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Are you going to lecture me? The liberal libertarian from Nevada, by all means, please enlighten me.
Haha maybe clarify, but not lecture.
Collectivism is the idea that individual rights can/should be violated in the name of the common good, or the needs of the many, or society as a whole, or however you want to describe it. The opposite is individualism, which is the idea that individual rights should never be violated for any reason.
I'm fine with Americans sticking up for other Americans, but that's not collectivism. You can organize and cooperate voluntarily without violating any individual rights.
Collectivism is the idea that individual rights can/should be violated in the name of the common good, or the needs of the many, or society as a whole, or however you want to describe it. The opposite is individualism, which is the idea that individual rights should never be violated for any reason.
I'm fine with Americans sticking up for other Americans, but that's not collectivism. You can organize and cooperate voluntarily without violating any individual rights.
Semantics. Perhaps those words had more power than I thought about.
At the core of it, we are all in this together and we should be respecting individual rights, while still caring about each other.
" How Has "Liberalism" Benefited Society Longterm? "
Quote:
Originally Posted by fordtrucks
Can you provide examples.
This is not a good question because long term society and religion and government changes and that becomes the new normal, or the new status quo. Liberalism is not a list, it is a tendency.
Liberal thinking persons are open to change.
Conservative thinking people are resistant to change.
When one has something good, one would not want to change it for something potentially worse. When one recognizes things aren't so good, one might be amenable to change, if they are not too frightened of the idea.
Today's liberals could be tomorrow's conservatives. The people may be no different but the circumstances around them change.
For an example, in our own USA, at one time there were royalists (they didn't all run to Canada). Before and during the revolution being conservative meant defending the monarchy. Even decades after the American Revolution there were still people who would welcome the king back. But wanting a return to monarchy was no longer a strictly conservative position, it was reactionary. The status quo accepted that the government would be a republic (originally a liberal idea).
So then conservatives supported the republic, but tended to oppose extending the franchise (vote) to men without real property. After male tenants were granted the right to vote, anyone who wanted to take that voting right away was a reactionary, the conservatives were resisting extending the franchise to women.
So as an example I might have been ok with letting my male tenants vote, but had not considered their wives voting too. I would have been considered liberal when the men were actually granted the vote. As time went on and women wanted to vote I might have balked at the idea, and you would say I was conservative on that matter, I might even change political factions over it.
One can see that the status quo changes over time, and the meaning of conservatism changes with it.
One can also see this play out in all kinds of ways today.
When Social Security was introduced some 80 years ago, the conservatives opposed it. The liberals promoted it. Now today we have people who want to dismantle the Social Security system and yet millions of otherwise conservative voters rely upon it to supplement their incomes. Those who want to dismantle the system are reactionaries, like the people who want to bring back the monarchy.
So in a sense everything new and good that happens is liberal, because progress comes from change and it is liberal thinking that conceives of it, that embraces it or promotes it.
BTW, it is possible for change to be a mistake, which is why people feel justified in opposing it. Just ask any American monarchist.
Ya mean like, fewer people dying from disease, and fewer ill people contaminating healthy people, by providing health care?
Quote:
Originally Posted by fordtrucks
How is liberalism responsible for that?
Jeez, do we have to spell it out for you? Liberals are the ones advocating generous funding for health care, for health education, etc. And for standards for a cleaner environment. And for standards for safer working conditions. And so on.
1. The 40-hour work week.
2. Weekends
3. Vacations
4. Women’s Voting Rights
5. The Civil Rights Act of 1964
6. The right of people of all colors to use schools and facilities.
7. Public schools.
8. Child-labor laws.
9. The right to unionize
10. Health care benefits
11. National Parks
12. National Forests
13. Interstate Highway System
14. GI Bill
15. Labor Laws/Worker’s Rights
16. Marshall Plan
17. FDA
18. Direct election of Senators by the people.
19. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Workplace safety laws
20. Social Security
21. NASA
22. The Office of Congressional Ethics. Created in 2008.
23. The Internet
24. National Weather Service
25. Product Labeling/Truth in Advertising Laws
26. Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority
27. Morrill Land Grant Act
28. Public Universities
29. Bank Deposit Insurance
30. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
31. Consumer Product Safety Commission
32. Public Broadcasting/Educational Television
33. Americans With Disabilities Act
34. Family and Medical Leave Act
35. Environmental Protection Agency
36. Clean Air Act
37. Clean Water Act
38. USDA
39. Public Libraries
40. Transcontinental Railroad and the rail system in general
41. Civilian Conservation Corps
42. Panama Canal
43. Hoover Dam
44. The Federal Reserve
45. Medicare
46. The United States Military
47. FBI
48. CIA
49. Local and state police departments
50. Fire Departments
51. Veterans Medical Care
52. Food Stamps
53. Federal Housing Administration
54. Extending Voting Rights to 18 year olds
55. Freedom of Speech
56. Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State
57. Right to Due Process
58. Freedom of The Press
59. Right to Organize and Protest
60. Pell Grants and other financial aid to students
61. Federal Aviation Administration/Airline safety regulations
62. The 13th Amendment
63. The 14th Amendment
64. The 15th Amendment
65. Unemployment benefits
66. Women’s Health Services
67. Smithsonian Institute
68. Head Start
69. Americorps
70. Mine Safety And Health Administration (This has been weakened by conservatives, resulting in recent mining disasters.)
71. Food Labeling
72. WIC
73. Peace Corps
74. United Nations
75. World Health Organization
76. Nuclear Treaties
77. Lincoln Tunnel
78. Sulfur emissions cap and trade to eliminate acid rain
79. Earned Income Tax Credit
80. The banning of lead in consumer products
81. National Institute of Health
82. Garbage pickup/clean streets
83. Banning of CFCs.
84. Erie Canal
85. Medicaid
86. TARP
87. Bail Out of the American Auto Industry
88. Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
89. Wildlife Protection
90. End of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell
91. Established the basis for Universal Human Rights by writing the Declaration of Independence
92. Miranda Rights
93. Banning of torture
94. The right to a proper defense in court
95. An independent judiciary
96. The right to vote
97. Fair, open, and honest elections
98. The right to bear arms (Do you really think extreme right wingers would allow anybody besides themselves to have firearms if in power?)
99. Health care for children and pregnant women
100. A stable and strong government established by a Constitution
101. The founding of The United States of America
102. The defeat of the Nazis and victory in World War II
103. Paramedics
104. The Brady Handgun Act
105. The Glass-Steagall Act (It has since been repealed and we’ve been paying the price for it.)
106. Oil industry regulations (The Gulf paid the price after conservatives tore many of these regulations down.)
107. The Affordable Care Act which makes insurance companies more honest and fair.
108. Woman’s Right to Choose
109. Title IX
110. Affirmative Action
111. A National Currency
112. National Science Foundation
113. Weights and measures standards
114. Vehicle Safety Standards
115. NATO
116. The income tax and power to tax in general, which have been used to pay for much of this list.
117. 911 Emergency system
118. Tsunami, hurricane, tornado, and earthquake warning systems
119. Public Transportation
120. The Freedom of Information Act
121. Emancipation Proclamation, which ended slavery
122. Antitrust legislation which prevents corporate monopolies (These laws have been savaged by conservatives, which is why corporations are getting huger and competition is disappearing leading to less jobs and high prices.)
123. Water Treatment Centers and sewage systems
124. The Meat Inspection Act
125. The Pure Food And Drug Act
126. The Bretton Woods system
127. International Monetary Fund
128. SEC, which regulates Wall Street. (Conservatives have weakened this regulatory body, resulting in the current recession.)
129. National Endowment for the Arts
130. Campaign finance laws (Conservatives have gutted these laws, leading to corporate takeovers of elections.)
131. Federal Crop Insurance
132. United States Housing Authority
133. Soil Conservation
134. School Lunch Act
135. Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act
136. Vaccination Assistance Act
137. Over the course of nearly 50 years, liberals contributed greatly to the eventual end of the Cold War.
138. The creation of counterinsurgency forces such as the Navy Seals and Green Berets.
139. Voting Rights Act, which ended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter qualification tests.
140. Civil Rights Act of 1968
141. Job Corps
142. Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
143. Teacher Corps
144. National Endowment for the Humanities
145. Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966
146. National Trails System Act of 1968
147. U.S. Postal Service
148. Title X
149. Kept the Union together through Civil War and rebuilt the South afterwards.
150. Modern Civilization
There are lots of ways progressives have benefited mankind, and I say this as a person who voted for Trump. (see the quoted content right above this post.. someone did all the heavy lifting for me. ) We are more tolerant towards people who are different, more educated (no book burnings and believing the earth is 10,000 years old)... we have care for the environment, lots of state and national parks to enjoy that many conservatives would privatize and turn into oil drilling fields if they had their way...
Frankly I think that progressives do more to benefit mankind than conservatives, they just have a few really nasty issues that turn me off from voting for them... they go after guns, they micro-manage too much for my liking.. I don't need my hand held cradle to grave, and the worst thing about them, SECTION 8 HOUSING. No suburban middle class people want low income inner city people living in their neighborhoods.. or forced busing to mix up middle class and inner city kids... these are failed social experiments.. progressives make too many excuses for minorities instead of encouraging them to clean up their act, don't act like criminals, and make something of themselves.
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) We are more tolerant towards people who are different, more educated (no book burnings and believing the earth is 10,000 years old)... we have care for the environment, lots of state and national parks to enjoy that many conservatives would privatize and turn into oil drilling fields if they had their way... 