What would you consider your political ideology to be?

Hexadecimalkink@lemmy.ml to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 73 points –

I'm just curious for the new or existing people? Lemmy.ml has taken a hard turn to the right since the reddit exodus. There's been a lot of pro-imperialist propaganda being posted on world news, and a lot less diversity of opinion. It feels more neoliberal and neo-con to me.

Does anyone want to share what their political leanings are?

I'll start; I'm anti-imperialist pro-state regulated capitalism. I believe we should have usage based taxes (toll roads, carbon tax) and luxury taxes, and I disagree with wealth taxes for people with less than $250 million. The state should spend more money on consumer protection in all industries (environment, health, finance, etc.) I believe in multipolarity vs. US hegemony.

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I have no idea what box I fit into.

  • I am generally anti-capitalism. The current system does not benefit human. We are constantly exploited in the name of profits
  • vital industries and services need to be nationalized. Capitalism is a race to the bottom when it comes to providing the bare minumum, cutting corners etc.
  • people should be free to do what they please as long as it doesn't hurt other people. To this end, I am pro-inclusion of all walks of life, except for bigots.
  • we are rapidly running out of time to prevent an ecological apocalypse. Everything must be done to avoid it

we are rapidly running out of time to prevent an ecological apocalypse. Everything must be done to avoid it

I think we more or less are either too late to stop it or are unable to stop it. I think we should instead be focused on planning mitigations for the future. I expect at some point in the next century or two there will be large migrations of people from the equator going to the north (places like Russia or Canada).

Both will be necessary but it’s worth noting that the more we’ve emitted, the more damaging each additional unit of emissions becomes. So arguably it’s even more important to focus on emissions reductions because it’s too late to completely stop warming at this point. Even a small reduction in emissions may have cause a meaningful reduction in human suffering.

Depending on if you think Capitalism should be totally abolished or not, you could be a Social Democrat all the way to a Libertarian Socialist.

Edit: gotta have a state to nationalize things. So could be Dem Soc/Market Socialist to as far left as ML. But MLs typically are a little less pro-individual liberties, so probably not ML.

I'm with Track_Shovel on this. No particular political orientation, but I agree on all the issues listed.

I agree with this. I tend to be more of a “California hippy” as my far more conservative friends tell me.

Necessities need to be taken away from people who profit from them. At the very least. Realistically, probably less things should fall under capitalism, but if we start with transportation, medical, housing, education, fuels, electricity, etc we would be doing much better.

I agree that people should be able to do as they please, with a caveat. As long as it doesn’t affect other people. Guns are a pretty good example here (I’ll get back to this).

The environment is screwed, and I truly don’t think we can stop the spiral, but agree we need to try.

I’m waiting for all the angry replies to this one. Guns need to go away. Not completely, but we need to move to where they are only kept and used by highly licensed and highly insured people, or at highly regulated and insured clubs/establishments. Everyone having guns doesn’t work. Just look around.

And while I’m at it get all money out of politics. Bye bye lobbying. Close loopholes for all government officials that use their insider info to benefit their bank account.

Social Democrat.

Lots of anti monopoly pro consumer regulations. But freedom to have private enterprise. High income and corporate tax. Free healthcare & education. Even rare diseases and university. Corporations can only lease and never own land. Govt ownership of essential industries like electricity, water, gas.

I get the reasons for most of your points from a perspective of moderate "leftist". But why "Govt ownership of essential industries like electricity, water, gas"?

You seem to somewhat believe in private enterprise, so why prevent it from providing those services at competitive cost/quality?

Markets work best when there are a number of firms that must compete with one another. For some goods and services, that level of competition is impractical or impossible because of the high amount of infrastructure required. It wouldn’t make much sense for each company to build a completely separate set of water purification and distribution systems—it would be very expensive and take up a lot of space.

In many areas of the US we have a bizarre setup where there is a government enforced monopoly where a single company can reap all of the profits. This often leads to poor service because the company has very little incentive to provide value to its customers. Government owned services can be flawed as well but at least they are directly accountable to their citizens instead of a board or shareholders.

As I said in reply to other person, in my country there's private businesses providing those services for cheaper price than the government alternative. Infrastructure for the most part is provided by 3rd party.

Also I keep hearing this talk about "government accountability", but what mechanism of accountability does government have? Private firms at least can go out of business or sued. Government in worst case will just pay you some of its "tax money"

What specific services are you referring to? If there are multiple firms and the government competing then that really doesn’t sound like the situation I was describing.

Governments can also be sued though they sometimes grant themselves immunity. But utilities really can’t go out of business, can they? Generally they are providing what are considered essential services, so if they fail, the government will generally bail them out because they are the only provider and the loss of those services would be catastrophic. So there really is very little accountability. Just ask PG&E customers how much say they have in that company’s practices.

As far as government accountability, that’s what elections are for. Do you not have those in your country?

Governments can also be sued

My point is they don't lose hard earned money, they just pay you money they collect forcefully from people. Basically it's not a deterrent, but simple restitution

As far as government accountability, that’s what elections are for.

It's quite rare for any candidate to talk about utilities in their campaign at all.

People here tend to not associate govt owned corporations with the government itself. And when someone brings it up, they just make some kind of excuse about what terrible person you are for accusing such a benevolent government of incompetence when they don't fix their stuff, and increase price 2

And besides, chances of reelection are so slim I doubt any politician actually going for it. It's much more profitable to simply lie about your promises

But utilities really can’t go out of business

They should declare bankruptcy and be sold to someone

loss of those services would be catastrophic

Government failed to consistently provide power — no catastrophe. Government failed to provide any water at all — no catastrophe (some people just started to pump and sell underground water)

So why private buisness not providing just one of those services for the period before it's bought, must result in catastrophe? (Just for time reference, the absence of water I described earlier already lasts longer than a year)

That sounds like a pretty insane situation that would not be tolerated in most developed countries. Generally lapse of service for essential utilities is considered a major problem that would absolutely be relevant to local elections in my area. It sounds like your government is very poorly run and needs dramatic changes—such changes could be implemented through elections. In the meantime it’s good that private entities are filling the gap but I doubt they are able to provide the same level of service as most people expect from utilities.

Governments can also be sued

My point is they don't lose hard earned money, they just pay you money they collect forcefully from people. Basically it's not a deterrent, but simple restitution

As far as government accountability, that’s what elections are for.

It's quite rare for any candidate to talk about utilities in their campaign at all.

People here tend to not associate govt owned corporations with the government itself. And when someone brings it up, they just make some kind of excuse about what terrible person you are for accusing such a benevolent government of incompetence when they don't fix their stuff, and increase price 2

And besides, chances of reelection are so slim I doubt any politician actually going for it. It's much more profitable to simply lie about your promises

But utilities really can’t go out of business

They should declare bankruptcy and be sold to someone

loss of those services would be catastrophic

Government failed to consistently provide power — no catastrophe. Government failed to provide any water at all — no catastrophe (some people just started to pump and sell underground water)

So why private buisness not providing just one of those services for the period before it's bought, must result in catastrophe? (Just for time reference, the absence of water I described earlier already lasts longer than a year)

I'm not the person you replied to and this isn't well thought out. Just trying to think this through myself.

How would something like an electric company offer competitive cost or quality? There'd have to be at least two options serving an area in order for there to be some kind of competition. So do each of those companies build their own infrastructure, power stations, power lines, etc? So a neighborhood would have two sets of power lines? That seems wasteful and would get pretty ugly as more competitors came in. So maybe instead the government builds the infrastructure and the competing companies lease the usage of the infrastructure. But then what are the companies going to offer as a competitive advantage? I don't know. They need to make some kind of profit in order to justify their existence. And they have to pay for the usage of the infrastructure. And they don't want to lose money. And let's assume the government doesn't pick favorites and charges each of them the same. So we end up paying them more than what it costs them to lease the infrastructure. So why can't we just cut them out, i.e. cut out the middle man, and pay the government directly. I guess this all just assumes that there's nothing extra an electric company can offer on top of the electricity being supplied.

What you’re describing kind of exists here in Portugal, the transmission lines are owned by the state but the actual electricity generation / internet service / whatever is left to private companies. So you can go onto a web portal and change your supplier to a different electric company or ISP or whatever, without needing to physically do anything at your house. Just maybe exchange a router or something like that. But no builders coming out to the property or whatever. And where I live near Lisbon there are like 8-10 available suppliers.

In my country private companies provide their service much cheaper than government alternative. And, yes they use shared infrastructure.

I can't dispute that. I hear people claim that in my country too. But I just wonder how they can know that for a fact. Like okay, maybe they've seen a service provided by a private entity for X amount and a comparable service provided by the government for Y amount more. But how can we know what's going on behind the scenes? Is the company being subsidized by the government? Is the government charging more for this service to offset and lower the price of some other service? Or is the government charging us more for the overhead of having thousands or millions of customers where on the other hand, it can charge a company to lease the infrastructure for less for the reduced overhead of only having that company as a "customer"? I don't know, I'm just thinking out loud. I just question where the motive comes into play for private companies. Their motive is to make money. Do they have us in their best interests? They can cut costs and have huge failures like what happened in Texas with their power grid. But then there can be huge government failure too providing these services like with what happened to the water system in Flint, MI. I'm not really educated on either of these so it's possible I'm totally misrepresenting these. And I'm not claiming that there isn't waste, abuse and corruption in government either. At the end of the day, public and private entities are run by people. But anyway, thanks for indulging my stream of consciousness.

In practice, I'm a common social democrat.

At heart, I'm an Anarchist. I don't have enough knowledge and confidence to believe it would work but I believe it would be beneficial for us to try to make it work, even if it ends up failing

Anticapitalist and socialist, but not straightup communist. Everyone deserves free healthcare, mental healthcare, water, food, electricity, internet, education and housing

Some of my friends think I'm an idealist but I'd argue that's the point. I vote for whatever would allow us to get to the Star Trek: TNG version of earth. A Post Scarcity society where humans want to better themselves and their communities through each individuals pursuit of their interests unrestricted by any "system". To get there, I care about improving the lives of the entirety of humanity equally while doing away with the disparity inequality we see. It is undoubtedly true capitalism did raise the average QOL of many many people of the entire world, however, others it put into modern slavery.

I like this idea, but I disagree with the last sentence. The improvement in the average quality of life does not come from the capitalist system, but from technological and scientific progress.

But was that also spurred at least in part often times for the pursuit of profit? I don't disagree, you have a good point!

Consider how quickly USSR developed after the revolution. It went from an agrarian society to being the first in space while doing most of the work in WW2. USSR accomplished a century's worth of capitalist development in a few decades.

I think every person should have food, water, and shelter at the very least. Nobody should need to do anything for these basic necessities of life.

I always thought this was a common thought but no, this apparently is a far left radical ideology. People should starve on the street unless they provide value to a capitalist is actually the common thought.

I'm a Marxist-Leninist, I believe that the means of production should be owned by the workers and that the purpose of work is to produce things we all need to meet our collective needs.

Capitalism is a dead end ideology which leads to concentration of wealth in the hands of a tiny minority by design, and this minority of oligarchs exploits the rest of the people to subsidize their lavish lifestyle.

Furthermore, any system based around constant growth and consumerism is fundamentally incompatible with our continual survival as a species. We need a system that strives for sustainable use of our resources.

I personally would say Liberal just to overly simplify things.

In reality, growing up in the rural midwest makes it more complex than that. I have a ton of left and right ideologies that contradict them selves, with no compromise in sight.

This is one of the big pitfalls of the two party system in the US. If you fall in the middle, you don’t have an obvious choice of party, or you have a few issues where your party of choice doesn’t represent you.

An example- in Oregon you’ll find many people who are generally very liberal, socially progressive and such, but who don’t support blanket gun restrictions due to the traditions of hunting, trapping and outdoorsy stuff that Northwesterners are into. In a parliamentary democracy, you may have been able to find the “smoke pot and have a hunting rifle” party, but in our model, you have to pick one or the other.

I'm progressive on economic policy, and libertarian on social values. I support things like universal healthcare and ubi. I also support decriminalizing all drugs and legal prostitution.

I'm a Marxist-Leninist, member of an organized group.

I believe countries try to shape and weaponize citizens' opinions about other countries, so I refuse to defend or criticize them unless I can argue that doing so is beneficial to my ideas (i.e., not based on feelings or ethics). Thus, I'm neutral towards most countries and defend multipolarity.

I tend to doubt my ideas as much as I can.

Syndicalist. A federation of industrial unions could run society as a whole in a way that benefits all.

I'm socially liberal and economically on the left (as in I like democracy, I accept capitalism, but I want a lot more socialist policies). Downtrodden people should be given assistance, but everyone else should be free to live out their power and ambition unless it gets in other people's way. I'm against most right wing political and social positions. But I'm even more against defederation and mass blocking. I don't want a safe space. There are too many things we need to process with conversation.

I am a Social Democrat in the European sense. There is nothing wrong with the free market per se, but it is the responsibility of the state to intervene with regulation where necessary (e.g. safety), and the responsibility of the state to provide a stable system of social services, e.g. health care, education, housing.

I’ll point to Austria as an example, where social housing is widespread and high quality and public health care is exceptional and pensions are reasonable. With this backdrop, the market economy is appropriate.

I don’t think the unregulated capitalism of countries like the US is sustainable nor would I want to live under that dysfunctional system.

Be glad that you don't. It's as bad as you think. Also, same (regarding ideology).

I'm a moderate, but in America they'd probably call me a LefTiSt because things have shifted so far to the right here we've reached the point of absurdity. Basically, I think that democratic republics with a strong social safety net, meaningful regulation, and personal freedoms are the least terrible system we've come up with so far. Unregulated capitalism is a danger to humanity, as are totalitarian governments.

Marxist-Leninist. Of the type that would probably unironically be referred to as a tankie.

I don't see capitalism as a sustainable model for the world, you cannot grow infinitely with finite resources, and there is no way effective way to "reform the system from the inside". Capitalists will actively sabotage such efforts as they go against their own best interests; they are dead set on convincing labor that it is also against their best interests, and have been depressingly effective at doing so.

I believe that humanity will naturally move towards a more communist world order as a unipolarity gives way to a multipolar world. Probably not within my lifetime, but either humans will get there eventually or we will die out trying.

Just conservative not a republican because I feel they've lost their way as much as democrats did.

Elephants and asses, screwing the masses.

I am libertarian.

Less government. Less rules. Less restrictions.

I don't give a rats ass if you want to smoke pot, get abortions. etc. I support individual rights and freedoms.

What's your opinion on regulations for companies?

I don't follow the 100% libertarian approach, which basically says, companies can do whatever the hell they want. (And, consumers vote with their pockets.. etc....)

If- that is what you were hinting at.

Yeah that, it's the one libertarian standpoint that I really disagree with so I was just curious

Another, of the viewpoints I don't agree with-

Pure libertarianism- means no federal government at all. No military. If people wanted a military, they would pay a company for it, etc.

I also don't agree with that.

I retain my ability for self-thinking, and also, conclude none of the popular ideologies are perfect. They all have faults.

I view freedom more about living without fear rather than doing what you want, which often leads down the don't give a rats ass as long as you aren't terrifying others over it.

Maybe someday libertarians will increase in the upcoming decades 🙂

That would be nice.

BUT... everyone is all too busy picking sides (between the left, and the right, ie, liberal / conservative)... despite both sides eroding away freedoms, and blaming the other side for all of their problems.

I have many things to say, but I just can't bring myself to discuss it in a public forum anymore. It's not that I expect that I'd be on the opposite side of a lot of people so I'd be flamed and shut down. In truth I find myself fairly middle of the road, but politics has become so polarized and hate filled that I'm more saddened for the future than anything else. I worry for what world my kids will inherit from my generation. I have hope though for genZ they seem to fully get behind the concept of FAFO. I just want them to start voting before it's too late.

i'm a radical extremist voluntaryist anarchist. I believe that if it's not voluntary, it's slavery, thus government is slavery. I believe that all transactions between people should be consensual. I believe that people have a right to do what they want as long as they don't cause damage to anyone. I don't believe anyone has the right to attack anyone else, to force them to do something they don't want to do or force them to stop doing something that they want to do if it's harming no one. but I believe that it is every person's right and duty to protect themselves against aggression, to whatever extent is necessary to make the aggressor stop.

these principles are timeless and are so simple that even a child can understand them. if everyone started living this way, the world would be set free.

I don't belong to lemmy.ml, but I'll chime in anyway. I'm somewhere between a communist and an anarchist, which I think aligns well with my material interests as a worker. The communist in me believes that we need a dictatorship of the proletariat in order to subdue the bourgeoisie. The anarchist in me believes that workers need to organize themselves into strong labor unions to help the revolution along and then keep the subsequent worker state in check thereafter.

When I was first becoming an adult (in the USA), I got into politics from talk radio. I became staunchly libertarian, perhaps a bit conservative learning. Over the years, as I started to gain more life experience, started to actually think about certain issues some more, hear more opposing viewpoints, and actually see how stuff played out over time, I slowly began turning more liberal. These days, I would say that I am left of center and mostly align with the Democratic party for voting purposes.

This is precisely my experience. I am a recovering big L Libertarian (in the USA sense). Now I'd say I'm liberal, slowly moving more left.

That’s interesting. I kinda did the opposite. Was raised in a fairly liberal house and went to college.

But as I got older and gained experience have drifted more towards some almagamation of a libertarian mindset. Libertarians suffer severely from a “no true Scott’s man “ thing. So i politically don’t really have a home and it depends on a candidate. And if you ask many they may write me off as an opponent or undesirable based on a single policy stance.

Overall I feel the government means well but often doesn’t DO well or implement well as thus I am more hesistant for social programs as I get older. Like I’m not one of those races are theft people but just that government should keep to very specific and targeted programs and not try and be a regulation solution for everything. Only regulate when it’s clear a market can’t do so itself and negatively affects the people, like in banking.

But when it gets huge and unwieldy things go south quick. Like healthcare for all would be awesome, but then you look at how Medicare is ran or the VA and I get big time squirrly feelings.

Similarly with things like gun control. The theres no legislation that will solve the cultural issues that lead to all types of gun deaths. And what legislation is out there, even at the state level is often totally based on false premises and thus doesn’t solve the issues they intend to.

So just like I feel abortion is a deeply personal choice and if someone is self aware enough to know they won’t be a good parent they should make that call, especially if the alternative is the government having to raise kids (cause foster care is a mess). I feel similarly about gun control.

In most things I probs lean left on the American spectrum. But honestly there are few in our current political system that I can point to an be like “them, I really like them!”

Yeah, I can see how you might arrive at some of those things. I think in general a lot of people want mostly the same things, but by looking at a problem from a slightly different angle, you can arrive at largely different conclusions. Just as one of the things you stated, you think the government often doesn't do a good job at the things it does. I can agree with that to a certain extent. However, I don't believe that it is just intrinsically because the government is crappy at doing their job. I constantly see opponents fighting against these very institutions, trying to defund them, trying to make them ineffective. So yeah, its kind of hard for stuff to be done properly when certain people are trying to dismantle you every step of the way. But to that point, maybe the very fact that this is possible is proof that the American government doesn't work well? I'd still think a functioning government is something worth working towards though.

Republicans seem to want to turn back the clock to the 1950's and in one aspect I agree with them. The top tax rate back then was 90%. That should be returned for anyone making over $10 million.

Unlike Republicans, though, I think people should be free to be who they are - whether they're LGBTQ or straight/cisgender, black or white, Christian or Jewish or atheist, or any other group I didn't list. (I didn't list all groups only because I don't want this comment to be novel length.) Basically, as long as your actions affect only yourself and consenting adults, I'm fine with them.

I'm also fine with parents having some control over what their kids do. I'm a parent myself and know that as a parent you need to make judgement calls as to what's best for your child. I wouldn't want someone else questioning my parenting based on their beliefs. However, there are limits. If your child is LGBTQ and you try to force them to be straight/cisgender, you aren't acting in your child's best interests. If your 10 year old child is raped and their life is in danger, but you refuse to allow them to have an abortion because your religion doesn't allow it, then you're harming your child.

Also, a person's "parental rights" shouldn't mean that they get to decide that certain books are banned from everyone reading them. My son actually just finished reading a book because it had been banned and we laughed over how innocuous the "ban triggering passage" was compared to some stuff in the Bible.

Basically, I think I'd call myself a Pragmatic Progressive. I advocate for progressive causes, but I also realize that society can often be slower to adapt than we like. While we would love to be able to pass X and have it be widely adopted immediately, there's often a series of slow moving battles to get X passed and another slow march to get wide acceptance. We can't simply throw in the political towel at the first setback. Neither can we pass up 10% of our goal being within our grasp because we're holding out for 100%. We need to get whatever advancements we can while continually pushing for more.

I like this. It's the epitome of not letting perfect be the enemy of good.

I believe that a social democracy is the best compromise we can make. The market should be able to innovate but rules set in place to protect workers and the environment. Social safety nets so people do not fall into despair - happy people equals less sickness and more productivity.

I believe UBI can play a role but I'm still not sure how exactly, luckily I'm not a politician.

In the end I'll always vote more to the left, even though I'm well paid I think a society is healthier when there are less major differences in wealth.

With more automation showing up in all different fields, I'm warming up to the idea of UBI or something like it.

Theoretically, more production is happening per human being, so everybody should have a higher standard of living. But (among other issues) people at the top are hoarding an unfair portion of the profits, and UBI seems like a straightforward way to help offset that.

It's tricky because yeah in theory more production should be happening. I listened to a podcast recently that talked about how kitchens changed during the years. That the initial idea for stuff like washing machines and ironing boards was that women (in that time) would have to spend less time on chores and could be more free (it was argued from a feminist point of view). The reality was that the expectations just went up. Suddenly people expected the towels to be ironed etc.

What podcast? I like a good podcast.

Yeah, I feel like that phenomenon happens elsewhere too. I read the book B.S. Jobs last year, and it talked about is all the (debatably) useless positions popping up at companies - extra layers of management, assistants to make the managers feel important, corporate lawyers that are only there to cause trouble for the other team's corporate lawyers. Just a whole lot of man-hours spent not making products/services/whatever.

(I wouldn't say I'm 100% on board with all the book's arguments, but it sure made me think)

I'd like the GOP and right-wing media to be vaporized in its entirety, and I'd like the establishment/corporatist wing of the Democratic party to be smashed to pieces. Maybe then we can hurry up and get going on some stuff.

I'm just gonna call myself a "leftist" and leave it at that

I'm a libertarian, leftist, socialist, and I'm strongly against digital copyright, politics and patents. I believe in freedom and free competition, and government investment in education, technology, and quality of life.

Libertarian: People are overwhelmingly good, and freedom allows the good people to reliability outmenuver the bad. People should have every freedom in so far as they are not encroaching on the equal or greater freedoms of anyone else. No technology is inherently bad, tech in the hands all results in the victory of the good. A notable acception is weapons of mass destruction, as any use against any population is very bad morally. In general when tech is outlawed the good loose the ability to use it against the bad or for the betterment of humanity, and the bad maintain access and use it against the good. When only the bad guys have Drugs, Encryption, Guns, The internet, etc ... the society is much worse off for it.

Leftist: When governments invest tax money into the common good of the people, via things like education, technology, and quality of life, then societies are healther, wealthier, more innovative, and the people are happier for it. No one wants to be homeless, sick, or stupid, or to be surrounded by people who are. Government investment stimulates the economy, and if money is spent domestically it lands right back in the pockets of working tax payers.

Socialist: When workers own stake in the companiess they work for, companies act in the interest of the workers (socialism). When companies are owned by investors, they act in the interst of the investors, usually against the interest of workers (capitalism). When companies act in the interst of the workers, wages are higher, workers are more free, and cost of living is lower. The people are happier. Governments does not need to be so big to keep the peace like they do today.

Digital copyright: the belief in the lie that copying and or improving upon an ethereal digital resource constitutes theft, is a massive detriment to society. It is clearly false because no one looses anything. It is defended by perpetuating the fear that it it would be harder to profit if information was free. It would be a different world, but you can still make a profit through art on a physical medium, and in other ways. The lie is used to justify unjust control of software vendors over their customers, and to justify fake sales in which the physical computer hardware is sold but the ability to actually control it is not part of the sale. And sales where a book or movie is sold, but the user is never given the copy they purchased. It is also used to deprive the poor access to educational material, and to justify the destruction of cultural archives for future generations.

Politics: Politicians are lower quality than ordinary people, because they are the people who wanted to rule, not the people who understand the impact of positive and negative of every singe decision. A monarchy has better chances of honest leadership because the quality if the monarch is random, instead of picked by might of advertising dollars out of a list of the worst people. The way to make a real good government involves a little lotocracy and a little meritocracy. My vision in short: a console, selected at random from the population, chooses qualification criteria for voting on a proposition, and a console is selected at random from the qualified public to make a decision.

Pattents: A temporary government issued monopoly on a process or mechanism. Patents were the single worst lapse in logic of our society, they are anticompetitive and slow innovation (the incredibly successful free software community, operating on very little time and money, is a glimpse of what a patenless society could be). A free market cannot coexist with patents. Arguments for pattens boil down to, if i invest as though i have patent protection from competition and i don't have it, my investment won't pan out. In a society without patents, companies build and improve on each others work, making R&D cheaper and faster. Sure, billion dollar research investments would not pan out, but they would also be completely unnecessary, because starting from scratch or waiting a decade would not be required to participate in innovation.

A while ago I watched a great video on Youtube explaining how a system without copyright could work for commercial software development (specifically for games), advocating for a "pay for production" model instead of "pay for access". Unfortunately I can't find the video anymore.

Whats the solution to the issue small startups would face w.o patents when the mega-corps just take their innovation and package it differently?

Vaguely progressive (I live in the USA, I think country is usually important when discussing ideology)

I believe in crushing the Christian theocrats, building back up social safety nets including universal healthcare, wealth taxes, gun control but not an outright gun ban (some people from other countries, often Canadians and Finns, think they have a gun ban when they do not,) active efforts to improve relations with Mexico and Canada, I think the government doesn't do enough to prepare for a post-US hegemony world, I think we should de-escalate with China, we should reduce the need for personal car usage, and...I don't have anything that even resembles a policy proposal here but we need to combat enshittification (it is embarrassing that the most effective regulatory body against US tech companies is the European Union.) Also Mark Zuckerberg should be on death row.

I believe that the lives we all lead are the only thing that truly matters. As such:

  • we should be free to do what we want where it doesn't negatively impact others
  • we mustn't be enslaved. Not literally and not by the limitations of our birthright, exploitative employment practices, arbitrarily enforced laws, forced childbirth, etc.
  • we need to stand up for those who cannot: minorities, future generations, nature...
  • we should follow the population's consensus whereever possible
  • states, corporations and any organisation in general should serve all the people and not just a select few.

I don't care what label you slap on this.

What happened on lemmy.ml? That place is moderated by tankies with their finger on the ban trigger, so I am skeptical if you mean "hard turn to the right" or "normal people calling out the propaganda that my echo chamber used to shield me from."

To answer the question, I'm a radical anarchist, no state, no money, no bosses, no landlords, no compromises.

World News is hosted on Lemmy.ml and since you use the term Tankie I suppose you're biased and may not see the shift in what articles are upvoted the most on that sub.

I don't read that place because it's full of tankies so I can't confirm or deny what you're suggesting. Do you mind sharing some of those right-wing articles?

(edit: and yes I am 100% unconditionally and unabashedly biased against authoritarians.)

(Be kind, not trying to start a flame war) I keep seeing this thrown around, what is a “tankie” and what’s it got to do with that Lemmy instance?

depending on who youre talking to it either means all communist or specifically communists who unabashedly support authoritarian sociopathic governments

communists who unabashedly support authoritarian sociopathic governments tend to frame it as exclusively an insult for communists in general, either out of a refusal to recognise any other branch of communism as actually communist, to pull attention away from their support of authoritarian sociopathic governments or to frame whoever is calling them tankies as anti-communist, and probably a fascist

As a Marxist-Leninist I am curious what your approach would be to military intervention as the US has done time and time again with leftist movements in the third-world. I think there are many valid critiques of the state but I see it as a necessary evil to protect a leftist movement.

I am open to opinions and genuinely curious to hear your perspective.

For matters of defense against imperialism, the state is an orthogonal question. The state is just a monopoly on violence. A community can be just as prepared to defend themselves as a state (arguably more so, since every person can be their own guerilla, instead of a blessed few.)

Speaking of which, there have been many Marxist revolutionaries that came into power with only guerilla/irregular/asymmetric warfare, which stands in contrast to the vanguard party approach. One requires a state and the other doesn't.

I'm a good old fashioned NAP following libertarian/anarchist.

I don't really care about the left or right paradigm - what I care about is how badly you and your cronies are going to buttfuck us.

I've never really understood how this ideology can work. Who enforces NAP in an anarchist society? Or is it up to each individual to enforce it for themself? (i.e. defend themselves physically if needed)

Really good question, and it's one of several potential problems with Libertarianism.

So, at face value, you're right - you do. But then, you can also form organisations within your community to do the same. So then your whole village or street enforces the NAP.

Besides which, it's not really about other people, it's about you.

I won't hurt you or nick your stuff.

I used to be an active socialist, but it felt quite hopeless when protests are ignored and democracy scarcely exists (you just vote for the least bad option once every 5 years). Now I moved countries and can't even vote so am much more apolitical. I also didn't like the shift of those groups into identity politics, and often focussing on treating symptoms rather than the cause - e.g. the push in many places to decriminalise theft under ~$300 instead of actually ensuring people have jobs and opportunities, or unfair rent control rather than building more housing and dealing with the distribution of employment.

But in general I just want a functional, meritocratic society with easy opportunities for education, wide use of technology and as little bureaucracy as possible. No monarchy or religion, etc.

I also think there should be much stricter punishments for violent crime, and better use of technology to investigate it. Ideally everywhere would be like Singapore with almost no crime due to excellent enforcement, and also good provision of education, housing, etc. to make it less attractive overall.

I really like the Singapore model and Singapore in general but I feel like it's mostly successful because it exports a lot of its negative externalities to Malaysia. I'm not sure if it would be a sustainable model without its neighbour.

Left wing market anarchist is the closest summary of my general views.

Left wing economically and socially. I believe strongly in workers rights, collective control over production and labor practices. All people have dignity and should be treated with a base level of care and concern, even if they have done horrific things. I am very supportive of LGBT+ folks and any marginalized or underprivileged groups.

Market because I am not against markets or money. I think they are tools that can greatly aid society if used correctly. I am strongly anti-capitalist, which is a economic and social philosophy that uses money and markets in ways that are inherently oppressive and exploitive.

Anarchist because I am anti-state. Monopolization of power and resources, especially in a capitalist society, only ever result in oppression, even if supposedly "of/for the people."

Liberal: Especially socially I'm very liberal. Everyone should have the same rights, opportunities and be treated equally no matter their race, sexual orientation, gender, religion etc. It should matter how you life your life as long as it doesn't negatively effect others. The government should only provide laws that limit this to protect those who cannot do that themselves (like kids growing up). Economically as well, like the free market, but regulation is important imo. Only if regulation wouldn't work or something is so vitally important to everyone or the economy that you can't do without it, is nationalisation an option for me. Keep the government as small as possible, but don't overdo it for the sake of making it smaller.

Progressive: this is mostly true for climate and social aspects. I welcome almost any regulation to make sure global heating slows down as much and fast as possible. Socially because society changes all the time and just because we treated people a certain way 50 years ago doesn't mean we should forever do that. On government spending and on defense I'm more conservative. Peace requires a strong military and the government should make sure its debt doesn't go out of control. Doesn't waste money on stuff the market can handle or on benefits that people don't really need. It annoyed me when I got hundreds of euros last year in compensation from the government for higher electricity and natural gas prices. I, and many others, didn't need it and it was better spend on more useful things.

Center wing: Help those who really need it, like the homeless, immigrants, people with bad illnesses or PTSD, but if someone makes (a lot) more than me then that's fine with me. I'm not expecting anyone who makes more than me to solve all the worlds issues while I can keep doing and buying what I do now. I'm in favor of many tougher regulations that will hit me financially, but will he better for the future.

At the same time I do expect everyone to pay their fair share in taxes and see taxes as a good thing.

I do believe in taxes, but I don't like where the money goes. I wish there was more federalisation so that individual counties had more control over what they want to spend their money on.

Got a county of right-wing wackos that want to give all their money to their king? Let them, its their choice and it hurts only them.

Also, I do tend to believe that anyone earning less than 50k probably shouldn't need to pay taxes or be tightly regulated. The poor should be allowed to spin up businesses in a hovel without having to pay through the nose for it.

Those with more power and wealth should be more tightly scrutinised, given the magnitude of the effects of any of their actions (whether good or bad).

Essentially I'm a socialist with a streak of "libertarianism for the poor".

Edit: Removing this because I feel I over shared a bit.

Saying that makes me want to know what the comment was! "What is your fascination with my forbidden closet of mystery?"

Mainly socialist with a healthy dose of libertarianism.

I personally will do what I can to help those less fortunate. I tithe to a collection of charities for example. However, I just saw an advert from government telling me to wear a seat belt and just thought "I know! leave me the hell alone".

more progressive than the mainstream parties in the us but too stupid / lazy / timid to actually find and use a specific label / ideology

Since idolizing Richard Stallman in high school but disagreeing with some Greens, I've been an ACLU member Libertarian who votes progressive Democrat so the poor don't starve.

Libertarian-ish, I guess.

Watching the US and other governments going on a power trip has sure been pushing me that way.

I mostly don't want government involved in anybody's lives unless they're harming others. It drives me mad when bureaucracy, police, etc. show up to harass, jail, or kill people that were minding their own business. Plus mass surveillance without a warrant.

On the other hand, I recognize the need for appropriate regulations (to avoid harming people on a broader scale). It also makes sense for them to direct large scale projects like infrastructure and certain services.

So, I guess, make life better for people. Otherwise, mind your own business

I'm in reality probably center left. I find that I tend to have nuanced views about a variety of things but I probably wouldn't hard commit to a particular political stripe. I tend to vote Democrat but I often disagree with them on certain things as well. Sometimes I think they are not doing enough on social and environmental issues and sometimes I think they have gone too far on other issues. There are some republican theories I don't mind but I don't generally see this current party actually focused on anything I agree with.

somewhere between soc dem and communist

i have a list of issues i care about, whether those issues are fixed by properly regulated capitalism or communist utopia isnt that important to me

I'd say I'm economic center left and socially extremely liberal.

I Iike maximum personal freedom. For example: I'm fine with legalizing , taxing and regulating all drugs including things like heroin: with proper labels and forbidden to sell to children. For the record I personally would never put drugs into my own body, but people should have the freedom to choose if they wish to do so.

I want a well regulated capitalism with strong employees and consumer protections. I am somewhat undecided when it comes to things like worker coops and other forms of workplace democracy, but I think I'd lean towards a somewhat mixt system. Something akin to 50% of board members in a private company elected by employees and 50% by shareholders: that way there are still some incentives to invest, but also some checks and balances by people who actually work in the company and who thus wouldn't want to vote against their own interests.

And finally strong social safety nets with public housing for all low income people. Can be even some Soviet style brutalist architecture apartments, as long as it can house everyone and is reasonably well maintained.

I suppose I'm a social democrat. I'm generally leftist for my country, but hardcore political ideologies that end with -ism seem naive to me.

Live your life the way you want to live and don't fuck it up for others. Be peaceful, respectful and considerate. If there is a political affiliation about this I'm in that party.

Aka "Don't be a dick" I'm right there with you friend. Donuts unite!

Libertarian Socialist, though I might be a bit further left than that considering some of the ideas I have. I just find myself agreeing with Kyle Kulinski a lot since he seems to be the most agreeable and honest political commentator I know, and I've found other good channels through word of mouth from him.

I don't put myself into a political ideology. And I'm not confident enough in the labeling to make a reasonable guess I'd feel comfortable with.

A social democrat or democratic socialist or whatever, though I did vote for the left-party last time

Anarcho-mutualist. But I'll work with anyone who wants less government.

Not really sure what the label means, but I'll join you on the less government team!

Somewhere between Libertarian and Ancap. Still waiting for r/libertarianmeme to join Lemmy. But unfortunately, a lot of libertarians on Reddit seem to think that Reddit has the right to charge for the API. While I think this is true, I still think this makes the platform significantly worse.

ML. Authleft enough that Libs will call me a Tankie.

Yeah, some good points there. I totally agree about the problems with meaningful political discourse. I honestly believe most people don't want to have a discussion on things, they just want to post their take and then feel validated by people up voting them. Add in bots and trolls, and political discussion just generally doesn't work on platforms like this (or most of the internet at large).

My political compass classifies me as an extreme libleft, sooo...

fluid is good except that it also means easy for politicians to manipulate. and zero loyalty for longterm goals that require patience and sacrifice.

The universe appears to be zero sum and I try to balance a non-dualistic perspective with a healthy dose of practicality.. for now

I hate nobody more than anybody else, I blame nobody more than anybody else. We seem to all be equally victims and perpetrators swimming in this trauma soup.

For many things, I've become like a national geographic cameraman observing from the bush, though for now, I will step in and stop human brutality if I see it.. I don't know if I always will.

I'll continue pondering, and make changes as needed.

Though one to answer, but I'll give it a try.

Socially progressive: I value personal freedom and strongly support minorities' rights.

Economic left: I believe in a well regulated market supported by a strong state that can redistribute enough so that everyone has the opportunity to have a decent life, and there is high social mobility between generations. I do think markets are an efficient way to organize economics, but workers should have more to say in the companies they are part of, and governments should be strong enough to enforce fair taxation, and adherence to principles we find important, such as not destroying the planet for short term profits. Also, the value of some things, like health, education or art, cannot be expressed well in monetary value so the state should have the ability to take a share of the for-profit market and provide for those.

Politically democratic: Belief firmly in the principle of government by the people for the people. However, what we know see as the model of democratic government (representative democracy) is only one possible form of democracy. With all the technological means that we have today, it's shocking to me that we haven't found better ways to convert our voices and opinions matter in decision-making processes.

About the same as you, but I'd place the wealth tax limit far lower, like 10M. Plus strong anti-trust/monopoly/competitive laws.

OK, here goes.

want a free market state with little to no taxes for everyone. People build and make things because they want/need to not because a government told them. While I hate big government I do believe we need a small (and I'm talking very small) one to make sure there is order and to break up any monopolies.

I believe every facet of the economy should be privatized as doing so will help increase competition in that market that didnt exsist before.

While I hear a lot of people saying "but what about healthcare being through the roof!?" Keep in mind that its the drug manufacturers that's keeping prices this high, and there is no competition in that market as its basically a duopoly. They hold all the patents for the drugs they sell and removing control over them, will allow cheaper products to be made and thus, a cheaper more affordable healthcare system will be developed!

EBay I feel is the closest to a free market site that we have today. People just putting what they own up for sale and the consumer decideds if they want it for that price or not. If not they most likely have other more cheaper options.

Sorry for the wall of text but I wanted to get all of it out. There's still more I'd love to discusse if you are interested!

Taxes spent well make a society more wealthy, the money in its use can produce knowledge, stimulate innovation, and get people educated. Then, even when its wasted, its not like its thrown in a fire, it goes into the economy and lands back in the pockets of the working people who paid the taxes to begin with.

Pretty much somewhere between a centrist and a libertarian. I think government has a bit too much overreach in people's lives and they screw with people who aren't harming anyone or just minding their own business.

I won't go full libertarian or anarchist, because I do recognize the need for government funded services in some areas.

In terms of economics, yeah pretty much a centrist. I think capitalism is the best way of giving everyone an equal opportunity, but also it needs to be regulated here and there with government intervention.

TL;DR Centrist who is a bit more libertarian than others.

I'm an individualist. But not ideologically. I don't mind if people organize however they want. I'm just gonna do whatever I'm gonna do and I don't care if people prop up free healthcare, empires or communes around me as long as they let me do whatever I'm doing. If they do interfere I'll just stand on the opposite ideology and pretend to be against them ideologically. I don't even mind if they make laws against me, as long as they're not enforcing them, because I can just be against the enforcement.

Left wing on social issues and economic issues but right wing humor and ideals.

The responses in this thread are kind of worrying.

Care to expound on why? I haven't seen anything too bad, nor extreme. Just opinions that dinner might agree with, others might disagree with

The Internet has always been weighted towards the fringe. Normal people have better things to do with their lives than tell strangers their political opinions. I wouldn’t worry about it too much.

Working class, independent, American nationalist.

The government should be working for the people, not for corporations. Sadly both parties would rather continue shipping out manufacturing jobs while pretending a few chip factories are a major victory for the working class.

It's crazy how we spend billions on relief for people in poor countries, but when it comes to helping the American citizen we either "can't afford it" or are supposed to go on welfare, as if that's something desirable.

I'm a trans woman and the stuff that affects my life the most deal with are affording food, shelter, healthcare and bills. I'm going to guess that's the same for the majority of Americans.

The amount we spend in foreign aid is basically negligible (wars don’t count as aid).

By far, our biggest expenses are internal. The military-industrial complex and inefficient healthcare make almost all other spending a drop in the bucket.