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I drifted slowly from right-libertarian to a more leftish position: pro-union, pro-social-programs, skeptical of the compatibility of unregulated capitalism with individual freedom. Still no fan of tankies.
This wasn't from anyone sitting down and trying to convince me, though. Part of it was discovering how close right-libertarianism had always been to white-supremacism: some old Ron Paul newsletters were unpleasantly enlightening. Part was seeing people who called themselves "libertarians" line up with the far right to support state violence, especially against black and brown people. And heck, part was from getting richer and seeing how that worked.
I have a lot of sympathy for the frustrations that get young men into right-wing positions and occasionally I try to puncture some of the nonsense they're being fed.
I think most of us who were previously more conservative leaning and who became more liberal just… actually have integrity, to be honest.
When we said we believed in individual freedoms for example - we meant it. MAGA gives no shits about freedom. There are practically endless similar examples because MAGA doesn’t stand for anything it claims to
Too many American right-wingers use "freedom" to mean "I get to impose costs on you; you don't get to impose costs on me." It's not equality; it's strictly positional. Look at the association of "freedom" with shitty driving for a little example: "I get to threaten you on the highway, pollute your air, tear up the land with my off-roading ... but taxing my gasoline is on offense to the Founders."
"Trump is the president for peace, Biden will start WWIII!"
Parroting fox news: "we don't need to be so friendly anymore, we need to take Canada and Greenland by force if necessary."
"Trump will bring down inflation and the price of food!"
Parroting fox news: "It's our duty to pay higher prices to support American businesses!"
"Trump and the GOP represent the party of law and order, they will protect the constitution!"
"What Trump says goes, anyone obstructing his plans are traitors! He deserves a 3rd term! He who saves his country breaks no laws!"
MAGA stands for anything that gets them what they want in the immediate moment and then tosses it away when their needs change... It's infuriating.
So say we all.
Come over to anarchism (libertarian socialism). Anarchy isn't lawlessness; it's as close as we can get to true democracy. Not this 2 party bullshit. Government AND Corporations and People shouldn't tread on us. The government should serve the needs of the people and protect their rights from other people.
Side note, if you describe it as Anarchism and avoid saying "left", "liberal", or "socialism". You might be able to reach loosely right-wing people who would otherwise turn off at any of those words.
Thing is, the economists are right about free markets being a good idea; and free markets depend on a certain kind of regulation to exist. The trouble with capitalism is that it's never been a reliable ally of freedom of any sort; going back to the origins of capitalism in the private funding of colonial slaver monopolies. The association of capitalism with free markets is largely propaganda; capitalism started with colonial slaver monopolies like the VOC; to a first approximation every firm wants to be a monopoly, and a great way of doing that is political corruption; see today's USA.
But there's a reason every government since ever — from empires to democracies — has done things like standardize weights & measures, build public goods like roads to enable trade, and establish courts of law to enforce contracts and fair dealing. Those things are really good ideas! And I'm not sure I can credit the left-anarchist proposals to replace them any more than I can credit the anarcho-capitalist ones.
Mutualism sure has some nice ideas though.
I would love to read more of this differentiation between free markets and capitalism, and the links to the slave trade, if anyone would feel so inclined to throw a book recommendation my way
For a start, look at the history of major companies traded in the first stock markets, such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC), the British East India Company (EIC), the Hudson's Bay Company, etc. These were colonial ventures, but they raised money through the sale of shares traded publicly.
However, they were not subject to competition in the market, as they enjoyed legal monopolies and used military force. They also frequently employed slave labor.
Isn't that just the (American) definition of liberal? That the market works, if restricted and guided enough by the state, so it works in the right way?
Anarchy means "without leaders", not "without order".
That is something so very many get wrong, either unintentionally, or because they've been told that lie constantly by a hierarchy hell bent on ensuring people can't think of any other way things are done.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail appeared to have the most accurate representation of anarchy *I* have seen in modern media (that flavor wouldn't work for a large government though). A fucking satirical comedy no one would take seriously. All other references I've seen about anarchy seemed like "fuck the government" was the entire ideology.
I've veered mostly into mutualism for awhile. Indavidualist anarchy is a sucker's game. NOBODY can do everything alone.
Building networks and community? That's just... what people do.
I was a bit by the libertarian bug in college but what got me is just where you draw the line and it can never deal with economic inequality. Even if you started in perfectly level field it will lead to massive inequality eventually.
I was also right libertarian, although I have been called a fascist for that, , anyway I shifted from that slowly into anarchocristianism and I will stay here. I just don't believe in government anymore only in communities and obviously in God but that's another story.
I just want people to have their needs covered, to have strong sense of communities (love your neighbors) in non violent environments and I think human government is inherently violent either physically violent or economically violent. Jesus spoke of all this.
What I think people needs to understand is it's not the same to be left in the US than in Spain for example, different countries have different kinds of issues caused by different ideologies. So it's easy to understand why someone in Germany loves worker unions but in Spain don't because in Spain the biggest ones (UGT and CCOO) work for the government (the so called Leftist Psoe)
To me this means Dorothy Day or Tolstoy. What does it mean to you?
Same but mostly Jesus.