I am not permitted by the community rules to respond to most of this.
All I will really say is this: I obviously know what I believe politically and why. This whole question “Is Philip a liberal to you or not?” hinges on how you define a liberal, so like I say I am asking you define the label by asking that. I am obviously not asking you to answer questions about my own politics for me. If you’re not sure about any element of my politics that you would need to know in order to answer, you are free to ask, but I think I’ve taken quite a bit of time to try to break it down for you.
You are the one introducing the Schrodinger element into it, and that was actually precisely the point that I was making by asking you to be specific. I actually think it’s pretty interesting that when talking with me, we were mostly going back and forth about facts even if I disagree with a lot of what you said (and you were sort of sensibly sticking with that you genuinely didn’t know if I am a liberal), but once you’re speaking to the echo chamber again you immediately revert to just backhandedly accusing me of being a “liberal” using it as a label meaning “enemy of the clique,” more or less. This intense discussion about whether or not you deem it appropriate to fix the label to me (presumably with the idea that it would be horribly damaging and you’re assuming I want to avoid it) is what I was talking about, too. It is how enemy labels like “communist” and “counterrevolutionary” have functioned in the past, and I don’t think you are realizing exactly how you’re using it when you do.
You’re also misrepresenting tons of stuff that I believe or have said. I won’t list the other examples even though there are a bunch and I spent (for whatever reason) a ton of time digging up old comments of mine to illustrate that you were wrong. Most are debatable in some way or another. All I will say is that it’s instantly objectively verifiable that I never repeatedly claimed I wasn’t a liberal, and now you said I did. You are lying so that you will get approval from your echo chamber. I have no doubt that it will work, probably you and the echo chamber will see it as a win and feel happy about the interaction. Like I said at the very beginning to other people, I would really highly recommend that you take time and reflect on why that is and what function that part of it is serving. In the meantime all the best and take care.
All I will say is that it’s instantly objectively verifiable that I never repeatedly claimed I wasn’t a liberal, and now you said I did. You are lying so that you will get approval from your echo chamber.
I love this ‘i never said those words’ game we’ve been playing, but i wasn’t quoting you as making that claim, only that you were insisting that my definition of liberal definitely doesn’t apply to you. The deeper I went into explaining the specific part of liberalism you were dancing around that I took issue with, the greater effort you went to either misunderstand my description to paint yourself out of the picture, or quote yourself talking about a specific issue you held that was undermined in all of your other comment history. I tried telling you repeatedly that it isn’t about a specific policy position or opinion, it’s the way in which liberals abandon those positions when forced to choose between them or their institutions.
You’re also misrepresenting tons of stuff that I believe or have said
Right, like you’ve been misrepresenting things i’ve never said? Like:
‘liberals oppose strikes’
‘it seems like your whole concept of it is as a limiting factor on progressive movements’
‘you’re defining liberalism as “allegiance to the government and rejection of methods of change outside of the formal government structure,” and kind of nothing else beyond that’
I’m not ascribing things you say to you, I’m interpreting your behavior through a liberal lens in an effort to give you examples for how you might fall into that category. Do liberals oppose protests? Decidedly not. Do they abandon their support for protest when those protests materially threaten the institutions they’re protecting? Resoundingly, yes. You’re ‘fine’ with the undecided movement, but make big time noise about people choosing not to vote as a result of those protests, even though that protest and every other always has the same implicit threat. It isn’t the fault of protestors or online agitators for souring the enthusiasm for democratic candidates, and it isn’t even the non-voter’s fault for seeing the lack of response to those protests and deciding that democrats aren’t worth the trouble. Democrats had an opportunity to address those concerns for more than a year before 2024, and they turned their back on their base at every turn. You might think non-voters are responsible for that loss, but it’s still the democrats’ fault for abandoning them.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what you think. You’re right - I am absolutely in good company here.
I am not permitted by the community rules to respond to most of this.
All I will really say is this: I obviously know what I believe politically and why. This whole question “Is Philip a liberal to you or not?” hinges on how you define a liberal, so like I say I am asking you define the label by asking that. I am obviously not asking you to answer questions about my own politics for me. If you’re not sure about any element of my politics that you would need to know in order to answer, you are free to ask, but I think I’ve taken quite a bit of time to try to break it down for you.
You are the one introducing the Schrodinger element into it, and that was actually precisely the point that I was making by asking you to be specific. I actually think it’s pretty interesting that when talking with me, we were mostly going back and forth about facts even if I disagree with a lot of what you said (and you were sort of sensibly sticking with that you genuinely didn’t know if I am a liberal), but once you’re speaking to the echo chamber again you immediately revert to just backhandedly accusing me of being a “liberal” using it as a label meaning “enemy of the clique,” more or less. This intense discussion about whether or not you deem it appropriate to fix the label to me (presumably with the idea that it would be horribly damaging and you’re assuming I want to avoid it) is what I was talking about, too. It is how enemy labels like “communist” and “counterrevolutionary” have functioned in the past, and I don’t think you are realizing exactly how you’re using it when you do.
You’re also misrepresenting tons of stuff that I believe or have said. I won’t list the other examples even though there are a bunch and I spent (for whatever reason) a ton of time digging up old comments of mine to illustrate that you were wrong. Most are debatable in some way or another. All I will say is that it’s instantly objectively verifiable that I never repeatedly claimed I wasn’t a liberal, and now you said I did. You are lying so that you will get approval from your echo chamber. I have no doubt that it will work, probably you and the echo chamber will see it as a win and feel happy about the interaction. Like I said at the very beginning to other people, I would really highly recommend that you take time and reflect on why that is and what function that part of it is serving. In the meantime all the best and take care.
I love this ‘i never said those words’ game we’ve been playing, but i wasn’t quoting you as making that claim, only that you were insisting that my definition of liberal definitely doesn’t apply to you. The deeper I went into explaining the specific part of liberalism you were dancing around that I took issue with, the greater effort you went to either misunderstand my description to paint yourself out of the picture, or quote yourself talking about a specific issue you held that was undermined in all of your other comment history. I tried telling you repeatedly that it isn’t about a specific policy position or opinion, it’s the way in which liberals abandon those positions when forced to choose between them or their institutions.
Right, like you’ve been misrepresenting things i’ve never said? Like:
‘liberals oppose strikes’
‘it seems like your whole concept of it is as a limiting factor on progressive movements’
‘you’re defining liberalism as “allegiance to the government and rejection of methods of change outside of the formal government structure,” and kind of nothing else beyond that’
I’m not ascribing things you say to you, I’m interpreting your behavior through a liberal lens in an effort to give you examples for how you might fall into that category. Do liberals oppose protests? Decidedly not. Do they abandon their support for protest when those protests materially threaten the institutions they’re protecting? Resoundingly, yes. You’re ‘fine’ with the undecided movement, but make big time noise about people choosing not to vote as a result of those protests, even though that protest and every other always has the same implicit threat. It isn’t the fault of protestors or online agitators for souring the enthusiasm for democratic candidates, and it isn’t even the non-voter’s fault for seeing the lack of response to those protests and deciding that democrats aren’t worth the trouble. Democrats had an opportunity to address those concerns for more than a year before 2024, and they turned their back on their base at every turn. You might think non-voters are responsible for that loss, but it’s still the democrats’ fault for abandoning them.
Ultimately it doesn’t matter what you think. You’re right - I am absolutely in good company here.