TheOriginalGregToo

I believe in personal freedom. I believe in smaller, more local governance. I believe in gun rights and the right to defend oneself. I believe in free market capitalism, fewer entitlements, and lower taxes. I believe the family structure is key to a thriving society and think it should be encouraged from a policy/tax standpoint rather than dismantled in favor of government "parentage". I believe in meritocracy rather than the ever shifting goal post of equity. I do support abortion, but not in the late term/full term like many leftists do. I think it is a necessary evil and should never be celebrated.

You clearly missed the part where I said I was for open borders. Which current candidates oppose gay rights, and what rights are we talking about?

Last I saw Hamas wasn't troubling themselves with giving ANY warnings. I'd say some>none. Where is the moral equivalence you so desperately want?

It's strange, you seem to care a whole lot more about the criminals than you do their victims. Are you this riled up when an innocent child is sexually abused? It's probably their fault for dressing too provocatively right?

You do the crime, you do the time, I don't give a flying fuck how uncomfortable you are in the process. I only care about the innocent person you traumatized because of your own selfish greed.

You seem to really like the word psychological...

You're absolutely right, guns don't protect people at all...oh wait, they do. You mean the left has been lying to me this entire time?

Cool, thanks for engaging with my points and not giving a lazy response. Appreciate you.

Spoken like an elitist liberal. You'd fit right in in California.

You remind me of someone I once read about. They too believed in progressive ideals. They decided to hitchhike from Italy to the middle east in an attempt to share their message of love and peace. Three weeks into the trip they were raped, murdered, and left in a ditch. But I guess you're right, evil people don't exist, it's just those damn aggrieved saps at the bottom who don't respect the system.

You're right, there are certainly people who have been downtrodden by the world and become cold and callous, but there are also people simply born cruel. I've seen downtrodden people act with tremendous kindness/morality, and I've seen successful people act with tremendous evil/immorality. For you to pretend that bad behavior is simply a result of "the system" is idiotic and out of touch with reality.

And I think your political literacy is poor, and barely surface level. The conditions you speak of are not due to nebulous "progressive" policies, but to the vast wealth inequality your country as a whole, but California particularly, suffers from. California has progressive policies, but still does not address many of the worst of the issues.

What do you suppose led to the vast inequality? I'll give you a hint, it was elitist thinking and liberal policies. California is one of the most progressive states in the country. It's been that way basically my entire life. We charge more for everything (taxes, healthcare, energy, housing, etc) so that we can fund our progressive agenda. As a result our middle class has evaporated. Now we have only the poor and the insanely wealthy. Our progressive leaders know this, so they pander to the poor, giving them benefits to keep voting them in, and cut deals with the rich. They don't want to stigmatize anyone so they've stopped enforcing many basic laws. The rich aren't terribly impacted, they live in gated communities and have armed security. Instead it's everyone else who suffers. You acknowledge California has progressive policies that don't address the problems, yet you simultaneously dismiss them being the cause of the problems. What is your answer then? Let me guess... communism? That seems to be the answer everyone on Lemmy espouses.

So now you're mental health shaming? I thought progressives were supposed to be compassionate and nonjudgmental. You're really letting the ideology down.

Or could it be that we see policy enacted which tangibly DOES in fact make our lives worse, our community run down, and our family less safe? Why is it that in the 50s you could leave your front door unlocked without fear of someone stealing your stuff or harming your family? The country has gotten significantly more progressive since then. Would you feel safe doing that now? In big cities (overwhelming progressive) people are advised to leave their car windows down so that anyone trying to break in won't shatter the window. In those same cities homeless encampments, open drug use, and relieving oneself in the streets has become the accepted norm. Call me crazy, but I liked it better the way it was before.

Not all change is good, and not all conservation is bad. That seems to be a sentiment we've lost sight of.