this post was submitted on 24 May 2025
672 points (94.7% liked)

Political Memes

8111 readers
3296 users here now

Welcome to politcal memes!

These are our rules:

Be civilJokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.

No misinformationDon’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.

Posts should be memesRandom pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.

No bots, spam or self-promotionFollow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.

No AI generated content.Content posted must not be created by AI with the intent to mimic the style of existing images

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 
(page 2) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 18 points 13 hours ago (8 children)

Anti-Conservative

There is no such thing as liberalism — or progressivism, etc.

There is only conservatism. No other political philosophy actually exists; by the political analogue of Gresham’s Law, conservatism has driven every other idea out of circulation.

There might be, and should be, anti-conservatism; but it does not yet exist. What would it be? In order to answer that question, it is necessary and sufficient to characterize conservatism. Fortunately, this can be done very concisely.

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit:

There must be in-groups whom the law protectes but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.

For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

As the core proposition of conservatism is indefensible if stated baldly, it has always been surrounded by an elaborate backwash of pseudophilosophy, amounting over time to millions of pages. All such is axiomatically dishonest and undeserving of serious scrutiny. Today, the accelerating de-education of humanity has reached a point where the market for pseudophilosophy is vanishing; it is, as The Kids Say These Days, tl;dr . All that is left is the core proposition itself — backed up, no longer by misdirection and sophistry, but by violence.

So this tells us what anti-conservatism must be: the proposition that the law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone, and cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

Then the appearance arises that the task is to map “liberalism”, or “progressivism”, or “socialism”, or whatever-the-fuck-kind-of-stupid-noise-ism, onto the core proposition of anti-conservatism.

No, it a’n’t. The task is to throw all those things on the exact same burn pile as the collected works of all the apologists for conservatism, and start fresh. The core proposition of anti-conservatism requires no supplementation and no exegesis. It is as sufficient as it is necessary. What you see is what you get:

The law cannot protect anyone unless it binds everyone; and it cannot bind anyone unless it protects everyone.

Also, those who insist on political purity tests reveal themselves to be temporarily-inconvenienced-dictators-in-waiting.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

While I am totally in the "bind all and protect all" camp and really against the "in group protect, out group rules" and I think conservatism is often in practice "protect me and rule others", I am not sure if I agree with it being called conservatism.

I think fundamentally the hierarchy in right wing politics imply an in/out group. But just like conservatism is a form of right wing political views, so you could argue that the hierarchical political views are a Form of "in group protect, out group bind".

Whatever you want to call it, is part of conservatism, I believe. But I don't like to call it conservatism, so it feels like we are defining two related but different things with the same name, which will be confusing and could be used by e.g. "progressive" capitalists to claim that they aren't conservative and therefore not "in group protect, out group bind".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (6 children)

I am not sure if I agree with it being called conservatism.

Yes, Wilhoit, if I'm understanding his treatise correctly, addressed this point:

For millenia, conservatism had no name, because no other model of polity had ever been proposed. “The king can do no wrong.” In practice, this immunity was always extended to the king’s friends, however fungible a group they might have been. Today, we still have the king’s friends even where there is no king (dictator, etc.). Another way to look at this is that the king is a faction, rather than an individual.

The corollary label could be "Anti-Establishment". Perhaps, "Anti-Authoritarian".

load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Also, those who insist on political purity tests reveal themselves to be temporarily-inconvenienced-dictators-in-waiting.

I hope this isn't about leftists refusing to support biden/kamala in the US.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (3 children)

You didn’t have to support them. You just had to use your brain and choose the lesser of two evils. Like which one of these people is more likely to illegally deport me for exercising my first amendment rights? I think you’ll find the answer to that question soon.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Or maybe support someone who isn't one of the two evils

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Our (U.S.A.) best option for that in recent history was Bernie Sanders in the 2016 election.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Thats still one of the two parties

Bernie is certainly a diamond in the rough - but don't ignore that rough.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago

He is an independent as a Senator. But you're correct in that he ran as a Democrat in 2016.

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
load more comments (6 replies)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 hours ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 hours ago (5 children)

Somewhat yeah, but I think there are a few others, just mostly not people who are that vocal about it

load more comments (5 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] [email protected] 19 points 15 hours ago

The kind that got chucked off reddit for being mean to Trump, Musk and Netanyahu.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Get your finger out of the trigger guard.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

To be fair, if you saw the movie, he was definitely ready to pull that trigger within the next milliseconds. But yeah shouldn't be pointing in the air without any trigger discipline

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 day ago (23 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

Where is the bubble that says "imperialism by Russia is fine"?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 6 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I agree we need a third party where leftist policies are allowed to exist

[–] [email protected] 7 points 12 hours ago

You need a different electoral system then

load more comments (21 replies)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 12 hours ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago

Me too. Join a lefty instance so you can choose when you deal with .worlds reddit-lite crap and not be force fed it.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

Have you tried like not being one

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments
view more: ‹ prev next ›