NationStates Jolt Archive

I'm just curious if people on this forum tend to have parents farther left/right than they are or if they're the extreme one in the family.

I'm more moderate than my parents, especially my Mom who thinks that we should withdraw from Iraq immedietly and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.

I'm just curious if people on this forum tend to have parents farther left/right than they are or if they're the extreme one in the family.

I'm more moderate than my parents, especially my Mom who thinks that we should withdraw from Iraq immedietly and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.

My mother is a Marxist-Feminist and my father is a Socialist. As they get older they are settling somewhat into a rather depressing centrisation and forgetting about class-struggle all together. I recently went to see my Dad and he opened a bottle of champagne...very sweet; but merely a symptom of his generally declining Leftist morals. As such I'd say I am gradually becoming more left wing than my parents through a process of their moving slightly right rather than my being 'rebellious' or extreme: if that answers your question which I'm not sure I completely understand...

I am far more extreme than my parents. My parents are US liberals; I am an anarcho-communist with the occassional primitivist tendency. My brother does not help the mix; he is a radical advocate of laissez-faire capitalism.

I am far more extreme than my parents. My parents are US liberals; I am an anarcho-communist with the occassional primitivist tendency. My brother does not help the mix; he is a radical advocate of laissez-faire capitalism.

I never would have thought of you as coming from anything other than a similar background to myself...how did you find anarcho-communism? What was it that made you formulate/find those political views?

My dad is Democrat, and I am a Goldwater Conservative. I think me and him are on the same page on the opposite end of the scale. I just believe in more Republicans/Libertarian ideas than he does so that puts me into the right wing cat.

My mom's pretty moderate. Not sure about my dad. I've not seen him in over 10 years, so fuck him.

My mother is a Marxist-Feminist and my father is a Socialist. As they get older they are settling somewhat into a rather depressing centrisation and forgetting about class-struggle all together. I recently went to see my Dad and he opened a bottle of champagne...very sweet; but merely a symptom of his generally declining Leftist morals. As such I'd say I am gradually becoming more left wing than my parents through a process of their moving slightly right rather than my being 'rebellious' or extreme: if that answers your question which I'm not sure I completely understand...

My dad's a die-hard Republican, I'm a pacifist Marxist; you do the math.

I guess I'm more left compared to my parents although its not that hard. My parents i guess you could say they are those family values kind of people, social conservative etc. They're the kind of people who think playing too much video games causes violence, southpark is evil because it uses profanity and that crap. Politically I guess they mainly vote according to their self interest, my mom and dad voted for bush in the 2004 elections because they said that he supported the defense companies which she works for. Although to be fair they did vote for al gore in the 2000 elections.

My dad's a die-hard Republican, I'm a pacifist Marxist; you do the math.

Makes serfect pense as far as I'm concerned...

I never would have thought of you as coming from anything other than a similar background to myself...how did you find anarcho-communism? What was it that made you formulate/find those political views?

A whole lot of thinking and reading? One big contribution my parents did provide was a strong emphasis on independent thought... that no doubt helped.

Edit: Which, thinking about it, is an interesting almost-contradiction in itself. Libertarian indoctrination.

I'd say my parents and I hold fairly similar political views. I am, perhaps, a teensy touch more liberal on certain issues, but the vast majority of the time my mother and I are in complete agreement, and my father and I are in near-complete agreement. (Politics, in fact, is one of the very few things my parents and I ever agree on...)

I'm a bit left (and antiauthoritarian) of my parents, though not radically so. :p

A whole lot of thinking and reading? One big contribution my parents did provide was a strong emphasis on independent thought... that no doubt helped.

True enough. I ask because anarcho-communism as an ideology truly interests me.

I still get confused about anarcho-syndicalism V. anarcho-capitalism etc and would find it hard to define myself as anarcho-communism regardless of the amount of reading I do. As such I settle for Evolutionary Socialist, although from a lot of what you say, my respect for Peter Kropotkin and my dislike of individualist politics I think I may well be an anarcho-communist who can't quite get his head round anarcho-communism

Both my parents are conservative, but my father more along the lines of lassez-faire capitalist libertarianism. I used to be the same way to a far stronger degree in high school, until I spent some time at an orphanage in Mexico and got bitch-slapped with a heavy dose of crisis of faith (seriously, if you ever have an opportunity to visit the third world, take it; you won't come back the same, guaranteed). I haven't come close to abandoning laissez-faire completely, but I've most certainly taken a left turn or two (if anything, I think doing so has actually brought me closer to genuine laissez-faire, away from simply "all your base are belong to Inc. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism)"). My sister claims to be an "anarchist," but only because she doesn't understand the word. What she means is "apolitical" (which genuine anarchists are not).

My mom is a conservative in every sense of the word...I'm just glad she doesn't listen to Rush Limbaugh like my grandpa.

...my dad is a (U.S.) liberal...though he's become quite indifferent to politics over the last decade or so. Still votes, just doesn't bother with issues or candidates, just a straight Dem ticket.

Me...I kinda ended up in between. :p

Edit: Which, thinking about it, is an interesting almost-contradiction in itself. Libertarian indoctrination.

:D

True enough. I ask because anarcho-communism as an ideology truly interests me.

I still get confused about anarcho-syndicalism V. anarcho-capitalism etc and would find it hard to define myself as anarcho-communism regardless of the amount of reading I do. As such I settle for Evolutionary Socialist, although from a lot of what you say, my respect for Peter Kropotkin and my dislike of individualist politics I think I may well be an anarcho-communist who can't quite get his head round anarcho-communism

Take a look at the Anarchist FAQ (http://www.infoshop.org/faq/index.html).

Edit: Then take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. The degree to which they are representative of anarcho-communist political thought varies, but they get much of the spirit of it rather well, and are both excellent novels.

Take a look at the Anarchist FAQ (http://www.infoshop.org/faq/index.html).

Anarcha-Feminism leaps out and hits me in the face as my mother has recently described me as such in a recent argument about the future of feminism:

Anarcha-feminists point out that authoritarian traits and values, for example, domination, exploitation, aggressiveness, competitiveness, desensitisation etc., are highly valued in hierarchical civilisations and are traditionally referred to as "masculine." In contrast, non-authoritarian traits and values such as co-operation, sharing, compassion, sensitivity, warmth, etc., are traditionally regarded as "feminine" and are devalued. Feminist scholars have traced this phenomenon back to the growth of patriarchal societies during the early Bronze Age and their conquest of co-operatively based "organic" societies in which "feminine" traits and values were prevalent and respected. Following these conquests, however, such values came to be regarded as "inferior," especially for a man, since men were in charge of domination and exploitation under patriarchy. (See e.g. Riane Eisler, The Chalice and the Blade; Elise Boulding, The Underside of History). Hence anarcha-feminists have referred to the creation of a non-authoritarian, anarchist society based on co-operation, sharing, mutual aid, etc. as the "feminisation of society."

Take a look at the Anarchist FAQ (http://www.infoshop.org/faq/index.html).

Edit: Then take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. The degree to which they are representative of anarcho-communist political thought varies, but they get much of the spirit of it rather well, and are both excellent novels.Agree on The Dispossessed being a great novel. One of the best scifi books I've read in a while.

As far as I can tell my parents are somewhat apolitical, in that they don't have any political ideology that they associate with. Neither of them are very well educated, but from what I can tell my mom would probably be a either a liberal Republican or a conservative Democrat. I don't think she's given much thought to politics in general, other than blaming Michigan's shitty economy on the Governor and President. Since she's been in and out of minimum wage + a bit jobs for the last 6 years or so, that's all she's concerned about as far as politics go.

I haven't seen my father since before I went to Iraq in 2003, but when I saw him he's politically what many people would think of as a stereotypical Republican. He happened to be driving through Colorado while I was stationed there, and the two hours he spent with me and my half brother were more than enough, especially since he kept talking about how happy he was we were invading Iraq, and several times he told me to "Kill some of them sand niggers for me".

Anyway, in my politics I've changed quite a bit. When I was about 13 (11 years ago) I was an extremely right wing militia supporter. During high school I became a neoconservative. During my time in the Army I became a libertarian, but towards the end of my enlistement I began the shift towards my current political philosophy. Presently, I'm a states' rights, pro-gun, social democrat (I mean this (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_democrat), not socially a US Democrat). I'm also often a pro-secessionist, depending on how frustrated I am with the Federal leviathan on that particular day.

I am SLIGHTLY more moderate, as in my mom is just left of center and my dad is just right of center - but they cross party lines regularly. I myself am dead center.

However, in another sense I am LESS moderate in that I have stronger opinions than my parents do, mainly because in some matters, I am better informed than they are (not that my parents are ignorant, which they are certainly not).

And as for anarchy, I hold it to be self-destructive - ie, it wouldn't work. The utopian society envisioned by anarchists - this is an impression from their own writings - simply won't work. After all, nothing can stop one person from exploiting or dominating another by force. This will happen - many crimes can be described in this manner. What happens is one of two things:
Either a police force is set up to stop criminals, thus giving consent to at least limited domination - the policeman dominating a criminal. This ends the anarchist utopia.
Or, a police force is not set up, and society collapses into chaos. For a time, it is every person for himself. Some people would call this utopia. But it won't last.
Out of the chaos, a few kinds of governments will emerge. One is the strongman government, where one person uses force to make others obey him. These are the first dictatorships, and possibly monarchies.

Another kind is where a group of people decide to unite for mutual protection. They will appoint a defense force - at first including everyone, but later on, as the community expands, only a portion of the population will be called upon to fight. These are the first democracies. Some will be communist, others will be capitalist.

The third kind is where a family becomes a government. It expands, via reproduction, perhaps unites with another family. These are tribes, and they may become monarchies.

I didn't realise there were two threads on this. Heh. I am certainly more radical in my fews than my parents, although they've been softening their attitudes recently.

And as for anarchy, I hold it to be self-destructive - ie, it wouldn't work. The utopian society envisioned by anarchists - this is an impression from their own writings - simply won't work. After all, nothing can stop one person from exploiting or dominating another by force. This will happen - many crimes can be described in this manner. What happens is one of two things:
Either a police force is set up to stop criminals, thus giving consent to at least limited domination - the policeman dominating a criminal. This ends the anarchist utopia.
Or, a police force is not set up, and society collapses into chaos. For a time, it is every person for himself. Some people would call this utopia. But it won't last.
Out of the chaos, a few kinds of governments will emerge. One is the strongman government, where one person uses force to make others obey him. These are the first dictatorships, and possibly monarchies.


The mistake inherent in the above conclusions is the assumption that an anarchist would abolish policing or even govenrment. Of course, they are likely to agree, such action would be absurd. However, the government they create will be very different from the government that currently exists. Therein lies the "abolishment."

And as for anarchy, I hold it to be self-destructive - ie, it wouldn't work. The utopian society envisioned by anarchists - this is an impression from their own writings - simply won't work. After all, nothing can stop one person from exploiting or dominating another by force. This will happen - many crimes can be described in this manner. What happens is one of two things:
Either a police force is set up to stop criminals, thus giving consent to at least limited domination - the policeman dominating a criminal. This ends the anarchist utopia.
Or, a police force is not set up, and society collapses into chaos. For a time, it is every person for himself. Some people would call this utopia. But it won't last.
Out of the chaos, a few kinds of governments will emerge. One is the strongman government, where one person uses force to make others obey him. These are the first dictatorships, and possibly monarchies.

Another kind is where a group of people decide to unite for mutual protection. They will appoint a defense force - at first including everyone, but later on, as the community expands, only a portion of the population will be called upon to fight. These are the first democracies. Some will be communist, others will be capitalist.

The third kind is where a family becomes a government. It expands, via reproduction, perhaps unites with another family. These are tribes, and they may become monarchies.

The essence of ideology is that it is what one believes in; not neccessarily what will happen.

The worst thing that American style centrist/New Right politics has given the world is the idea that every political ideology must be rooted in absolute reality and pragmatism.

Therefore there can be no anarchists, no socialists, no communists, no classical liberals, no old-style Tories, no middle-of-the-way right wingers etc etc etc we can only have Democract = Centrist = Liberal or Republican = New Right = Conservative.

You can dismiss "radical" or non-pragmatist politics out of hand but that doesn't stop people believing in it. To refer back to the thread topic; if my mother and others like her hadn't followed her "radical" politics I don't believe women would have the modicum of equality that they have today.

Most definitely less moderate. My parents are basically centrist Democrats with some mild conservative views.

I'm a neo-Aristotelian/Objectivist laissez-faire Capitalist (or "libertarian" or "market liberal" or simply "Capitalist", if you prefer shorter terms).

And while I'm a former anarchocapitalist, I retain curiosity as to whether a-c would work or not. But it won't be tried in America, unless I miss my guess. I think that American culture has such a strong tradition of limited government (which such cultural symbols as George Washington and Thomas Jefferson) that anarchocapitalism would be very difficult to implement. America missed the bandwagon when the West was "tamed". Maybe someone will try on Mars.

Anyway, yes, I'm less moderate than my parents. ;)

I'm just about as passionate about my politics as my parents are, but on the polar opposite side. While that may sound like simple youth rebellion, it actually came from careful consideration of my personal views after moving away from my parents.

My mother is apolitical, she readily admits to having no view nor wanting to have one. My father is dead, so not a lot of political activity going on there either.

My father is dead, so not a lot of political activity going on there either.

Are you sure? I was under the impression that the dead could vote in US electiions. :p ;)

My parents are green and commie, I am member of the pirate party with libertarian tendencies, you chose!

My dad is definitely more politically moderate than I am. He is economically pro-free market, but I was having a discussion with him where I said that the state has no right to regulate business outside of prohibiting force and fraud (specifically dealing with France prohibiting Microsoft from operating there because they didn't follow some regulation). My dad countered with this argument-

Dad: So what if some French company decided to sell high-grade heroine to the US?
Me: OK.

Needless to say, he was a bit taken aback. My brother, who is pro-decriminalization (not legalization) of marijuana, was even taken aback, which surprised me that I was even more extreme than him. My mom was a bit crypto-Marxist for a while, but I've been slowly edging her towards Austrian economics (but she seems to refuse to accept what I have to say about healthcare being better off in the market than the government- argh!)

and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.

Hehe, your mom sounds like me, except I curse whenever I hear Nancy Pelosi. For as long as she talks, I am hollering obscenities over her and dropping F-bombs like it's the World War III of profanity.

My parents are moderates, though my mom leans to the left and my dad to the right. My mom hates Bush. So do I.

I'm a bit farther left.

Uh, my parents and I are on opposite ends of the spectrum. My dad gets pissed when he opens mail to see that the insurance company has deceided to refer to "same sex domestic partners" as spouses, my mom thinks that women who have abortions are stupid and they both think they pay too much taxes and that the universal health care is mostly bad or at least not as good as the system in the US. Meanwhile, I support equal rights for same sex couples, access to abortions and I'm rather socialist...

Edit: Then take a look at Ursula K. Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time. The degree to which they are representative of anarcho-communist political thought varies, but they get much of the spirit of it rather well, and are both excellent novels.

Indeed, the Dispossessed is great!

I'm just curious if people on this forum tend to have parents farther left/right than they are or if they're the extreme one in the family.

I'm more moderate than my parents, especially my Mom who thinks that we should withdraw from Iraq immedietly and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.

On average about the same, some issues I will more moderate and on others they will.

My mother supports the Democratic party (of the U.S.) and my father did, when he was alive. He was something of a moderate, and a bigot, though both of those tendencies were softening in his last years. My mother seems to be about halfway between centrist and mid-left.
I'm as far left as can be, so I'm less moderate than they.

Are you sure? I was under the impression that the dead could vote in US electiions. :p ;)
I'm fairly convinced, it's not even so much that he wasnt a US citizen and didnt qualify to vote in US elections when he was alive as the fact of his criminal record. Dead people sure, people who got caught smoking a few doobies a few too many times back in the 60's, not so much.

My mum's a typical Socialist with no political comprehension of what it entails (ie, she directs vague anger at the middle and upper classes, accusing them of various crimes that simply aren't accurate portrayals of reality). She's pretty liberal, too, but still doesn't really like it when I speak about my gay partners or transexual friends or whatever. My dad's a little more conservative, and definitely more capitalist.

I'm as leftist as you're going to get, and routinely ridicule my mother for being a socialist.

I am far more extreme than my parents. My parents are US liberals; I am an anarcho-communist with the occassional primitivist tendency. My brother does not help the mix; he is a radical advocate of laissez-faire capitalism.

Hooray for anarcho-communism and anarcho-primitivism.

My dad was generally a Labour man until 1979 when he voted Tory for the first (and last) time, and has voted for Labour since, until he became a Liberal in the 2005 election. My mum is more of a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a claim to have a secret ballot, so I don't know as much, but slowly sounds more and more Conservative as she gets older. Same with dad, but much less so. All my grandparents are Conservative, but my paternal grandmother is the worst for ranting about Muslims/Catholics after a vat of wine.

I'm more of a Bennite Socialist myself, although I disagree that the Labour party can be reclaimed from the neoliberals running it. Which makes some interesting debate over dinner with the grandparents.

I used to be a lot more radical - joined a far-left org, thought the Khmer Rouge were a bit moderate - but have since mellowed to about the same position my dad was - kind of moderate-left social-democrat, voted Labour. My mum I know not of but my stepmother is about the same position.

My dad was generally a Labour man until 1979 when he voted Tory for the first (and last) time, and has voted for Labour since, until he became a Liberal in the 2005 election. My mum is more of a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in a claim to have a secret ballot, so I don't know as much, but slowly sounds more and more Conservative as she gets older. Same with dad, but much less so. All my grandparents are Conservative, but my paternal grandmother is the worst for ranting about Muslims/Catholics after a vat of wine.

I'm more of a Bennite Socialist myself, although I disagree that the Labour party can be reclaimed from the neoliberals running it. Which makes some interesting debate over dinner with the grandparents.
Liberal or Liberal Democrat? They're two totally different parties.

My mum's quite right wing - she's a bit annoyed that Cameron's taking them towards the centre - and my dad's very centrist. I'm moderately socialist.

I'm just curious if people on this forum tend to have parents farther left/right than they are or if they're the extreme one in the family.

I'm more moderate than my parents, especially my Mom who thinks that we should withdraw from Iraq immedietly and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.

i'd hardly describe my parents as boring, and for the most part i agree with their politics... but i am a little more extreme than they in some key areas :)

i voted wrong. i'm much more liberal and economically left than my parents.

Dad: So what if some French company decided to sell high-grade heroine to the US?
Me: OK.

Ahem, you could tell your father that some German company sells high grade heroine to the US. It is called morphium and Bayer holds the patent. ;)

As for me...
My mother was a sentenced to 12 years for being a dissident.
My father is totally apolitic.
So, yes and no since i'm a left leaning college state.

I neither know my parents political leanings, nor my own :)

I'm just curious if people on this forum tend to have parents farther left/right than they are or if they're the extreme one in the family.

I'm more moderate than my parents, especially my Mom who thinks that we should withdraw from Iraq immedietly and says the f word whenever Bush opens his mouth on TV.
My parents are more economically left-wing than I am, but I am more socially left-wing than they are. Which actually is really saying something, since my parents are VERY liberal.

(Example: my mother kept her own name when she married and refused to accept an engagement ring because of what that tradition symbolizes. I manage to one-up her by declining to get married at all because I find the entire institution distasteful.)

well i dont konw about u guys but my parents are more concerned with there own problems than the problems of the nation and could care less if bush stayed in office.

well i dont konw about u guys but my parents are more concerned with there own problems than the problems of the nation and could care less if bush stayed in office.

my ones are the same and so am i but we dont have bush here
i dont care to vote but i have to as i dont have the money to pay the fine

Neither one of my parents are even registered to vote; both feel as though they haven't the power to change anything and/or won't make a difference! They think the world's problems will just 'go away'!

Ooh, that's really a tough one and it depends on the issue. I'd say may dad's more to the right than I am and my mom's more to the left. But like I said it really depends on the issue, for example I'm a little bit republican when it comes to gun control, whereas im generally morally leftist, no problems with euthanasia or gay rights. With Iraq, I'm sort of Republican-rightist, but not really (if that makes sense). I don't have problems with the States going in there to free a nation from an evil dictator. However Bush sent the troops in underprepared and under false pretenses, neither are acceptable. My dad feels the same way, but my mom is a little less supportive of that ideal.

my parents were clueless, my grandparents however were really far far far left, and they got pretty mad when I registered to vote as a republican.

i'm considered to be the biggest right-winger in the family.
my father is a big sinn fein, hugely pro-ira head; mother not really anything; sister bit of an anarchist; brother slightly more liberal than me.

I'm the Black Sheep of my Family. It seems that my parents are democrats (although, they're registered as Republicans back in the Reagan yrs and never bothered to change it) My family as a whole are much more Liberal than I. However, I do profess to be Independant (for the People), though I confess to leaning a bit on the conservative side.

My parents and I disagree almost on everything politically but we do have the rare occurence in agreeing on certain issues.

What a peculiar question. Both, to both parents. My mother is a fairly convention left winger on most issues is but an outright socialist/communist on some and would be comfortable with wacko right-wingers on others. My father is a mild conservative for the most part with a few rightist tendencies and a few left views. As a general rule, I am more extreme than my parents on economic issues and less extreme on social ones - but this is not an absolute.

I'm much more extreme than my parents.

I found out recently while debating my dad that, much to my disappointment, he harbors deep anti-semitic views. He tends to be liberal but flexible and open-minded, but there are a handful of issues where he's very entrenched and there's no changing his mind.

Mom isn't very politically focused, but she tends to be conservative.

Ironically I still enjoy discussing politics with my dad just because he tends to be more opinionated and aggressive, so we've had some very enjoyable, albeit spirited, debates.

Just wish his answer to the Palestine/Israel issue wasn't a simple "Well the Jews deserve it for being such a greedy people."

My parents are pretty well centrists, although my Dad has a bit of an embarassing right lean. I'm a whack-job radical socialist, pacifist, feminist, and human rights activist. I don't know where I came from.

I don't know where I came from.

Well son, when a man and a woman love each other very much....

Sorry, that was the first thing that came to my mind.

My parents are both fairly conservative and regularly vote republican. I am just about the same, though am a bit more liberal on some social issues and a bit more conservative on some economic. Id probably say I'm libertarian-light

My parents are conservative, though to what degree, I'm not sure. My dad says we string up all politicians from every party and doesn't vote. Not sure about my mom, though she does vote. I'm not a member of any party though I consider myself libertarian. I'd join the party but some of the radical elements (such as advocates that government itself is ultimate destructive of liberties and should be eradicated) keep me from joining.

Funny thing about my dad, he's pro-union even though he readily admits that most are corrupt and power-hungry.

I'd say my parents are philosophically centre-right.
I'm completely left wing.