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Thread: Totalitarianism, Anarchism, and Our Growing Discontents

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    Totalitarianism, Anarchism, and Our Growing Discontents

    I snipped out the anarchism part.

    Totalitarianism, Anarchism, and Our Growing Discontents

    Given the history of Communism in Russia, China, and elsewhere, we have good reason to fear that political leftism will have totalitarian tendencies, even when the leftists in question happen to be Americans....

    There’s an odor of totalitarianism in the many efforts being made by leftists nowadays to repress certain manifestations of free speech and freedom of conscience. We are told that “hate speech” doesn’t deserve the protections that are normally given to all other kinds of speech. For hate speech, unlike scientific speech and pornography (allegedly), does harm.

    ...Our leftists would agree, at least as an abstract proposition, that freedom of conscience is an excellent thing. But if your conscience tells you, a member of the KKK, to beat up a black man, should the rest of us, should the law, respect your freedom of conscience? Of course not.

    But if your conscience tells you not to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding celebration, is that any different?

    Some of us (myself, for example) think we detect embryonic forms of totalitarianism in this leftist crusade against hate speech and freedom of conscience. Others (leftists) think people like me are moral dinosaurs, trying to block a wonderful movement that is “on the right side of history.”

    ...<snip>...

    Then the totalitarian impulse will be given free rein, for a super-powerful state will be needed to take the place of mother, father, and God.

    The snipped part argues the left's ultimate aim is "the anarchist ideal of total freedom." That, I suppose, avoids oxymoron if you understand the left's view of freedom is one of freedom from responsibility in total dependence of a central planning state.

    It's not my view of anarchy or freedom which is more along the lines of freeing society and the social order from the state.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Freedom has it's limitations.

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    anarchists shopping in Seattle

    I see job creators. Insurance claims and adjusters, glazers and possibly electrcians to name a few. Lets not forget law enforcement.

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    Quote Originally Posted by rcfieldz View Post
    Freedom has it's limitations.
    Right, generally called responsibility for one's actions, the consequences thereof, the successes and especially the failures.
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    Quote Originally Posted by rcfieldz View Post

    anarchists shopping in Seattle

    I see job creators. Insurance claims and adjusters, glazers and possibly electrcians to name a few. Lets not forget law enforcement.

    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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    How $#@!ing stupid that video was.

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    Quote Originally Posted by rcfieldz View Post
    How $#@!ing stupid that video was.
    Eye of the beholder, I suppose. What'd you have trouble with, the idea of lost opportunity costs? The idea the shop owner would have spent his money anyhow?
    Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire. ― Gustav Mahler

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