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Has participation on this forum changed your political views?

Has participation on the forum changed your political views?

  • Yes, significantly

    Votes: 3 6.8%
  • Yes, but to a minor degree

    Votes: 10 22.7%
  • Yes, but only on some issues

    Votes: 13 29.5%
  • No, my views are exactly the same since I joined

    Votes: 12 27.3%
  • No, it has reaffirmed and harden my views

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • I'm still open for persuasion

    Votes: 8 18.2%
  • IDK/Other

    Votes: 1 2.3%

  • Total voters
    44
Because a "minimalist" state would people living back in Little Houses on the Prairie. No thanks.

To me, minimalist means limiting social and corporate welfare as much as possible. I believe our government has a duty to build roads, bridges, schools, airports, all of that stuff.
 
To me, minimalist means limiting social and corporate welfare as much as possible. I believe our government has a duty to build roads, bridges, schools, airports, all of that stuff.
Some would not consider you a libertarian if you support any of those.
 
Some would not consider you a libertarian if you support any of those.

Whatever is for them. I don't think the government is neccesarily the best at running those instituitions when they are built, but I do think that they do more good then harm for actually building them.
 
Some would not consider you a libertarian if you support any of those.

Well building roads can be private, but its not high on the list of priorities for libertarians, so its fine being on the list. Really, I'm rather indifferent on it. I would like them to be privately operated, but its really no big thing if they aren't. I can live with it.
Public schools some libertarians support, some don't. I don't though.
Airports. Well, yeah, pretty much that is a no no.
 
Whatever is for them. I don't think the government is neccesarily the best at running those instituitions when they are built, but I do think that they do more good then harm for actually building them.
Well building roads can be private, but its not high on the list of priorities for libertarians, so its fine being on the list. Really, I'm rather indifferent on it. I would like them to be privately operated, but its really no big thing if they aren't. I can live with it.
Public schools some libertarians support, some don't. I don't though.
Airports. Well, yeah, pretty much that is a no no.
Just for the sake of conversation, my thoughts...

  • Roads/Bridges: Public, 100%, no tolls. Yeah, I know it's not the most efficient, but I'm willing to pay for convenience.
  • Schools: Both. All-public and all-private both serve to widen the gap in results, IMO. People should have the option per their wishes, not the dictates of a school board or government entity. I do think the federal government should get out of education completely, though. State and on down only. Shoot, county level would be fine with me.
  • Airports: 100% private.

    I'll add another...
  • Prisons: 100% public... for ethical reasons. There should be ZERO profit motive in our legal & justice system. Too much abuse when a profit motive is introduced.
 
I was politically aware and active long before I came here. I'm already set in my ways.

All this board has done is sour my opinion who self-identify as "progressive". Starting to think it's Hebrew or Latin for "idiot".

And that's not just AtlantaAdonis swaying me.
 
I was politically aware and active long before I came here. I'm already set in my ways.

All this board has done is sour my opinion who self-identify as "progressive". Starting to think it's Hebrew or Latin for "idiot".

And that's not just AtlantaAdonis swaying me.
What I dislike about the term "progressive" is that the very term insinuates that anything else is somehow "regressive", and that's simply not true. In fact, it's an outright lie. Why someone would want to identify them self with a lie is beyond me, but to each their own. Anyway, change isn't always good. Sometimes the tried and true is just fine and the better option, sometimes things do need to be changed.
 
What I dislike about the term "progressive" is that the very term insinuates that anything else is somehow "regressive", and that's simply not true. In fact, it's an outright lie. Why someone would want to identify them self with a lie is beyond me, but to each their own. Anyway, change isn't always good. Sometimes the tried and true is just fine and the better option, sometimes things do need to be changed.

I just read "progressive" as "fringe left", personally.
 
Just for the sake of conversation, my thoughts...

Roads/Bridges: Public, 100%, no tolls. Yeah, I know it's not the most efficient, but I'm willing to pay for convenience.

When I was younger I used to think that services provided by the state could be a great way to fund it while still offering a voluntary arrangement towards those ends. It would work kind of sales taxes except instead of taxes on things from the market it would tax certain services like roads provided by the government. It rumbled in my brain for a long time, but in the end it seems to me like the entire position was compromise from top to down and furthermore it seemed to be an extremely slippy slope that I wasn't entirely able to agree to accept.

Schools: Both. All-public and all-private both serve to widen the gap in results, IMO. People should have the option per their wishes, not the dictates of a school board or government entity. I do think the federal government should get out of education completely, though. State and on down only. Shoot, county level would be fine with me.

I understand this view, its just that I happen to find solving a problem of cost with government is a horrible application of logic. Government doesn't lower cost of services it provides, but instead raises the cost as a whole and causes imbalance in the market. I also happen to find that responsibly to educate your child lies with the parents and by extension the people. I'm not entirely against standards being set by the state though.

Airports: 100% private.

I'm not entirely sure we can go back so easily, but I agree with that.

I'll add another...

Prisons: 100% public... for ethical reasons. There should be ZERO profit motive in our legal & justice system. Too much abuse when a profit motive is introduced.

For me it really has nothing to do with profits, but that prisons should be public since they are an arm of justice.
 
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For the most part, the changes in my views came from outside the forum.
 
The political term that seems most all over the place is "libertarian." Left. Right. Middle. Or just wacko. It seems "libertarian" mostly means "very angry about everything."
 
Has participation on this forum changed your political views?

It has mine. When I first was here, I was a stauch Obama supporter, what I would call Independent Democrat and more views leaning left than right. My early messages clearly were "pro-Democrat." "anti-Republican" and "pro-Obama." I had been a Democrat election judge for my precinct.

However, reading so many messages by members "on the left" and "on the right," OTHER THAN SOCIAL ISSUES - I find my self going further and further "right" and "Republican." However, I disagree with Republicans vehemently on nearly all social issues (gay marriage, abortion).

I am stunned at the extreme bigotries of many on "the left" - economic, gender, race, by their almost rabid opposition to free speech, the mass number of messages calling for people of different views to be imprisoned in extremely harsh terms - and then causing them to lose nearly all rights including the right to vote, and overally contempt of individuality, private citizenry rights, and demanding goverment control-freakism. I have learned that "liberal" mostly now is the anti-thesis of "personal freedom."

Has your views changed, hardened, or ? by participation on this forum?

If I have ever come across as too authoritarian, it is because most of the things you listed have a perverted half-existence to begin with, although the suggestion that we lack authoritarian right-wing figures on this site does little to support your change.

Anyway, mostly just hardened me.
 
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What I dislike about the term "progressive" is that the very term insinuates that anything else is somehow "regressive", and that's simply not true. In fact, it's an outright lie. Why someone would want to identify them self with a lie is beyond me, but to each their own. Anyway, change isn't always good. Sometimes the tried and true is just fine and the better option, sometimes things do need to be changed.
Yup, “Sometimes the tried and true is just fine and the better option, sometimes things do need to be changed.” Yes, to make any progress one has to address things just like this.
 
This website helped me find what my views actually are. My general checklist on how I consider an issue hasn't changed, I feel like I have always been open minded. This website has made realize how much the hyper religous and the flaming liberals really make politics a pain and shameful.
I have been convinced by others to change my views on this website and can't think of what they are right now, specifically, but I have definitely been convinced by others.
 
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