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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   35442 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 3, 2022

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I'd say the side that thinks they need as many men with as many guns as possible patrolling the streets patting down anyone who looks suspicious are more frightened of crime and less confident in their ability to deal with it than the side that thinks you can deal with it via social workers and suchlike. That's absent a judgment on who is right, or what the correct level of fear is: when I'm scared of things I want to deal with them violently and immediately, when I'm not viscerally scared of things I talk about long term root causes.

That's a fair characterisation and a point that I'd overlooked. I'd be curious to see what hard-libertarians' preferred approach to crime is.

Sure, but map the spectrum onto either a binary or the spectrum or left-right and it doesn't come out with "Rightists are confident self-defenders" and "Leftists are nervous weaklings."

I think my comment may have unintentionally presented this theory as a be-all and end-all theory when I viewed it as more of a contributing factor which might assist in leading one down one garden path or another. I'm not denying that there are strong, confident people who nevertheless support authoritarian policies, or vice versa.

Which is my point about libertarianism: people adopt libertarian and constitutionalist talking points when their tribe is under perceived threat from the government, and ignore them when their tribe is in power.

Agree.

I think my comment may have unintentionally presented this theory as a be-all and end-all theory when I viewed it as more of a contributing factor which might assist in leading one down one garden path or another.

That's fair, and I apologize if it seemed like I was jumping down your throat. I think you can see how "Right man strong, left man scared" is kind of a boo-outgroup alarm, in the same way as /r/science loves to post articles about how conservatives are dumber, less open to experience, etc.

Yes, in retrospect suggesting that men only support leftist policies because they're physically weak was rather poorly phrased.

Indeed, it's not only physical weakness contributing to that.

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