(October 4, 2015 at 6:03 am)lkingpinl Wrote: It really boils down to this. Judge a system/philosophy by what is claimed and believed instead of the abuses purported against others in the name of said philosophy/system. Those abuses are the actions of the individual alone and not the system.
Anyone can take a philosophy or system and choose to interpret it in such a way to cause harm against others. We've seen it in history and still today.
I do not think that is a satisfactory explanation at all. Many times, the actual consequences of some position do not work as the advocator of it claims. The "trickle down" theory of economics is an example of this. The real world does not fit the theory at all. It just makes the rich richer, and the poor poorer, despite the nonsensical claim that it means prosperity for all.
Also, there are some people who are against "big government" who imagine that fewer laws mean greater freedom for people, but that is a simplistic and frankly wrong view of things, as it means that rich people are freer to stomp on poor people, so poor people can end up with much less actual freedom.
Pointing out those facts is not an abuse of those positions. It is that those positions falsely describe the way the world works.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
