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> The best thing to do is forbid them re-entry into the country Given the track-record lefty authoritarianism has, I'm always a little nauseated to see people

> The best thing to do is forbid them re-entry into the country Given the track-record lefty authoritarianism has, I'm always a little nauseated to see people pull out the truncheon and jack-boots to enforce "economic justice". That and suggestions like this don't even make any sense, and rarely ever do. It always looks to me like retribution is the aim here, rather than effective economic policy.

papito 5y ago
Well, now, let's not paint "authoritarianism" as "lefty". Some Marx-reading student on campus is not exactly a threat, is it? The ultra-left sentiment is, indeed, anti-liberal at its core, but it is still an irrelevant fringe. The actual, viable threat of authoritarianism is coming from the opposite side, which is a spit away from holding absolute power, here in the States, at least. And then, it's on.
- trutannus 5y ago
  This is a complete misrepresentation of my point. I never tried to 'paint "authoritarianism" as "lefty"'. I specified there's an issue with lefties who are also authoritarians. If you don't think that can exist and if you think it's not that big of a deal, I suggest you take a look at the latter-half of the 20th century. It's pretty uncharitable to paint my argument as being afraid of a student on a campus who's read the Communist Manifesto. That's not even in my argument and requires a lot of bad-faith interpolation to get to from what I said. > viable threat of authoritarianism is coming from the opposite side This is nothing more than whataboutism. There's authoritarians on both sides. They're both just as dangerous in the end-game. In Canada, it's the left mainly. In the US, there's highly vocal, and influential to public opinion, left wing authoritarians. In Canada lefty authoritarianism isn't just a fringe, it's mainstream. This is true in a lot of places too. I'm not sure why some folks insist on downplaying the risk of authoritarianism when it comes from the left as opposed to the right. Both kill just as many people, one just uses gas where the other uses starvation.
  - papito 5y ago
    "highly vocal", "influential to public opinion". I am sorry, these are just words. Prove that it's influential. Is there an effort by these "loud" individuals to drive a focused disinformation campaign targeted at nullifying legitimate votes? One third of the United States is entirely sold on it. That is quite "influential", I would say, and presents clear and present danger.
    - trutannus 5y ago
      This is just whataboutism again. There's nothing constructive to say to someone who's entrenched in ideology like you clearly are. I'm not taking about the right, and never have been. The right is irrelevant in this conversation. All you have done is derail this into but the other guys are bad too. Did I say "the right is fine?" No, I explicitly did not. I actually said both are tyrants when they can be. You've addressed nothing I've said and launched a demand for sources on cherry-picked words from the point I made. I don't want to, and won't, argue with ideology and party lines. You've made nearly identical points to me just about the right for some reason, despite the fact that I'm not even talking about them. I've used the word 'right' once in any other comment until this one. Not sure why you're trying to turn this into a right-left partisan shit-slinging match. Not every discussion of the left necessitates a discussion about the right's negative traits, and vice-versa. If you truly believe this, I suggest you get your head out of American partisan ideology.
  - depressedpanda 5y ago
    > Both kill just as many people Let's be honest here, lefty authoritarianism has historically killed way more people in total. Fortunately, righty authoritarianism was stopped; unfortunately lefty authoritarianism wasn't.
    - trutannus 5y ago
      You're correct. And the reasoning behind having not stopped lefty authoritarianism is actually very interesting and complex. At least one American general got ousted from his position after suggesting the USSR be subjugated after the Second World War.

papito 5y ago

Well, now, let's not paint "authoritarianism" as "lefty". Some Marx-reading student on campus is not exactly a threat, is it? The ultra-left sentiment is, indeed, anti-liberal at its core, but it is still an irrelevant fringe. The actual, viable threat of authoritarianism is coming from the opposite side, which is a spit away from holding absolute power, here in the States, at least. And then, it's on.

trutannus 5y ago
This is a complete misrepresentation of my point. I never tried to 'paint "authoritarianism" as "lefty"'. I specified there's an issue with lefties who are also authoritarians. If you don't think that can exist and if you think it's not that big of a deal, I suggest you take a look at the latter-half of the 20th century. It's pretty uncharitable to paint my argument as being afraid of a student on a campus who's read the Communist Manifesto. That's not even in my argument and requires a lot of bad-faith interpolation to get to from what I said. > viable threat of authoritarianism is coming from the opposite side This is nothing more than whataboutism. There's authoritarians on both sides. They're both just as dangerous in the end-game. In Canada, it's the left mainly. In the US, there's highly vocal, and influential to public opinion, left wing authoritarians. In Canada lefty authoritarianism isn't just a fringe, it's mainstream. This is true in a lot of places too. I'm not sure why some folks insist on downplaying the risk of authoritarianism when it comes from the left as opposed to the right. Both kill just as many people, one just uses gas where the other uses starvation.
- papito 5y ago
  "highly vocal", "influential to public opinion". I am sorry, these are just words. Prove that it's influential. Is there an effort by these "loud" individuals to drive a focused disinformation campaign targeted at nullifying legitimate votes? One third of the United States is entirely sold on it. That is quite "influential", I would say, and presents clear and present danger.
  - trutannus 5y ago
    This is just whataboutism again. There's nothing constructive to say to someone who's entrenched in ideology like you clearly are. I'm not taking about the right, and never have been. The right is irrelevant in this conversation. All you have done is derail this into but the other guys are bad too. Did I say "the right is fine?" No, I explicitly did not. I actually said both are tyrants when they can be. You've addressed nothing I've said and launched a demand for sources on cherry-picked words from the point I made. I don't want to, and won't, argue with ideology and party lines. You've made nearly identical points to me just about the right for some reason, despite the fact that I'm not even talking about them. I've used the word 'right' once in any other comment until this one. Not sure why you're trying to turn this into a right-left partisan shit-slinging match. Not every discussion of the left necessitates a discussion about the right's negative traits, and vice-versa. If you truly believe this, I suggest you get your head out of American partisan ideology.
- depressedpanda 5y ago
  > Both kill just as many people Let's be honest here, lefty authoritarianism has historically killed way more people in total. Fortunately, righty authoritarianism was stopped; unfortunately lefty authoritarianism wasn't.
  - trutannus 5y ago
    You're correct. And the reasoning behind having not stopped lefty authoritarianism is actually very interesting and complex. At least one American general got ousted from his position after suggesting the USSR be subjugated after the Second World War.