Homestar Runner Wiki Forum

The name says it all. State how your political beliefs have change and crap. So me:

I recently became a libertarian minded person. I know, shocker! I'm still pro-life though.


EDIT by furrykef: I added "Religious" to the title, since that's the way the thread wants to evolve... and then I had to change the title a bit more so it would all fit. Oops.

_________________

I used to be highly cynical towards Capitalism, being very pro-Socialism/Communism. This was largely due to seeing people I cared about constantly getting screwed over by our system due to circumstances outside of their control, and me feeling powerless to help them as they struggled financially.

My Spirit Brother has had to declare bankruptcy because his ex-wife's mishandling of the money they earned and he had saved. After their divorce, he was still getting screwed over, having lost his job and having so much trouble trying to find a new one, since 1) most places haven't been hiring in his area; 2) his major was art with an emphasis in 2D animation, which is basically now nonexistent thanks to Disney getting rid of their 2D department; and 3) he has sustained significant, permanent brain damage from an incident that happened to him when he was 12, and after coming out of his 2-year coma at age 14, he was left with certain personality quirks that make most people simply not want to hire him at all, despite that he works as hard as a mule and then some and is the most altruistic person I've ever met, often putting himself in discomfort just to give to others. And so because he's had problems finding a job, there was one point where he was facing the very serious prospect of being left homeless as well as jobless, and I was still in college at the time and had no way to put him up to stay anywhere.

For the longest time, every time I saw him or someone else I love struggling financially, I wished I was rich so I could give them the money they needed. At the same time, though, I was bitter at our system of doing things--and I still am, to an extent, because I still feel that there's too much red tape and not enough governmental help to people who earnestly need it. But I used to feel that Communism or Socialism was the only way, that people just needed to learn to be much more altruistic to one another. Unfortunately, I don't see that as happening, and I ultimately came to realize that Capitalism itself isn't the problem, and with governments like Cuba's and China's, Communism may not be the answer, either.

Capitalism, like Communism, is merely a tool. Like a hammer that one can use to build a house or smash in someone's skull, economic systems are neutral tools that can be wielded for either good or bad. And so why should I get mad at Capitalism because of the people wielding it poorly? I've since changed my attitude and have been reading up on investing, so I CAN be rich, so that I WILL have the ability to simply give money away to people I care about when they need or want it. For me, altruism is the only reason to pursue affluence.

_________________
The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

At the risk of straying off-topic -- hey, we can always split the thread if we have to -- I have to disagree with you on capitalism, at least as we know it today. The way the system is designed, money is the most important thing in a corporation -- always. Shareholders only invest to make money, and don't want to hear about anything that doesn't have to do with making money. Then the executives don't want to do anything that displeases the shareholders. The shareholders may not be cold and heartless individually, but put together, you get this "groupthink" phenomenon and you end up with a cold and heartless collective.

So I think it's inevitable that corporations are concerned about nothing but money, and we certainly shouldn't be surprised that corporations behave that way. I don't think capitalism can be a "neutral tool" when there is no way for its wielders to be neutral.

I don't think Communism or Socialism is the solution, though... I'm not even sure there is a solution...

- Kef

_________________
404 sig not found

We could take the best of each and put them together... Socio-Capitalism?

I have changed a lot since I was first here though, for one, I think the government shouldn't recognize marriages. All they do is charge you for a marriage license and crap. The private sector could set up an "American Marriage Society" where you get papers and crap (kinda like the American Kennel Club except different, it's the best example I could think up off the top of my head of anything remotely similar.). I think that would get the entire country off the whole marriage and morality issue if we had private clubs to recognize marriage instead of the government.

_________________

SocioCapitalism is essentially what America is now. We're not strictly Capitalist because of all the government programs we have currently, but we're still a far cry from complete Socialism, too.

I disagree about the marriage thing, though...the government has hundreds upon hundreds of laws that encompass married couples at the municipal, state, and federal levels. It would create too much confusion, I think, to try to get rid of any legal regard to marriage.

_________________
The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

I, like Gidley, used to be a Socialist, and am now a Capitalist.

I used to be anti-religion, and am now a Christian.

I used to be an extreme liberal, and am now a slight conservative.

Whoo.

_________________

I used to be a Catholic, now I'm an atheist.

_________________

I used to be a Baptist, and I'm now a Lutheran.

I was once a liberal, then became a staunch conservative, but am now a moderate conservative (politically speaking - my exact position really depends on the individual issue in question).

_________________

W00t.

_________________
You're playing Team Fortess 2... you are a heavy and you have two medics... you are taking out everone on the other team so easy... another medic aproaches... THEN HE TURNS INTO A SPY AND STABS YOU IN THE SPINE!
SPY PWNS ALL!

I would call myself a libertarian, I really think government needs to butt out of people's lives.

_________________

Well, if we're including religious changes as well, then I was born and raised Methodist, went non-denominational for a time, dabbled in Wicca and Paganism before going back to Christianity, and then went completely hard-core Atheist. After that, I calmed down a bit and eventually discovered my Individual Spirituality side, which centers around my Therianthropy while incorporating other aspects of Paganism and a bit of Buddhism. And reincarnation.

_________________
The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

Well, I'm firm in my belief in God.

While relating to religious subjects, I am sure that Jesus would rather have people voluntarily live by his laws than being forced to. That's the thing I never got 'till awhile ago. I didn't know it was a sin in itself to force others to be moralistic, etc. That's why I'm a libertarian now. When I'm 18 I'm going to register as a member of the Libertarian Party too.

_________________

I first took the politcal compass test back in my 10th grade government class. I didn't really understand a whole lot of stuff then, nor did I want to sound too extreme in my beliefs. So I got a Centrist result.

More recently, however, as my first election approaches, I've started looking up candidates and issues more and more and figuring out what I believe in politcally. Now it looks like I'm a Christian Democrat/moderate conservative populist .Not to be confused with a Democrat who's a Christian. ^^;

_________________

Too authoritarian for my tastes. Believe me though, anything is authoritarian to what I believe. I'm more of a Christian Libertarian.

You get a gold star for being aware and trying to be politically active.

_________________

I don't know what QFT means, but I was and am, too.

_________________

When I arrived here I was a left leaning moderate who was considering going for my Confirmation. Now I am a Left Libertarian who wants nothing to do with organized religion. I'm still a Christian, I still observe the Catholic holidays that I was brought up with, I just don't go to church.

_________________

I used to think that communism was a quite good. Now I am more central economically. My moral values have remained unchanged throughout the years, however.

First post.

_________________
There is trouble in the forest,
There is unrest among the Trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas

"Quoted For Truth". It's used to strongly agree with something. It wouldn't really make much sense in that context, though.

Since we're also discussing religious beliefs, I'm gonna jump on the bandwagon. I'll also take the initiative in retitling the thread to match. *click* Done!

I used to be a Christian in a very loose sense: if you asked me if I believed in God or in Jesus, I'd say yes. But I didn't know what any of that entailed. So, sometime in my teens, my mother started dating this Baptist guy, and she started dragging me to church with them. So I quickly became a full-fledged Christian. I didn't agree with everything they said -- for instance, I'll never consider gambling to be a sin -- but I still studied my Bible and I was convinced that God exists, and Jesus was his son. Then my mother and the Baptist guy kinda had a falling out, and it also became clear that the guy didn't exactly practice what he preached (in the usual sense of the expression; he wasn't a preacher). I remained a Christian for a while...

I don't remember when exactly I became an atheist. I don't think I woke up one day and said, "You know what, I'm an atheist now." One thing that probably had some influence was reading MAD Magazine issue XL #2 (which I unfortunately misplaced years ago), and I was reading about the life of Bill Gaines, who was MAD's publisher until he died. This guy, as described in the story, had a very quirky personality, the type of "quirky" that I always admire. Anyway, one of the things was that he decided at a young age that it is illogical for God to exist. I thought, "Wait, wait. I can understand that not everybody believes in God... but how could it be illogical?" I had to think about that. I never did agree with the conclusion that it was "illogical", but it still wasn't long before I became an atheist.

I think my atheism was, at first, partly a reaction to having been a Christian and then being disillusioned. There was too much in Christianity that I couldn't reconcile myself with. I think I was suspending my disbelief when I was a Christian, and then that suspension got shattered. So for a while I became the stereotypical atheist who didn't even want to hear the words "God" or "Christ". I grew out of that before too long, although I still can't read the comic strip B.C. by Johnny Hart without being annoyed by the religious references.

I should also mention my love of, and respect for, science. Science and religion aren't mutually exclusive, but science does vigorously attack supernatural phenomena, because such phenomena can't be scientifically verifiable. For every apparent supernatural phenomenon, there is always a possible explanation that does not invoke the supernatural. Since the Bible deals a lot with the decidedly supernatural, I'm not inclined to believe it. Now, you can give me the argument that I'm following science as blindly as many people follow religion, but I don't think I'm following it blindly. When has science ever steered us wrong?

So I eventually settled on being an agnostic atheist, or a "weak atheist" if you prefer... I still don't know why many people insist that agnosticism and atheism are mutually exclusive. It means that I admit the possibility that God exists, but I'm not inclined to believe he does. There's no particular reason that he can't exist, but I don't know any particular reason -- not one that I can believe -- that he can, either. So, for me, he might as well not exist anyway.

I've also had some flirtations with Zen Buddhism, but not much came of it, and this post has dragged on long enough...

- Kef

_________________
404 sig not found

I've gotten more liberal as I've grown older. I used to be pro-Monarchy and against the European union, now I'm, if not pro-Europe then not actively opposed to it, and the sooner I see the royal family gone the better. Also, though I was never an enthusiastic Catholic even when I was very young, I made token attempts to uphold what I was raised with for some time before finally realising that atheism was the only thing that made sense to me and abandoning religion altogether. Still got a soft spot for the imagery though, it's very epic and heroic and makes good song material

I also used to hate gay people, which is hilarious as I turned out to be bisexual in the end

CONSPIRACY ALERT!: The EU is a cover up for turning the whole of Europe into a country. Then they'll make the NAU, SAU, and so on. Soon enough all the "unions" will form together into one global government.

Of course that's the extreme theory. I like conspiracy theories. Some are hilariously funny and others are too believe able to not be true.

_________________

proof plz?

Wait, what's so bad about having a global government?

The way I see it, that's a positive thing.

_________________

The exact reason we had the revolutionary war. A single government can't effectively control such a large area, even with today's technology.

Plus, it would take hundreds of years to be able to get all of the countries to cooperate. Do you think pakistan wants to merge with india?

Plus, there would probably be huge issues with the west bank. There just would.

I think a larger united nations is all we would need.

_________________

Google Zeigeist in Google Video. Skip the first part since your religious.


Any mildly fanatical Christian can tell you that global government= END OF THE WORLD.

Plus it just takes the power even further away from the people than it already is.

_________________

bwave pretty much hit the nail on the head.
There is an upward bound on the efficiency of a government.
A centralized city government is more efficient than, say, every street in my town having their own system of services regulation. Ditto for things like state governments. However, when you try to expand it out onto larger scales, it doesn't work so well. A "world" government would, more than likely, become a bloated bureaucracy.

Regardless of the issue of efficiency, my experience says that people seem to prefer to be ruled by 'local people". It seems that people would rather be regulated by our state Department of Environmental Protection than the EPA, even though the regulations we promulgate are generally either as strict as those EPA has or more strict. I think the idea is that the regulators are "us" and not "some guy sitting in Washington DC."

_________________
If you can't fix it with a hammer, you have an electrical problem.

Actually, I made a thread way back when to discuss the pros and cons of a single global government. Lookie here!

_________________
The meaning of life is 'bucket.'

FOR PONY!!!

Things that I used to be at some stage in my life, in no particular order:

* An IRA sympathiser
* A Communist sympathiser
* A rabid homophobe
* A rabid social conservative
* Anti-American
* Anti-Israel / Pro-Palestine (you have to be one or the other at some stage, amirite?)
* Anti-British
* Anti-globalisation
* Anti-patriotism (lol)
* Anti-feminism (again, lol)
* A commited (if uninformed) Catholic
* A militant atheist
* A wishy-washy agnostic
* Anti-Republican (the Norn Iron variety, that is)
* Anti Catholic Church (well.....)
* Against sex before marriage (ha!)
* Pro Nice Treaty
* Anti Nice Treaty
* A xenophobe
* A nihilist

PROTIP FOR PARENTS: Don't let your teenaged and university-aged children have too much free time to develop crazy political beliefs.



Lol, UKIP.

Well I began Catholic, then i flipped around between "Pagan" and atheist for a while, then i tried buddhist and uh now I'm rather settled on secular humanist.

As for politics i don't remember caring about them until i took up my beliefs. Which involve socialism and liberalness and such.

_________________
Sister, now that we're grieving
Our fingers will falter
Our lungs will be leaking
All over each other and without even speaking
We'll know that it's over and smile and go greeting
Whatever comes next

Watch Zeitgeist: http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/

It helped make me examine all my beliefs and trash all but a few, and I'm a better person because of it. Skip the first part if you're a Christian and don't want to totally reexamine your entire line of thinking. Take it with a grain of salt, I believe there's some truth to most of it.

_________________

Well, I'm one of those "religious institution" leaders that only cares about controlling people's lives and using them for my own purposes. So I'm just lying to people, anyway.

_________________