Speaker For The Diodes - June 27th, 2011

05:24 am - QotD

"I was raised Catholic and Republican, read Ayn Rand and believed we were fighting the Good War in Vietnam. A little at a time, I found the Catholics weren't into the truth but only wanted Faith,.. the Republicans did not believe in Freedom but demanded Conformity, Ayn Rand was novels worshiped the individual but denied the collective work that was need for the plot of her main work to succeed, and I learned from the people who actually fought in Vietnam that most of the effort we put in was bullshit that enriched a tiny few while the rest suffered. I did not get this view of the war from the 'dirty hippies' who were protesting on the streets, but from the survivors of that war: the Special Forces officer who saw first hand the corruption and betrayal by our so-called allies, the infantryman who risked court-martial to build an orphanage and the sharpshooter who was the only one who came back from their mission - twice.

"I started out as someone who is fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I still believe you don't spend money foolishly and that the government should enhance people's lives and freedoms. Resistance to people's freedom has come from the Republican, Conservative, even the Libertarians - not from the Liberals. To be liberal is to examine different and new points of view, to discern the truth from new data and new concepts. The conservative already believes that they have the Truth and there's no need to investigate or consider - only Obedience is required. Principles - not facts - are revered and only the Approved and Revealed notions are accepted. The Libertarians can be just as bad, just as clinging to the principles of absolute free markets and Invisible Hands that they don't realize that things like regulations are often not only necessary but desirable - not an evil but a Good Thing."

-- malada, 2011-06-26