Still skeptical, but they're some great quotes. Hopefully agreeing with those quotes doesn't impugn some sort of belief in his political and cultural ideology.
The problem with that comparison though, is that martin's extremists are typically more along the lines of anarchy, and I can't think many well-known anarchists. Historically I guess that makes sense, because people tend to gravitate to giving up as much power as possible to an omniscient government. Go figure.
Most anarchists are left-libertarians and martin is distinctly right-libertarian. Right wing extremists seem more to his anti-moderate sentiment.
around here we go to great lengths to prove godwin's law. red is still operating under a misguided idea of the political spectrum. he sees any opposition to collectivism as necessarily more fascist than collectivism, which is obviously absurd, the false premise being that collectivism is actually a system where the people have power. in practice, fascist leaders tell their followers that they are doing the will of the people. so what red believes to be the extreme right and left are actually the same thing. real individual freedom, and the extreme extension of it, anarchy, are certainly the polar opposite of nazism. NLMD appears to understand this, red does not. of course it is a pretty stupid straw man to compare my freedom-loving views to nazism or anarchism. that is what i meant earlier by reframing the debate. freedom shouldnt be considered extreme.
kcal often snipes in these discussions. i like it. in an earlier thread, kcal amused me by introducing the idea that red is running for dog catcher and must be as moderate as possible to appeal to the masses. this seems like a theory with some merit.
I have never once advocated "collectivism". I simply think extremism and extremists take us off the road and into the ditches. Nonsense, the extreme right and the left are political opposites, just equally extreme. Fascism describes extreme right wing authoritarians not all authoritarians. I do not deny that authoritarians also exist on the left as communists. However fascists and communists do not mix and are not the same. Like I said, anarchists are usually left-leaning extremists and you are not left-leaning. Perhaps you are just a confused anarchist. Of course not. Extremism certainly is, however. And anarchy is extremism. You have a quaint notion that freedom is only valid when it is revolutionary.
dont mean to pry, but it seems to me that a definition of freedom should be agreed upon. not an easy task. i gather that red uses "freedom" in the lee greenwood sense and martin uses "freedom" in a more literal funk and wagnalls sense. i, for one, have never understood how both anarchists and nazis could be considered extreme left. seems like there needs to be another direction, perhaps anarchists are not on the left or right of the legislature, but outside of the building.
