This site has moved to robert.williamsonline.us.
Anna has a link to some guy's list of why he is (supposedly) neither conservative nor liberal. I thought the "Top Ten Reasons I'm Not A (Left-)Liberal" list was pretty good, but I had to respond to the "Top Ten Reasons I'm Not A Conservative".
1. Censorship. The complete absence of evidence that exposure to pornography or sexually-explicit material is harmful to children or anyone else doesn't stop conservatives from advocating massive censorship.
I'm not aware of any real efforts at censorship. Unless, of course, you are defining "keeping our tax money from paying for things we find objectionable" as "censorship". I have no desire to prevent anyone from producing just about anything. I do have a strong desire to make sure that my money is not spent to produce or distribute it, and that I have some remote hope that I could still participate in society but be able to avoid things such as pornography that our society generally finds indecent and inappropriate.
2. The War on Drugs. We found out that Prohibition was a bad idea back in the 1930s -- all it did was create a huge and virulent criminal class, erode respect for the law, and corrupt our politics. Some people never learn.
Of course, there is no reason to believe that taking drugs has any negative consequences for anyone other than the one who is using them.
3. Creationism. I don't know who I find more revolting, the drooling morons who actally believe creationism or the intelligent panderers who know better but provide them with political cover for their religious-fundamentalist agenda in return for votes.
Drool. I don't know who I find more revolting, the morons who can understand that everyday items must have been made by an intelligent creator, but the universe doesn't require one; or the ones who know better but won't admit to it because they refuse to accept something bigger than they are. Moreover, I don't care whether or not you believe in evolution or not. But I'd like to exert some control over what my child is taught, especially when it is a bunch of incoherent and contradictory theories based on ambiguous evidence, and runs deeply contrary to my religious beliefs.
4. Abortion. The conservatives' looney-toon religious need to believe that a fertilized gamete is morally equivalent to a human being has done the other half of making a reasoned debate on abortion nigh-impossible.
I believe life begins at conception, period. Perhaps you could explain when life does actually begin? Birth? Conception? Somewhere in between? Why do you think so? And if a fertilized gamete (or an unborn baby in any given stage of development) is not a living human being, just what is it?
5. Racism. I haven't forgiven the Right for segregation, Jim Crow laws, and lynching blacks. And I never will.
Why does the Right get blamed for all these things? I am not racist nor are any of my right-wing friends. You are perhaps confusing redneck idiots with conservatives. Let's also try to remember which political party supported all those things.
6. Sexism. Way too much conservative thought still reads like an apologia for keeping women barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen.
I think that most conservatives want to elevate public perception of motherhood and homemakers back to where it belongs. This may result in more barefoot, pregnant homemakers. I think that homemakers, like my wife, are worthy of the utmost respect because of the job they do.
7. Anti-science. Stem cells, therapeutic cloning -- it doesn't matter how many more diabetes, cancer and AIDS patients have to die to protect the anti-abortion movement's ideological flanks. Knowledge -- who needs it? Conservatives would try suppressing astronomy if the telescope had just been invented.
I oppose any destruction of human life (and I've already stated when I think that begins) for scientific purposes. I am opposed to therapeutic cloning, and embryonic stem cell research. How can that be generalized and stereotyped as "anti-science"?
8. Family values. Conservatives are so desperate to reassert the repressive `normalcy' they think existed in grand-dad's time that they pretend we can undo the effects of the automobile, television, the Pill, and the Internet. And should try to.
Things were much better, in some ways, in the past. Other things are much better now. Does it have to be either-or? Can we "test everything, cling to that which is good"? I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But there are many things in the future I dream of that would look like elements of the past (such as simpler lives, more personal freedoms, fewer mega-corporations, restoration of the traditional family structure, reduced divorce, etc). Your criticism is so unspecific that it's hard to even respond.
9. Ronald Wilson Reagan. A B-movie actor who thought ketchup was a vegetable. His grip on reality was so dangerously weak that the Alzheimer's made no perceptible difference. Conservatives worship him.
I was too young when Reagan was still politically active to have any opinion here, so I'll pass.
10. Conservatives, by and large, are villains.
Wanting to be left alone, to worship as we think appropriate and raise our children as we think appropriate, to not have our money spent on things we find morally repugnant, to want to protect innocent human life - these things are villainous? Bah.
Posted by Robert at June 14, 2002 10:18 PMrobert, i must admit that your list has given me a few belly laughs. oh man, i know you're unabashedly conservative... but... sheesh. the conservatives that represent folks like you are, by and large, villains. but of course, the same could be said for the liberal in office. bah, i think they're all crooks. ;)
Posted by: anna on June 17, 2002 11:29 AMoh yea, and reagan was the devil. really. i'm old enough to remember. and no, that's not a leftist knee jerk reaction. ;)
Posted by: anna on June 17, 2002 11:36 AMthe conservatives that represent folks like you are, by and large, villains
I appreciate you making a distinction between the villainous conservative politicians and folks like me. Although some people may consider me a villain, I don't think it's fair to hold the actions of a politician against their supporters (unless they are supporting the politicians' actions).
Posted by: Robert on June 17, 2002 01:19 PMi don't support either side of the political spectrum myself, and i think both extremes go too far. the one thing i would like to say in response to your support of a return to the past-is that the past of racism, sexism, robber-barons with mega-bucks owning the world past? every culture back to rome idealized the past as some better, simpler time. i do agree with you that we must look forward to the future, i just think the "past" you talk of was not that great. We may seem to have had greater freedom in the past, but we also had alot less laws protecting us at the workplace and in the courts. maybe if the left and right pooled their resources we could improve on the system we have now(pipe-dream at best). either way, its good to know people like you and anna are out there bringing these issues up..
Posted by: monkey on June 17, 2002 03:19 PMthe past of racism, sexism, robber-barons with mega-bucks owning the world
To reiterate:
Things were much better, in some ways, in the past. Other things are much better now. Does it have to be either-or?
...
(such as simpler lives, more personal freedoms, fewer mega-corporations, restoration of the traditional family structure, reduced divorce, etc).
Certainly not all of the past was good. Racism certainly is bad. We've made huge strides in that area. I think in a lot of cases we've reached equality, and programs such as affirmative action should end. In other cases there's probably more work to do.
As far as sexism, I suspect we'd have some different definitions of sexism and what's good and bad. I keep my little wifey barefoot (well, I'm kind of "progressive" in that I do let her wear shoes sometimes), pregnant (God has demonstrated His sovereignty in our lives in this area), and in the kitchen (unless she's cleaning the bathroom).
As far as the robber barons with megabucks owning the world, I'm not sure that much has changed. I'm very pro-capitalism (ever try to get a job from a poor person?) but also pro-competition, even when that means governmental oversight and intervention to keep the playing field level.
We've made important advances in technology, environmental science, communication, and equality. I don't think we should sacrifice those advances.
I don't want to go back to everything in the past, but there are a lot of elements that most everyone would agree are good. That's what I'd like to recover from the past.
Posted by: Robert on June 17, 2002 03:37 PMIts the Right wings who keep the average man down. They hoard the money supply and force their f**ked up morals on me. I smoke pot, I have premarital relations, I support abortions and I think that we should accept all people born to this earth, no matter their beliefs or affiliations. Its the capitalists who brainwash our children with the public schools, its the capitalists who buy the product of our labor for as little as possible. We, the prolitariate have to bring down the rich, and fight for moral individualism and for socialist economics.
Posted by: Dan on April 9, 2003 08:33 AM