In the “Left vs. Right Authoritarianism” thread, Belmont31R made the comment,
What ever happened to leave me alone and Ill leave you alone?
As an extension of this, why do people tend to hate those of us who hold that belief so much? I’ve found this hatred to be almost universal over the last three years as my beliefs have gotten progressively libertarian and I really don’t understand it.
An example of this came up today (actually about 45min ago) in my Nature and Human Values class. There were many people in the class that were opposed to the topic at hand (genetic engineering) on religious grounds. I made the comment that just because they didn’t like something and justified it with, in my opinion, a faulty interpretation of the Bible, does not give them the right to force me to live by their beliefs, even if I’m in the minority. This really made several of them upset and in some cases, angry.
I don’t understand their anger. I wasn’t trying to force them to live by what I believe, I wasn’t condemning their religion, I wasn’t doing anything of the sort. All I said was that they don’t have the right to force me to do a damn thing and similarly, I don’t have the right to force them.
This should be the most acceptable viewpoint to a reasonable person I would think. It isn’t like I was trying to force the Christians to convert to Islam, I was just telling them to stay out of my life. Does anyone have insight into this thought process? What is it that makes the beliefs that I hold along with many others on this forum so hated by the rest of the population?
The fact that they have no control over you… and what you could do with the freedom of being free of others rules (e.g. with DNA engineering, you might decrease infant mortality rates, but you could also turn into a psychopath who creates monsters from innocent human embryos).
It comes from a culture fear-mongering, plain and simple.
The prof flipped out in my criminal law class when I said that every prisoner who was not expected to pay back the costs of his incarceration in taxes once released should be executed as a matter of economic pragmatism. The next day he gave a public apology for his flip out.
Mr. Evans: You ever been to Lawrence KS young man? Jack Bull Chiles: [scoffs] No, I reckon not Mr. Evans. I don’t believe I’d be too welcome in Lawrence. Mr. Evans: I didn’t think so. Before this war began, my business took me there often. As I saw those northerners build that town, I witnessed the seeds of our destruction being sown. Jack Bull Chiles: The foundin’ of that town was truly the beginnin’ of the Yankee invasion. Mr. Evans: I’m not speakin’ of numbers, nor even abolitionist trouble makin’. It was the schoolhouse. Before they built their church, even, they built that schoolhouse. And they let in every tailor’s son… and every farmer’s daughter in that country. Jack Bull Chiles: Spellin’ won’t help you hold a plow any firmer. Or a gun either. Mr. Evans: No, it won’t Mr. Chiles. But my point is merely that they rounded every pup up into that schoolhouse because they fancied that everyone should think and talk the same free-thinkin’ way they do with no regard to station, custom, propriety. And that is why they will win. Because they believe everyone should live and think just like them. And we shall lose because we don’t care one way or another how they live. We just worry about ourselves. Jack Bull Chiles: Are you sayin’, sir, that we fight for nothin’? Mr. Evans: Far from it, Mr. Chiles. You fight for everything that we ever had, as did my son. It’s just that… we don’t have it anymore.
That was my point in that thread. Both conservatives and liberals want to project their idea of “right” onto you.
Conservatives want religious values and “traditional” family legally enforced on everyone.
Liberals want social and economic justice (AKA communism) legally forced on everyone.
I don’t care what anyone does so long as it doesnt have a direct impact on me or my family. If someone wants to smoke pot in their house then so be it. If I want a full auto M240 to shoot on a range or my own property then I should be able to.
Where’s the party for the fiscally conservative and socially liberal (I’m not talking everyone-should-make-the-same liberal, I’m talking why-can’t-gay-people-get-married liberal)? Every party that claims to be both seems to quickly move towards Republican or Democrat policies in short order.
Well I believe that marriage should be a religious institution so if you can’t find a church to marry you, you are shit out of luck. There shouldn’t be any need for a government equivalent because all of the shit that marriage currently brings as far as the government is concerned shouldn’t exist in the first place.
The problem is that the saying “Live and let live” is easy to say or repeat, but very difficult to practice. I think it comes down to one word, judgemental. People can’t hold back their personal opinions regarding others. Its hard to allow principles to trump ones emotional feelings.
It isn’t hard in practice at all. Hell, I am probably one of the most judgmental people you could ever meet but that doesn’t mean I want to force all the idiots I see to do something else. They’re stupidity doesn’t affect me one way or another so they can go about their lives making stupid decisions all along the way and the only thing I will do about it is make sure not to count them as a friend and to stay away from them whenever possible.
It only becomes my problem when the government starts making ME pay for THEIR stupidity. That is why I don’t approve of welfare programs.
Well, the most obvious one is demographics. Go ask the Soviets, er I mean Russians, how well their family policies with respect to the sanctity of marriage have worked out. Or go to China and see how their one child policy is about to detonate their society. The greatest indicator of financial and social stability is a man, a woman and children under one roof.
Well your a better man than most. I try to live by that saying as a golden rule. I must admit it causes some internal moral conflict. You must be a pretty laid back dude.
It should be the Constitution party but sadly it isn’t. It’s Libertarians more than any other but even then you have some with an agenda trying to run things. Doesn’t help that the average person who calls themselves a Libertarian is nothing more than a stoner Democrat who wants legal weed.