honestly? It doesn't affect my political views much at all. Nor should it, because I believe in separation of church and state and evidence based policy. That has not changed since my shift back to spirituality, not should it. Regardless of my personal views, I believe separation of church and state is sacrosanct in our society and exists for the good of us all. Violating separation of church and state leads to bad policy and authoritarianism, two things which I oppose.
Regardless, I still have a negative view toward religion and organized spirituality. I don't believe religions have really justified their views very well and regardless of an individual's personal spirituality and potential contact with the spiritual, I think that most religion does more harm than good. I believe critical thinking should be paramount in society, and we should encourage people to think critically. If you come to spiritual beliefs for the right reasons, so be it, but most who seemed to have done so, have done so on a very personal level and they should keep it there, quite frankly.
At the same time I'm also very big on religious freedom. You should have a right to believe whatever you want. You do not, however, have a right to impose such beliefs on others either directly or indirectly. No you should not be able to go to church during covid pandemics, and yes, you should have to pay for your employees birth control if we're sticking to privatized healthcare. No exceptions based on your religion. You're treated like everyone else.
Why do I start out with this and spend so much time talking about it? Because a good chunk of social conservatism comes down to a matter of a religious vs secular worldview. That said, I'll now approach some issues that are based on these principles in a rapid fire manner.
Abortion- Most arguments against abortion seem to come down to religion. More specifically they come down to a specific version of spirituality which may or may not (and probably isn't) true. Basically, it's the idea that people are people regardless of things like brain development and consciousness, and that killing a fetus is equivalent to murder. But this assumes a specific judeo christian interpretation in which fetuses have souls and that abortion is a moral crime against them that will be judged by a deity. You do not and cannot know this. From a secular standpoint, personhood is defined by consciousness and the whole "I think therefore I am" dynamic, and abortion is not immoral before 24 weeks. Even more so, after 24 weeks only a small percentage of abortions happen, and largely for medical reasons, so it seems screwed up to try to regulate the issue at all. I support full reproductive freedom on the matter.
Gay marriage- If god in the bible didn't say this was bad, would anyone care? Probably not. Most conservatism either comes down to religion or some version of "this is how we always did things and if we don't keep doing things this way society will collapse or something". Let people do what they want.
Pedophilia- Some christians think if we allow gay marriage, what's next, pedophilia? No, not really. Because the moral issue with being against sex with minors comes down to consent and being mature enough to do so. There's too many issues with coercion, exploitation, and power dynamics where a blanket ban is a moral necessity in an advanced society like ours. We have age limits on alcohol, tobacco, etc., sex is just more of that, and it's for the childrens' own good. Do what you want above 18, but under 18 that behavior should be restricted in ethical ways.
Trans issues- It's their life. Once again, once we get rid of some moral idea that god made us a certain way and it's a violation of his plan to change, it makes less sense to be against it. Gender dysphoria is a real mental health issue and the best way to treat it is to let people do their things. Who are we to say people can't identify as an attack helicopter? If it makes them happy and doesn't harm anyone, so be it.
Prostitution/pornography- Should be legal assuming it is of consenting adults. However potentially regulated to stop abusive practices in the industry.
Alcohol/drugs- Generally against prohibition of lesser drugs like alcohol and marijuana. Age restrictions okay though. Support decriminalization of hard drugs but not legalization. We should be discouraging the use of such drugs and going after distributors, but not users. Users should get help instead.
Teaching creationism- There's no evidence of intelligent design or biblical creationism and it should not be taught in a science class. Perhaps generic intelligent design should be taught in a philosophy class, but that's about it.
Prayer/religion in schools- I support the constitutional consensus in which it cannot be taught institutionally, but that people can do what they want on a personal level.
Okay, now that I got more...religious type social issues out of the way, let's focus on issues of gender/race, etc.
Gender/race perspective in general- My views of race are a lot more nuanced than those on more religious based issues. I see those issues as cut and dried, but racial and gender based issues can be more complex and nuanced. I would say my base perspective is left. Gender and race critical theory is an offshoot of conflict theory. Conflict theory, sociologically, is grounded in marxism, and I use such a perspective regularly in my economic analyses. To sum up conflict theory, it's a sociological analysis looking at who gets what, and how different groups in society vie for control of resources. I use this all the time in discussing class based issues between the elites and the 99%, workers vs employers, landlords vs tenants, etc. I don't see a reason not to apply it to race and gender and believe that it can reveal some telling things about society and how things do tend to be unfair against women and some minority groups. The difference between me, and say, an SJW though, is that I don't let it define my entire politics. It's a lens. It's a valuable lens, but sometimes lenses have limitations and sometimes people get too ideological and lose sight of the bigger picture, which is an issue I've been emphasizing in recent posts on here. That said when I criticize sjws, it's more of an "in house" type criticism, where I tend to have similar views that they do, I just tend to express them differently and might be more moderate and pragmatic in practice. Just like I will scream like a socialist in attacking capitalism while falling on the social democracy side of that spectrum 90% of the time, I do something similar on these issues. That said...
Racism- Racism is bad. Outright racism is even worse. I don't have much respect for people who don't believe we are inherently equal regardless of skin color. I do believe racism is a spectrum though and that there are more subtle forms of racism that people hold. I do believe we should try to remove negative racist views from our perspective if we come across them, but sometimes they can be very deeply ingrained.
Colin Kapernick- This is more related to my economic left libertarian views in which I don't believe employers should have a right to impose on peoples' political views, but he had a right to kneel. If you don't like that, tough crap.
BLM- BLM has a valid point. Police violence is endemic and disproportionately affects black people, and black people have every right to protest it. George Floyd and the like shouldn't have happened. Now, do I support riots? Not necessarily. Peaceful protests? Sure. Speaking of which...
Police violence- Honestly, while I certainly don't support the violent riots we've had earlier this year, I also don't support police violence against the vast majority of peaceful protests we've had. I think 93% of protests were peaceful, roughly? Yet I saw police constantly behaving like thugs against protesters, and that is wrong. Which brings us to another issue.
Defund the police- Absolutely. Police are way too militarized and to see them treating peaceful protesters like they've been is a travesty. Police should not have APCs and be geared up like they're going to war. Kind of makes you wonder what the real function of police is...
Before I get into that though, I feel like I need to talk a bit more about defunding the police. Defunding the police isn't about punishing police. It's about cutting their budgets to reasonable amounts where they can't buy billions of dollars in surplus military gear to use against peaceful civilians whenever they decide to exercise their rights. It's also about not using the police as a hammer to solve every societal problem but instead diverting that money into social services that improve peoples' lives. Rather than using police to arrest homeless people for vagrancy for example, we should be making sure homeless people aren't homeless. Defunding the police is about limiting the scope of police and demilitarizing them in my views.
ACAB- No, not all cops are bad. I actually have a very strong dislike of this statement. It's one of those things where SJWs go too far with the conflict theory and don't realize hey, police actually do serve a legit function in keeping the peace and dealing with crime regardless of their flaws. While structural and institutional problems exist within police, I don't support getting rid of police entirely. Just limiting their scope.
Prisons- While prisons should exist they should not be privatized as it just leads to slavery and exploitation in which there is an incentive to fill them for for profit cheap labor. Prisons should be reserved for crimes in which you pose a danger to society or others, or as a last resort when other methods of punishment and rehabilitation fail. Generally speaking prisons should be humane with a goal of rehabilitating people back into society, rather than treating them as sub human. At worst prison is about isolating dangerous people from society.
Death penalty- Should not exist. It's immoral to kill people given other viable options exist, for one. For two, there's an error rate and innocent people have been put to death before. Third it's racist and overwhelmingly impacts minorities rather than whites. Fourth, it's expensive given the legal process, fifth, there doesn't seem to be a moral method of killing people and even crap like lethal injection seems to go wrong. Give them life in prison, but not death penalty.
Hate speech laws- Look, just like I have a dislike of religion, but I don't support outlawing it, I have a dislike of racism but don't support outlawing that either. People have a right to be stupid, and a right to be wrong. And I view it as dangerously authoritarian to start punishing people for expressing...politically incorrect opinions. I actually am a free speech absolutist on this topic.
Cancel culture- Strong dislike. Some SJWs like to act like it doesn't really exist but when you try to get people fired from their jobs for during express a bad opinion that's mob behavior that should not be tolerated. Essentially my opinion here is identical to the Kapernick thing. people should not be fired or punished financially just for having crappy views, and I dislike organized mob behavior to accomplish that end.
Political correctness in general- While it means well it is ultimately an abrasive form of censorship that rubs me the wrong way and tends to come down to policing people over "microtransgressions" and flipping out on people for not adhering to constantly shifting standards. I dislike how extreme and morally pure people are on this subject and how toxic they are to people who don't conform. I tend to be fairly negative toward these kinds of things. I'd prefer to replace it with "try not to be a jerk."
Workplace discrimination- Laws against such things should exist and do exist. However, the problem with regulations in general is that sometimes they're hard to enforce or have loopholes. That said, African americans and the like are going to have issues in getting ahead. While some people support stuff like quotas and affirmative action, I see this as divisive as fudge. As long as the underlying system is crap you're pitting races against each other in a zero sum environment and inflaming tensions, making the problem worse and ultimately driving people to Trumpism.
Sexism- Same as racism, bad. Should be removed when come across.
Workplace discrimination for women- This is a LITTLE more nuanced if only due to the biological differences here. I believe men and women are largely capable of being equal, but childbearing is an issue that causes issues. Women get pregnant, drop out of the work force, the time off causes them to fall behind, and they dont break the glass ceiling as easily. Should we reduce discrimination where we can? Sure, but just like with race, it will end up being skirted. Should we try to enforce affirmative action type policies to fix this? No. Once again, divisive as fudge. I believe it's better to address such issues with better social services ensuring no one is poor in the first place than to pick a battle in a zero sum way between different groups in society not based on class.
Mens rights- I feel that the "mens rights" movement has been taken over by extremely toxic and sexist people, but if we use gender critical theory, they have a point. Men face issues too like child custody issues, problems like lack of financial abortion, they tend to end up doing more dangerous work, etc. I mean, these are also issues that should be dealt with. I find it so weird how "feminists" will be so high and mighty about womens' issues but then sound like right wingers when it comes to men. It's extremely hypocritical and comes off to me that their views are more about tribalism than deeply held philosophical convictions. Speaking of which...
Financial abortion- Look, I don't believe men should be forced into parenthood. Women have their own bodies and their own choices, I don't to take that away from them. I support their rights to choose and to abort for any reason. I'm extremely pro "childfree". But that said, it is a woman's choice, and the man shouldn't have to live with that. If a man doesn't want to be a father, he shouldn't be forced to, and trying to insist they have to pay child support or get involved in the kid's life in any way is immoral IMO. Yes the man chose to have sex. So what? So did the woman and pro lifers use that as an argument against abortion. If you recognize that for the regressive trash that it is, you should be philosophically consistent and accept the man's right to opt out too. After all it's just a holdover of patriarchical society in which a man is expected to take care of a woman. We live in an age of womens' liberation and norms for both genders should be changed. Again I feel like most people against this are hypocritical. Now, what about the child? That's the argument against it right? Well I support basic income, medicare for all, etc. The child won't be poor under my ideal system. These norms are based on the old conservative mindset of the nuclear family and personal responsibility. Progressivism is about breaking those norms. For both genders. Not just women.Speaking of which, something that should be addressed more directly...
Privilege- Privilege exists, sociologically. However it should not be used as an excuse to ignore a certain group's issues. I feel like there's a massive double standard where social justice people only focus on groups they deem underprivileged and then downplay the issues of the privileged. No, mens' rights issues exist too. And no, just because women and minorities have it worse economically doesn't give you an excuse to tell white males to check their privilege when advocating for economic progressivism. We should make the system better and I feel like too many times social justice issues get too hyperfixated on privilege to focus on actually improving society for everyone.
Transgenderism in sports- Eh, this is a weird issue. As I said there are some biological issues potentially here. What if you identify as female but are roided up like a male because you're basically trying to transition from male to female? Uh...identifying as a female and competing against them might be unfair. Why am I focusing on this? Because of Tulsi Gabbard getting crap for this view recently. I think she kind of has a point. At the same time, the social justice people also have a point in that forcing people to compete against their birth sex when they don't identify is a bad thing too. Honestly, I could probably use more research on this issue but I wonder if there's a solid science based conclusion that would resolve this issue. I'd just follow the science here and what experts think.
As you can tell I largely have left wing perspectives minus issues regarding free speech. Not sure why I'm labeled a right winger outside of de emphasizing these issues and insisting some fights arent worth having. Freaking purists...
Right wing identity politics- This is just as obnoxious as the worst of the left. These guys tend to hyperfocus on their weird conservative identities and how they're constantly under attack when in reality the world is just changing and the sky isn't falling. I dont really believe in upholding sacred cows in general and here's another place where I don't really feel sympathetic. If anything this crap is creepishly authoritarian.
The idea of "America"/American exceptionalism- I find this crap creepy and dystopian, and even worse to go into my economic views seems to be gatekeeping what America is to force a right wing consensus. Basically people have this idea that America is somehow special and not like the rest of the world and we should be our own special snowflakes. While on issues regarding constitutional rights such as free speech and right to bear arms I kind of support this, I largely don't support it otherwise. The whole discussion about how we're amazing because we work hard seems like the whole "Arbeit macht frei" thing the nazis have where we just tend to tell people to work their lives away and work is what makes us free. Creepy. I also don't believe we should use this idea of "America" to stop us from having social services the rest of the world has, or to try to work our way through a pandemic rather than just shutting everything down and giving people checks like a civilized society. More harm comes out of this idea than good.
Pledge of Allegiance- When North Korea seems to worship Kim Jong Un or do its weird displays of hypernationalism, we get freaked out about how authoritarian they are. When we do it, we act like it's the most amazing thing on earth and how dare you not stop what you're doing to put your hand over your heart and recite the creepy words of loyalty.
Flag worship- It's just a piece of cloth. Get over it. Stop acting like Colin Kapernick just spat in your mother's face because he wouldn't do the heart thing.
Support the troops/Thin Blue Line crap- While as I said, police, and by extension, military have valid roles in society and we shouldn't crap on them all as a group, we also shouldn't have this slavish devotion to going on about how great they are. Nothing sacred, but don't demonize people either. Shouldn't be that hard. People are people. Like, my dad is very much a support the troops rah rah America kind of person. But at the same time he's like that because he's a Vietnam vet and didn't like being called a babykiller in the 1960s for being in the military. I think not demonizing people is good but the entitlement I see from some on this subject seemingly expecting worship and acting like anyone who doesn't give it to them hates them is annoying to see too.
Immigration- Immigration is to me more an economic issue than a cultural one. Culturally I'm largely not anti immigrant. And I largely don't support ideas suggesting immigrants disproportionately cause crime and the like. At the same time I'm not an open borders guy. To me, someone whose moral perspective is based on the social contract and the idea that we should be giving people universal social services, I understand a lax immigration policy could cause certain disincentives like rich people fleeing to low tax/low regulation areas and poor people flooding in for free stuff. To some extent immigrants kind of end up taking one for the team as part of my ideology, but that's where I differ as a more progressive social democrat than a more centrist pro immigration neolib. I also have no issue with enforcing laws as long as we do it humanely. I don't support "kids in cages" but also do support deporting people who don't belong here. And I don't think it's much to ask to expect immigrants coming in to learn english as the alternative is for everyone else to learn everyone else's language. Controversial opinion on the left but that's how I feel. I'm more moderate here.
Guns- I am moderate on guns and consider myself a second amendment leftie. I believe most laws that would be effective involve strengthening existing regulations and closing loopholes that allow people who shouldn't get guns, to get guns. At the same time I don't support banning certain firearms more than we already ban (like AR15s with 30 round mags should be legal IMO), and think that's a very bad fight to pick and one that alienates people from the left. You'd be surprised how many times I hear people say that's support lefties if only they weren't so intent on taking their guns. Focus on smart, moderate regulation, stop picking the wrong fights. Largely respect the right to bear arms. Most gun violence seems to be done with illegal guns and the like anyway, so gun violence is largely an enforcement issue for me, not one that calls for more laws.
COVID- Be like Madagascar in Pandemic 2 and shut down everything. You do not have a freedom to not wear a mask or go to church and crap when you're getting people sick. Stop being selfish jerks. No one actually likes wearing masks. We do it because we HAVE TO. To ensure that people don't get sick. We shut down stuff to avoid people getting sick. We tell you you can't worship at your church because you are getting people sick. There's nothing nefarious here. It's simple social contract logic. Laws are made to prevent harm. Pandemics cause harm, wear a mask until the pandemic is over.
And there you have it. With the exception of a few issues I'm unsurprisingly left wing. Still, i get a lot of crap because I'm not morally pure on social issues, put it at the forefront of all of my priorities at the expense of everyone else, and I to diverge from the left on issues surrounding speech, political correctness, immigration, and topics I deem too divisive to try to win. I largely feel like the social left has the moral high ground in this country. They just suck at leveraging it as their marketing is awful and so caustic it even turns most allies off. But still, I felt it was necessary to express my actual thoughts so people can stop accusing me of being a conservative already, when I'm clearly like 75% left and 25% moderate-right overall, with many of my "right" positions merely being a different form of left that just isn't neoliberal social justice warrior oriented left.
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