3 ms·

Free market for thee, but not for me.

• crooked-v 6y ago
  > Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: there must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect. https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progressives/#comment-729288 https://crookedtimber.org/2018/03/21/liberals-against-progre...
  • mjburgess 6y ago
    It is propagandistic to call that "conservatism". It's commonly called, "tribalism". And yes, healthy politics is conducted on the basis that human societies are tribal. Democracy is just the "accounting system" for competing tribal concerns. Universalism, "classical liberalism", etc. is an occasional side effect of "healthy tribalism". It cannot be a political goal, because there are genuine contradictions in the preferences of various groups -- and they cannot be all jointly-realised. Faux-universalism fails to acknowledge this an ends up preferencing the "natural" distribution of resources, ie., that arising from the most powerful groups (taking, competing) with the weaksest.
  • glangdale 6y ago
    This is certainly true of modern "Trumpian" conservatism. I think it's possible to imagine a cautious centre-right conservative for whom this characterization does not hold (a la Buckley's quote "A conservative is someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.") I'm not either kind of conservative myself, but I'd much rather deal with the old-school variety, who at their best represent a reasonable chunk of society.