Search the Community

People say "I'm a social democrat" or "I'm a libertarian". This creates an unnecessary difference where both may be just mindless robots... But seriously, that says nothing about their quality of reasoning or method of getting to our position. For us, any mental position is secondary to reasoning things carefully and comparing them to evidence. Also, many of us have a long history of learning, refining or rejecting our previous beliefs, so that it has become almost a habit. Some of us even have a dose of healthy masochism that drives us to examine exactly opposite "beliefs" to what we "believe" in. That is what defines us, not our momentary position. Please note that this is very different to Stef's benevolent turn of mind towards Christians, the sources of social stability and not killing unbelievers. His newfound tolerance is based on similarity of conclusions and has its merits. But I wonder if there is also merit to identifying ourselves as seasoned, methodical developers of our worldviews. Because there sure seems little benefit to identifying ourselves by the labels of positions. But there are downsides to this as well. This kind of defining ourselves seems extremely boastful, over-intellectualized, and even though it's true, it may put people to shame unnecessarily. I don't know how people feel about this. It's true that I used to have resistance to certain ideas - I come from the leftist/transhumanist/ anarchist side after all. It took me a few years to understand what libertarianism is about. I've seen that Ayn Rand's philosophy is valid, obviously taken from Aristotle, but I didn't see how it jibes with her other ideas and I succumbed to many popular prejudices against her. But I've also reasoned my position on woo woo & metaphysics well enough to defend them in front of scientific skeptics & atheists. I've learned a lot and rejected what wasn't true (not everything, I've had some valid reasons for my position). Very few people would ever do that. So far, I've usually tried to say that I understand people's position, that I used to hold it as well, but it was long ago. I don't remember so well how it was like to be a democratic socialist and I'd like to remind myself what was it like. Knowing things as end conclusions isn't very useful. What is useful is being able to put ourselves into the old mindset and have empathy with misinformed and propagandized people, who truly believe that we really would occupy the stereotypical straw man anarchist/libertarian position of selfishness.