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The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

thomasprosser.substack.com

1–10 of 59 posts

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#4
The sad part of all of this is that the folks pushing the polarization in the U.S., the Trumpy right, and the progressive left, represent an extreme minority of the population. If either of these two groups had an any level of self awareness, they'd realize that no one wants them around.

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#5
post #4

The sad part of all of this is that the folks pushing the polarization in the U.S., the Trumpy right, and the progressive left, represent an extreme minority of the population. If either of these two groups had an any level of self awareness, they'd realize that no one wants them around.

If the US had an equivalent of lib dems and/or proportional representation and/or ranked choice, would it still be so polarised? Sure, a 2-party state is preferable to a 1-party state, but that's a pretty low bar.

Lagniappe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren#Election

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#6
post #4

The sad part of all of this is that the folks pushing the polarization in the U.S., the Trumpy right, and the progressive left, represent an extreme minority of the population. If either of these two groups had an any level of self awareness, they'd realize that no one wants them around.

You can't really say "no one" when Trump won the 2016 election and nearly won the 2020 election. You should probably check your assertions.

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#7
As a member of one of the minorities whose rights campaigns Prosser cites as ruining his footie, I'll say, apropos nothing, that it's much easier to talk about these issues with detached neutrality when you & your friends are not subject to monotonically increasing levels of stochastic domestic terrorism.

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#8
post #3

[flagged]

Yes, because they are liberal only by name not concept. Liberalism is based on tolerance and civil society as the space of freedom.

> Yes, because they are liberal only by name not concept. Liberalism is based on tolerance and civil society as the space of freedom.

Exactly. We tend to conflate "left" with "liberalism" because historically in the West these two things have gone together. However, they don't have to, and in recent years they have decoupled. The left (at least in the U.S.) has became increasingly illiberal to the point where they now openly argue for censorship (e.g. anything not of or by the worldview is labelled as "dangerous misinformation"). The right does this too, but they don't seem to be as good as the left at couching it in altruistic language, so it tends not to gain as much traction.

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#9
post #4

The sad part of all of this is that the folks pushing the polarization in the U.S., the Trumpy right, and the progressive left, represent an extreme minority of the population. If either of these two groups had an any level of self awareness, they'd realize that no one wants them around.

If the US had an equivalent of lib dems and/or proportional representation and/or ranked choice, would it still be so polarised? Sure, a 2-party state is preferable to a 1-party state, but that's a pretty low bar. Lagniappe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren#Election

> If the US had an equivalent of lib dems and/or proportional representation and/or ranked choice, would it still be so polarised

I don't think this would be a panacea, but it would definitely help things quite a bit. The largest voting block in the U.S. isn't Democrats or Republicans, but voters that have chosen not to be affiliated with either party.

Re: The politicization of society is damaging liberal democracy

#10
post #4

The sad part of all of this is that the folks pushing the polarization in the U.S., the Trumpy right, and the progressive left, represent an extreme minority of the population. If either of these two groups had an any level of self awareness, they'd realize that no one wants them around.

since every issue apparently has two quite defined and non-overlapping 'sides', what is a moderate? someone who chooses Ala-carte?
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