Re: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? Archived Message Posted by Ian M on March 12, 2023, 2:06 pm, in reply to "Re: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? " I read a bit of one of the Moral Re-Armament books over the summer, the one looking at Eastern Europe after the fall of the USSR and imagining brighter futures there. Had some good bits about freedom & individualism under communism vs capitalism, but both authors seemed pretty naive about the power of religion and tradition to effect positive change in society, denying all the history that points to the opposite conclusion. Some nasty homophobia and sexism from one of them too, along the lines of the Christian right in the US (and Putin too, it pains me to note) saying that allowing gay marriage leads to moral degeneracy and the woman's place is in the home, making dinner and pumping out babies etc. Don't know how representative it was of the rest of the movement, but I think they were founding members... Disagreed with most of the Mike Small article. For him and others it all seems to be about narrative, not facts & evidence leading to informed conclusions. He writes about 'men online' like Jordan Petersen, Neil Oliver, Craig Murray and now Brand whose 'paranoia' fits with a shift to the right, but at least with Brand and Murray it's not paranoid for them to conclude that the establishment has targeted them (Murray was jailed for it!), and for Small & others to dismiss it as 'conspiracy' legitimises the attacks against them and makes further attacks more likely. As the saying goes: "Just because you're paranoid, don't mean they're not after you". Also, just because right wingers have latched onto a story, doesn't mean there's no truth to it. From that perspective it's people like Small & Monbiot who are running through the trenches telling us to fix bayonets and charge the Evil Fascists instead of resolving our disputes, finding common ground and taking the fight to the ruling class which profits from & continually stokes this culture war conflict to distract from its own malignancy. cheers, I Message Thread: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? - John Monro March 12, 2023, 1:19 am Re: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? - John Monro March 12, 2023, 10:03 am Re: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? - Ian M March 12, 2023, 2:06 pm Re: a propos of nothing, and everything. and how can we justify an opinion on anything? - Ken Waldron March 12, 2023, 3:21 pm So Leftwing Libertarianism don't exist - Chris Rogers March 12, 2023, 2:51 pm Re: So Leftwing Libertarianism don't exist - John Monro March 12, 2023, 7:40 pm Re: So Leftwing Libertarianism don't exist - Keith-264 March 13, 2023, 11:16 pm   Searching