3 ms·

Totally agree with your sentiment but my initial point was made against the argument that the left was intellectually weak because some of its members shout dow

by tomlock 10y ago

Totally agree with your sentiment but my initial point was made against the argument that the left was intellectually weak because some of its members shout down the opposition.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago
At this point, I would describe mainstream conservatism as intellectually weak, and mainstream liberalism as nonexistent. Conservatism has been tried, and the flaws of its current incarnation have shown up: socioeconomic inequality has reached and surpassed crisis levels. There is mass homelessness while houses lie empty, mass preventable sickness, mass socially induced drug-addiction, blue-collar underemployment while infrastructure rots, horrifying corruption and arrogance in government, and moral hazard and fraud in the financial sector. All of this, while we also live in a time of unprecedentedly low crime and social peace, because people mostly don't want to blindly lash out at a fellow citizen who did not cause their problems. The time has come to put conservatism on the back-burner until we later encounter some problem against which it can serve as an effective tool. And yet the opposition can barely muster the chutzpah to defend the Affordable Care Act, much less to create a 21st-century New Deal! Worse, what are people focusing on? College students protesting! Can someone explain to me how stricter behavioral policing of college students is going to rebuild rusted bridges or install high-speed passenger rail? Who gets health-insurance out of telling college students to shut up? Meanwhile, the President of the United States tweets us all "letters from grandpa" material he saw on blogs, while his party plots to realize an ideological utopia that would actually make us all worse-off. Why? Because college students! And fake protesters paid by George Soros! This is insane. We have real issues that can't be solved with a hashtag, a tweet, or a cardboard sign.
- Chris2048 10y ago
  > College students protesting! Are you talking about Berkeley? I'm not sure a lot of those were college students. Nor were they protesting...
  - eli_gottlieb 10y ago
    I was talking about Middlebury. And Hampshire. And Oberlin.

by tomlock 10y ago

Totally agree with your sentiment but my initial point was made against the argument that the left was intellectually weak because some of its members shout down the opposition.

eli_gottlieb 10y ago

At this point, I would describe mainstream conservatism as intellectually weak, and mainstream liberalism as nonexistent. Conservatism has been tried, and the flaws of its current incarnation have shown up: socioeconomic inequality has reached and surpassed crisis levels. There is mass homelessness while houses lie empty, mass preventable sickness, mass socially induced drug-addiction, blue-collar underemployment while infrastructure rots, horrifying corruption and arrogance in government, and moral hazard and fraud in the financial sector. All of this, while we also live in a time of unprecedentedly low crime and social peace, because people mostly don't want to blindly lash out at a fellow citizen who did not cause their problems. The time has come to put conservatism on the back-burner until we later encounter some problem against which it can serve as an effective tool. And yet the opposition can barely muster the chutzpah to defend the Affordable Care Act, much less to create a 21st-century New Deal! Worse, what are people focusing on? College students protesting! Can someone explain to me how stricter behavioral policing of college students is going to rebuild rusted bridges or install high-speed passenger rail? Who gets health-insurance out of telling college students to shut up? Meanwhile, the President of the United States tweets us all "letters from grandpa" material he saw on blogs, while his party plots to realize an ideological utopia that would actually make us all worse-off. Why? Because college students! And fake protesters paid by George Soros! This is insane. We have real issues that can't be solved with a hashtag, a tweet, or a cardboard sign.

Chris2048 10y ago
> College students protesting! Are you talking about Berkeley? I'm not sure a lot of those were college students. Nor were they protesting...
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago
  I was talking about Middlebury. And Hampshire. And Oberlin.