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Like surely you must have acquired a clue by now. (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/microblogmemes@lemmy.world
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[–] 33 points 2 years ago (77 children)

i'm 24 and a proud conservative: i want to replace all highways with railways and interurban tramways, return to having small dense cities surrounded by lively rurality, dissolve large corporations and replace them with small local businesses, and bring back that thing where we went "hey the slightly insane guy who never works is living in a shack that barely qualifies as shelter, let's build him a new cottage so he has a proper place to live, because everyone has a fundamental right to housing no matter what."

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  • [–] 72 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Conservative literally means to conserve. To not change the way things are.

    You wanting change means you are progressive.

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  • [–] 12 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    The poster would like to revert to a time of more progressive economic policies and conserve it. 😏😆 In the US, it’s a funny dichotomy that the progressives are fighting for things which were lost.

    The US had everything the poster points out at one time. It’s just been dismantled over the years in the name of progress.

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  • [–] 49 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    I don't understand how those world views can identify and (you didn't say this, so hopefully not) vote conservative in US these days

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    He's making light of how twisted the US understanding of the word "conservative" has become.

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  • [–] 13 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    If conservatives actually governed the way they should they’d be easier to vote for. Small government, cutting spending, actually legislating to support rural Americans with things like good education and affordable health care…etc.

    But they’re pretty much the opposite of all that.

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  • [–] 14 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    That's the point. The Republican party isn't conservative at all, but radical. They've abandoned most conservative political positions, including orthodox fiscal management, and exchanged conservative values for a constructed collection of 'traditional values', which are derived less from tradition than from the endless grievances that have replaced policy as their political program

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    Is there evidence that conservatism was ever that anywhere though? Because those are the things that current conservatives SAY but never what they DO. Is there any evidence of conservatives actually doing those things because as far as I have seen it has always been lip service, sleight of hand. I'm open to examples to change my mind.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Afaik someone can correct me if I'm wrong but the Democratic party used to be the fiscal conservative party in the 1800s

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    You're correct. Teddy Roosevelt, one of the most progressive Presidents in history, was on the Republican ticket against Taft in 1912. I cannot fathom having had the ability to vote for Teddy, and voting for either Taft or Wilson.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Western conservative parties were mostly fiscally responsible until the 80s, and outside the USA they've tended to come around on many civil liberties. Women's suffrage was passed with cross-aisle support in many European countries, for instance, as was same-sex marriage. Even today, the conservative parties in Northern Europe mostly stand for fiscal responsibility. In general, conservative parties in systems with Proportional representation seem to be much less exposed to capture by the far right.

    I'll almost certainly never vote conservative, but given how many do, I'm thankful to be living in a country where that means budget cuts and reduced income tax for the upper middle, and not the stripping away of rights and liberties and deficit-funded tax cuts for the rich.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You just described all the things that conservatives have worked hard to stop from happening every time they've been in power. The only political ideology that actively wants to house the homeless, build robust public transport, moves to small towns and boycotts large corporations to support small business are deep to far left.

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  • [–] 34 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    what you just said means you are not a conservative...

    a conservative would want to keep the highway system the way it is, take more money away from its maintenance bugdet if anything. a conservative would never want to dissolve large businesses. a conservative would not give a crap about what you're using as shelter, and certainly wouldn't believe that access to housing is a basic human right.

    You're a lot more left than you realize. you might even be socialist. do you believe that the workers of a company should be given the profit that company enjoys, or should it all go to the shirts at the top? Do you believe that the working class should never be disarmed, and any attempt to disarm the working class should be disrupted?

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago

    yes, very aware of that, as i am in fact an anarchist syndicalist.

    the point is to make fun of how modern conservatives have nothing they want to conserve other than their racial purity and personal wealth.

    i would very much like to reclaim the term conservative for opinions that are ACTUALLY conservative, such as ending the suburban experiment and the neoliberal pursuit of wealth above actual happiness and social stability.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Your motivation in thinking these changes are the right ones is not conservative, I imagine. You probably think about the future, how things could be better, not based on some traditional values or because you remember how things were vaguely "better" in the past.

    Sorry to break it to you, you are progressive.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago*

    it's almost amazing how many people had the point sail over their heads, i'm very much progressive :)

    i look at the past, see it was in many ways pretty good, look at the present, see it's pretty fucking miserable in those same ways, and then the obvious conclusion is that maybe people in the past did some stuff right, such as enjoying the sociopolitical benefits of public transport and workers' rights.

    then i see people call themselves conservative and just advocate making things WORSE, and i'm filled with an intense desire to wallop them with wet day-old fish.

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  • [–] 22 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    You said you are a proud conservative and then proceeded to list off things that are completely antithetical to it. I am so confused. Everything you said is progressive, socialist, leftist, not at all conservative. Conservatives want things to stay as they are, to not progress, to not change. I.E. This system is working (for me) so let's keep it. Progressives say things aren't working (for everyone) so we should attempt to make it better for us all instead of a few people having everything and most people having little.

    I mean this in the kindest most supportive way possible. You may want to do some introspection and comparisons with what you want to happen and what the political parties are pushing for. You may find you are anything but conservative or you may find you actually are conservative and you really don't want those things you said.

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  • [–] 9 points 2 years ago (36 children)

    That's liberal. Far left liberal in fact.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Liberals would be against "government interventionism" such as getting rid of large corporations or taxing to then spend that money on public transportion.

    Modern liberalism is not at all aligned with the Left on the Economic space, only on the non-Economic, personal freedoms, one.

    Granted, big picture thinking would eventually end up concluding that differentiated treatment depending on wealth together with wealth inequality in overall reduces individual freedom (a few are freer to do what they want but the many are less free) which would end up aligning at least some liberals with leftwing thinking, but sadly that's not what liberalism is nowadays.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    Sorry I'm from Canada and we have an actual political system still and not a charade. Trust me everywhere outside of the U.S liberal still means progressive. Your 'liberal' centrism is unique. We call that conservative.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (5 children)

    I'm in Europe and I'm making my comment mainly based on my experience with the British Liberals (both the overt ones - the Liberal Party - and the less overt ones - New Labour) as I lived in Britain for over a decade and was even involved in politics there.

    Next to the traditional Left in most of Europe, Liberalism isn't at all Left: it's just Neoliberalism with an Pro-Equality But Not The Economic Kind coat of paint to make it seem left of center.

    You do get elements of liberalism within leftwing parties in Europe, but they're not liberal in the full sense, probably because of the contradiction I pointed out in my first post (that on the economic side, complete freedom for money results in quality of life going down for most people, which goes directly against the leftwing principle of "the greatest good for the greatest number").

    It's not by chance that Liberals constantly talk about what's good for businesses or for the Economy in absolute terms (if it's good for those, then it's overall good) whilst not everything that's "good for businesses or the Economy" is actually good for people: businesses and the Economy are at most a means to an end for democratic lefties (in that they can make life better for most people and must be regulated to stop them from doing the opposite), not an end in itself.

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