The other night I wrote a post about the use of labels in politics, and then I decided that I would expand on that tonight by trying to label myself. I wanted to do it because I spend a lot of time being irritated and frustrated when other people try to label me based upon what they think they know about my views on various political issues after reading something I've posted about a specific issue, or a small part of an issue. I don't so much mind being labelled as I mind being labelled incorrectly because some idiot makes the assumption that because I believe something about one thing I must automatically subscribe wholeheartedly to a much larger theory or ideology. That is rarely if ever the case. In reality my political views and opinions on different unrelated political issues run the gamut and make me one giant walking contradiction. I strongly suspect that most thinking people are a lot like me in that respect, and that's what bugs the shit out of me when it comes to the fact that our government is almost exclusively run by two dominant political parties instead of by a diverse collection of authentic individuals whose opinions and voting patterns are all over the map. I don't feel like I'm getting very good representation for my taxation with the way things are running right now.
One thing that I can't complain too much about is the fact that our government is so dysfunctional as to barely manage to do anything at all these past few years. I'm honestly a fan of that, cause I'm more in favor of non intervention whenever it's feasible- at least until all the evidence is in. The idea that the goal of government at every level is to keep coming together and passing laws and Doing Stuff like that's the only thing it was designed to do makes me cringe. Hey, just because something is possible does not necessarily make it wise or even better than doing nothing at all. This type of thinking usually has me falling in line with and nodding along with the Libertarians who scream about us needing a government small enough to fit in- whatever. I think that our government is bloated, our lawbooks are seriously in need of editing, and oh my Aunt Jemima our tax code needs to be rewritten in plain English. Every time I hear about a 1000 page bill that was introduced in Congress I want to go walk through a forest apologizing to all the trees. Don't confuse me with a tree hugger though, cause me and the plant life have some major differences that go way back.
I will go so far as to say that we ought to be taking an awful lot of care not to screw up the environment. While I wouldn't cry over a Cockroach Holocaust I do appreciate the fact that humans won't have the option of buggin out and retiring on another planet anytime soon so we've got to try and make what we have last for a while. Not shitting where we eat is a very good policy for everybody to embrace, and if we need a little kick in the pants from The Man then so be it, cause I don't want my kids or grandkids to be stuck swallowing some other idiot's shit in a hundred years. Last time I checked the planet didn't have a bank account that we could deposit payments into, so it's important to remember we're not actually buying all those resources that we're using- we're just borrowing them- so we don't get to break stuff we can't repair. Not to say that the planet needs us to repair it, I suspect it's perfectly capable of repairing itself, but it's likely to kill us all off before it really gets down to the business of doing it. That would suck cause at this moment I don't really feel like dying, and I don't want to sentence all my possible descendants to a horrible death either.
Truthfully I don't even like calling myself a Democrat since I have so much antipathy towards the two party system, but I'll go ahead and own that one since thus far I can count the number of candidates from other parties that I've voted for on one hand. A couple of them I voted for multiple times, but still. On this one I walk like a duck and quack like a duck, so let's face it I'm at least a fucking water fowl of some kind that's spent a lot of time around ducks. I do want to make it clear that a good chunk of my Democratic votes have been less for the candidate I was casting the ballot for and more my way of making sure the other guy got fewer votes than it took to win. I don't so much have a problem with most Democrats individually as I do with big groups of them led by other Democrats like Nancy Pelosi. That chick is way too into stomping around sticking her nose into shit.
My latest political "crush" is Bernie Sanders, and it burns my ass that he's flying the Democratic banner after years as a real life Independent. So far I haven't heard anything the man has said that sets my teeth on edge, and that's a pretty impressive feat cause I am a total reactionary hot head. I keep that in check by making sure to avoid acting on my first impressions whenever possible, because after the initial blowup I usually examine the situation and find out that I live somewhere in the middle ground. I don't see a whole lot of black or white, but there's an awful lot of gray in my landscape. Most of Sanders' Socialist stuff I can definitely get down with, which seems totally contradictory with my Libertarian small government side, but that's probably because I have my own ideas about what socialism really means in the context of a country like ours.
I imagine that if he were to ask me, I'd have some tough questions for Sanders about just how he plans to go about paying for all the ideas he has for his Socialist policies. It's possible that he already has answers to those questions that I could find on the internet somewhere, but it's still early enough in the game that I'm not in a big hurry to go looking for them. For the moment it's enough that I like him a hell of a lot better than Hillary and I haven't heard enough good stuff about his other competition to knock him off of his pedestal yet. I'm definitely Progressive enough to want to see some big changes in some of our policies, even if I'm not a huge fan of more laws restricting our freedoms as individuals. I'm enough of a cheap ass to qualify as Fiscally Conservative because I want to know for damn sure how we're going to pay the bills for stuff without whipping out the credit card.
Thanks to the Atheist label it ought to go without saying how I feel about the legislation of morality. Its totally possible to be moral and good with or without the influence of religion, but it really comes down to a matter of mind yo business and leave me the hell alone to mind mine. Go ahead and ask if someone wants your opinion or your help, but if they tell you no then back the fuck off. This should apply to individual citizens and to government as far as I'm concerned. Whether you're certain that you're right and someone else is wrong or not the passage of time and examination of the end result is always going to be the best judge of that. Legislating in the hopes of preventing moral decay has a colossally bad historical track record since as far as I can tell a whole bunch of different societies have tried it a whole bunch of different ways and Utopia still hasn't popped up anywhere. If it had then I'd be in favor of buying plane tickets for all the people who wanted to bail on the US to go live there instead, but I'd probably still stick around here. Another point worth mentioning about the Atheist label- I don't go in whole hog on the Big Bang Theory or even the entire Theory of Evolution. I don't say either of them is completely true or completely false, because the fact that I'm an Atheist has nothing to do with having an opinion about them either way. Being an Atheist just means I don't buy the God Theory in any of it's various forms. That one I reject, the others I'm ambivalent towards because in reality I'm not a huge science geek. I took the classes I had to take, I've read some stuff that interested me during my lifetime, and beyond that I don't think about it much because I don't care. I've got stuff to do while I'm alive and pondering the mysteries of the universe isn't real high on my list of priorities.
My number one biggest pet peeve when it comes to people trying to legislate morality has got to be hands down the whole abortion debate. It's unfathomable to me that it should even be a debate until after we've debated the bigger question of whether anybody owes it to somebody else to do everything they possibly can to preserve a life. Generous and selfless as I may sometimes choose to, or feel guilty enough, to act- if I really thought that the entire purpose for my existing was to help a brother out whether I felt like it or not I'd be checking out at that moment. The Koolaid would be getting swallowed and I absolutely wouldn't want to live on this planet anymore. That's just truth. No matter how much of my time and effort I end up expending for the benefit of others I get through the day by knowing that I'm here either for my own benefit or just by random happenstance, not because I'm a vessel for carrying the species forward into the future or a servant to the needs and whims of other people.
I think I covered all of my labels at least a little bit, except for maybe the Socially Liberal one. That's the one I wear when I'm arguing with people about equality for all and things like gay rights and not treating black people like shit. I'm not sure this one fully deserves it's own description, because it's more of an extension of the reasons that some of the other labels fit me. I mean, yes, I do strongly believe that there isn't any major difference between any of us that justifies not everyone being treated the same, but I probably wouldn't be in favor of things like Affirmative Action and Gay Marriage if not for the fact that those things came along as patches to fix things that prior generations of Americans fucked up big time. I'd have much rather seen government get out of the business of marriage altogether than see the right to get married expanded to include gay couples because I don't love the idea that a huge amount of law-an entire subset of our court system- was made up out of thin air just to get government involved in a relationship between two individuals even before either of them considers asking for an outside opinion on their relationship. I get that there are benefits to the individuals in a marriage, but I'm less on board with the idea that government has a compelling interest in promoting the institution. As far as Affirmative Action goes, I hate the fact that it was even necessary, and I'd much rather see minority groups judged in direct comparison with each other and everyone else than see them given extra credit in order to be deemed eligible to compete. The jury is still out on whether Affirmative Action actually did anybody any favors or not. I do hope I live to see the day that minorities really are viewed as equal to their majority counterparts though. That would be very cool.
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