RE: Have you ever lived anywhere else besides where you live now?
June 22, 2017 at 2:58 pm
(This post was last modified: June 22, 2017 at 3:01 pm by The Grand Nudger.)
5 states, 4 countries, countless cities.
I was much more conservative before leaving the swamp..but that put me in the libertarian phase of youth....mostly because neo-conservatives aren't really conservatives at all, a fact not lost on actual conservatives..who never tire of reminding us that both modern american progressivism and neo-conservativism arose out of american liberalism not but a generation or two back....and have very little in the way of root ideological difference beyond -social- issues.
Neo cons aren't fiscal conservatives. They're big spending welfare statists. They're not american preservationists either, they gleefully mold laws to fit their political reality rather than any "framers intent". Gun control? Let a bunch of dark people buy some guns and see how they feel about that. Their corporatism, like the liberals corporatism..is -also- not born out of anything in our history or system that they are conserving. Used to be we let the bad performers just die.
That travel, in my opinion, did help to knock some of my then libertarian leanings off the shelf. In that I saw what a "free market" looked like in war torn shitholes, for example. With people kicking children in the face for a piece of an MRE. I saw people who I never would have been exposed to in my little bubble being actively dicked by policies that seemed ideologically sound. I noticed that the quality of life for people in other places, with other regulations that might seem "un-american" was as good as or even better than the quality of life than I was used to in their socioeconomic contemporaries back home.
Ultimately, I've come to feel that a -massive- con had been pulled on we the people, and I'd fallen for plenty of it hook line and sinker. Still couldn't be a dem, though..so here I am, deep in the red on the american map..not always disagreeing, but almost always wishing we'd gone another way with whatever it was.
I was much more conservative before leaving the swamp..but that put me in the libertarian phase of youth....mostly because neo-conservatives aren't really conservatives at all, a fact not lost on actual conservatives..who never tire of reminding us that both modern american progressivism and neo-conservativism arose out of american liberalism not but a generation or two back....and have very little in the way of root ideological difference beyond -social- issues.
Neo cons aren't fiscal conservatives. They're big spending welfare statists. They're not american preservationists either, they gleefully mold laws to fit their political reality rather than any "framers intent". Gun control? Let a bunch of dark people buy some guns and see how they feel about that. Their corporatism, like the liberals corporatism..is -also- not born out of anything in our history or system that they are conserving. Used to be we let the bad performers just die.
That travel, in my opinion, did help to knock some of my then libertarian leanings off the shelf. In that I saw what a "free market" looked like in war torn shitholes, for example. With people kicking children in the face for a piece of an MRE. I saw people who I never would have been exposed to in my little bubble being actively dicked by policies that seemed ideologically sound. I noticed that the quality of life for people in other places, with other regulations that might seem "un-american" was as good as or even better than the quality of life than I was used to in their socioeconomic contemporaries back home.
Ultimately, I've come to feel that a -massive- con had been pulled on we the people, and I'd fallen for plenty of it hook line and sinker. Still couldn't be a dem, though..so here I am, deep in the red on the american map..not always disagreeing, but almost always wishing we'd gone another way with whatever it was.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
