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There appears to have been a mild resurgence of Hlynkaism on the forum. This is concerning, because I believe that the core tenets of Hlynkaism are deeply confused.
@hydroacetylene said:
It's not entirely clear what's supposed to be the determining criteria of identity here. Are wokeism and the DR the same because they're both revolutionary, or are they the same because they only differ on who gets the cushy sinecures? At any rate, I'll address both points.
Revolution (defined in the most general sense as rapid dramatic change, as opposed to slow and gradual change) is a tactic, not an ideological principle. You can have adherents of two different ideologies who both agree on the necessity of revolution, and you can have two adherents of the same ideology who disagree on the viability of revolution as a tactic. Although Marxism is typically (and correctly) seen as a revolutionary ideology, there have been notable Marxists who denied the necessity of revolution for Marxism. They instead wanted to achieve communism through a series of gradual reforms using the existing democratic state apparatus. But does that suddenly make them into conservatives? Their tactics are different from typical Marxists, but their core underlying Marxist ideological principles are the same. I doubt that any of the Hlynkaists on this forum would look at the reformist-Marxists and say "ah, a fellow conservative-gradualist! Truly these are my people; they too are lovers of slow, cautious change".
"Tradition above all" is an empty formalism at best, and incoherent at worst. If tradition is your sole overriding source of moral truth, then we just wind up with the old Euthyphro dilemma: what happens when the tradition that you happened to be born into isn't worth defending? What if it's actively malicious? "Support tradition" is a formal principle because it makes no mention of the actual content of that tradition. If you are living in a Nazi or communist (or whatever your own personal avatar of evil is) regime whose roots extend back further than living memory, are conservatives obligated to support the existing "traditional" regime? Perhaps they're allowed to oppose it, but only if they do so in a slow and gradual manner. You can understand why this response might not be appealing to those who are being crushed under the boot of the regime. And at any rate, you can only arrive at the position of opposing the regime in the first place if you have an alternative source of substantive ethical principles that go beyond the formal principles of "support tradition" and "don't change things too fast".
As for the assertion that wokeism and the DR only differ on "who gets the cushy sinecures"; this is simply incorrect. They have multiple substantive policy disagreements on LGBT rights, traditional gender roles, immigration, foreign policy, etc.
Hlynkaism to me represents a concerning abdication of reflection and nuance, in favor of a self-assured "I know what's what, these radical Marxist-Islamo-fascists can't pull a fast one on me" attitude. This is emblematic of much that is wrong with contemporary (and historical as well) political discourse. The principle goal of philosophical reflection is to undermine the foundation of this self-assuredness. Actually, you don't know what's what. Your enemies might know things that you don't; their positions might be more complicated and nuanced than you originally thought. Undoubtedly the realm of political discourse would become more productive, or at least more pleasant, if this attitude of epistemic humility were to become more widespread.
I unironically say this (well, things to this effect) all the time. Despite having individually quite radical policy prescriptions, I still call myself a "centrist." Not because I am in the exact center of the overton window, but because I the people I affiliate myself with are more defined by their pragmatist actions rather than their ideological ends. I have much more in common with a fascist running on a platform of orderly public transit scheduling, and anarchists peacefully protesting for more bike lanes, than with conservatives and liberals that engage in performative hysteria online without actually making any attempt to change anything. It's a matter of ingroup/outgroup genetics. Everyone wants good things instead of bad things, but only a particular type of people want to perform iterated, gradual tests paired with introspective reflection to figure out if the actions they're taking are actually effective at moving them toward what they believe is good.
Actually, this specific phenomenon is what's currently china-pilling me. Seeing tourist videos about china, I'm more and more convinced that I'd actually like the chinese people a lot if I went there in person-- even if ideologically and geopolitically I'm never going to be anything but strongly opposed to them.
Can you explain what those radical policy prescriptions are? I feel that depending on how radical those prescriptions, the revolutionists might have a point when claiming that only revolution can bring them about.
Non-exhaustively...
I believe in some neoliberal stuff (Open borders, free trade, georgism) some libertarian stuff (end social security, repeal all intellectual property law except for trademarks, all drugs should be legal over-the-counter if you're 18+) some socdem stuff (a public option for healthcare, though I would also accept M4A), some paleoconservative stuff (the catholic church is exactly correct, and while I wouldn't want to end freedom of conscience I WOULD remove the separation between church and state if I thought it would go in my favor... Which, eventually, it will, because we are destined by God to succeed), and I'm fairly sympathetic to neoconservatives., though more in theory rather than in practice. (Some cultures ARE better than others, and as the country with one of the best cultures in the world, it's america's duty to spread that culture. Assimilating immigrants is the best way to do that, but I wouldn't strictly rule out conquest as a foreign policy tool. Though... most actually proposed conquests are just a terrible idea on humanitarian and practical grounds. We're not going to improve canada by invading it.)
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