Sabot Cat
12th November 2013, 00:17
Hello everyone! My name is Tori, although I thought 'Red Rose' would be an adequate if obvious bit of wordplay that can serve as a moniker.
- Where are you from, whats the leftist scene there like?
I'm a Senior from the city of Indianapolis in the United States, and in my general location, the leftist scene is a vast wasteland of moderate liberal capitalists, except for one childhood friend who's a Marxist, and my brother, who is a Democratic Socialist.
- What are your political ideas, if any?
I'm more firmly committed to my ethical and epistemological principles than any ideology or tendency, and as such I'm open to a wide variety of philosophies that accord to my foundational principles.
My epistemology is based on the rational and parsimonious analysis of a lucid experiential consensus, chiefly drawing upon the traditions of Pragmatism, empiricism, and skepticism but I deem none adequate in resolving the regress problem. As such, I'm a Foundationalist for lack of a better theory of truth (those foundational axioms being loosely delineated above). In practice, this means I dismiss most metaphysical speculation in religious thought as lacking in the adequate parsimony to be justified against more plausible theories.
My ethics are based upon a valuation of the life of all thinking beings, and the least amount of conflicting satisfaction of all the aforementioned's preferences. In short, I would like as many as possible to be alive and happy, and actions that are most likely to further this goal are the most good. I suppose you could call me a Utilitarian, but I feel that that system of ethics fails to explicate the overriding principle of the value of life.
Now, from these I derive my politics. I believe that rights are convenient fictions, and freedom is desirable only when it's beneficial to those who possess that liberty. I feel that equality, justice and fairness are the most important political ideals because I consider them to be the recognition of the universal value of life. I am suspicious of unaccountable elites, and large organizations that have a monopoly on 'legitimate' force, because I feel that the centralization or concentration of resources in the hands of such a group is likely to be the detriment of those who are not similarly armed; history has proven that such groups act in a manner counter to both equality and liberty in the pursuit of their self-interest. I thus support a political system where there exists no elite, and no monopoly of force or power.
Furthermore, I support an economic system where resources are allocated to everyone in a way that benefits the most people. Related to the above, this means that there can be no substantive centralization or concentration of resources. Capitalism, either from the market or the state, is insufficient because it is unequal. This is slightly tangential, but the capitalist order of society disgusts me because of how it steals life away from people and thus deprives them from the ability to pursue the meaning that they have created for themselves. I would prefer to be with my girlfriend and the rest of my family, doing the things I enjoy doing with them, but I cannot in fear of the bourgeois mandated consequences. However, I recognize the importance in differing compensation in accordance to the quality and difficulty of labor in motivating people to best contribute to those around them, and I'm thus in favor of maintaining it.
Thus, in order to achieve all of the above stated principles, I favor the combination of direct or delegative democracy with workers' self-management which seems to be best embodied in the political philosophy of Anarcho-Syndicalism.
- How did you become a leftist?
It all came about during my adolescence. I was indoctrinated as a Christian, a conservative, and a capitalist. The first of these to go was Christianity, as I was so enamored by its moral principles that I tried to justify the entire thing by studying apologetics. But the arguments against Christianity and theism in general always seemed to be more reasonable, more sincere, and above all else, more true than the arguments for it. However, this interest in religion lead to my interest in philosophy, and I came to be a leftist through the line of reasoning above. On a more personal note, I'm a lesbian trans girl, and that rather harshly revealed to me the rather deprecated state of justice and equality in our world. Thus, I hope to right (left?) those wrongs as best as I can by furthering the cause of loving-kindness in our world.
Sorry if that was overly long, but I wanted to be thorough. If you have any questions or the like, feel free to ask. :)
- Where are you from, whats the leftist scene there like?
I'm a Senior from the city of Indianapolis in the United States, and in my general location, the leftist scene is a vast wasteland of moderate liberal capitalists, except for one childhood friend who's a Marxist, and my brother, who is a Democratic Socialist.
- What are your political ideas, if any?
I'm more firmly committed to my ethical and epistemological principles than any ideology or tendency, and as such I'm open to a wide variety of philosophies that accord to my foundational principles.
My epistemology is based on the rational and parsimonious analysis of a lucid experiential consensus, chiefly drawing upon the traditions of Pragmatism, empiricism, and skepticism but I deem none adequate in resolving the regress problem. As such, I'm a Foundationalist for lack of a better theory of truth (those foundational axioms being loosely delineated above). In practice, this means I dismiss most metaphysical speculation in religious thought as lacking in the adequate parsimony to be justified against more plausible theories.
My ethics are based upon a valuation of the life of all thinking beings, and the least amount of conflicting satisfaction of all the aforementioned's preferences. In short, I would like as many as possible to be alive and happy, and actions that are most likely to further this goal are the most good. I suppose you could call me a Utilitarian, but I feel that that system of ethics fails to explicate the overriding principle of the value of life.
Now, from these I derive my politics. I believe that rights are convenient fictions, and freedom is desirable only when it's beneficial to those who possess that liberty. I feel that equality, justice and fairness are the most important political ideals because I consider them to be the recognition of the universal value of life. I am suspicious of unaccountable elites, and large organizations that have a monopoly on 'legitimate' force, because I feel that the centralization or concentration of resources in the hands of such a group is likely to be the detriment of those who are not similarly armed; history has proven that such groups act in a manner counter to both equality and liberty in the pursuit of their self-interest. I thus support a political system where there exists no elite, and no monopoly of force or power.
Furthermore, I support an economic system where resources are allocated to everyone in a way that benefits the most people. Related to the above, this means that there can be no substantive centralization or concentration of resources. Capitalism, either from the market or the state, is insufficient because it is unequal. This is slightly tangential, but the capitalist order of society disgusts me because of how it steals life away from people and thus deprives them from the ability to pursue the meaning that they have created for themselves. I would prefer to be with my girlfriend and the rest of my family, doing the things I enjoy doing with them, but I cannot in fear of the bourgeois mandated consequences. However, I recognize the importance in differing compensation in accordance to the quality and difficulty of labor in motivating people to best contribute to those around them, and I'm thus in favor of maintaining it.
Thus, in order to achieve all of the above stated principles, I favor the combination of direct or delegative democracy with workers' self-management which seems to be best embodied in the political philosophy of Anarcho-Syndicalism.
- How did you become a leftist?
It all came about during my adolescence. I was indoctrinated as a Christian, a conservative, and a capitalist. The first of these to go was Christianity, as I was so enamored by its moral principles that I tried to justify the entire thing by studying apologetics. But the arguments against Christianity and theism in general always seemed to be more reasonable, more sincere, and above all else, more true than the arguments for it. However, this interest in religion lead to my interest in philosophy, and I came to be a leftist through the line of reasoning above. On a more personal note, I'm a lesbian trans girl, and that rather harshly revealed to me the rather deprecated state of justice and equality in our world. Thus, I hope to right (left?) those wrongs as best as I can by furthering the cause of loving-kindness in our world.
Sorry if that was overly long, but I wanted to be thorough. If you have any questions or the like, feel free to ask. :)