Know your biases

[got tonkaed]

Since it seems like lately there have been quite a few threads that are more political in nature (along with the healthy diet of religious ones) i figured that on some level it might help if people listed some of the things that sort of bring them to the table. I also think that sometimes when you put things down you get a better understanding and appreciation for them, and maybe it helps better orient where you are. In my mind this is a sort of categorical exercise, but if people want to debate things in this thread that would probably work too. And its the first thread that i made, so you better add your little bit, so it doesnt flop and i never make another one again. Anyway here goes.

Im a nearly 21 year old american white male. I was raised in the suburbs with two republican though only loosely affiliated parents. For most of my formative adolescent years, i was heavily involved in a mainline protestant church, especially in their youth programs, where i still have many strong ties. Most of my closest friends are women, though im not close to my mom. I was raised in a capitalist system, though i am studying now in a discipline that views capitalism often with suspicion. I spent my high school years in the least ethnically diverse city in the country, and never met an openly gay person until i went to college. My favorite professor is a government known social activist who hates the war. Im slowly becoming aware of the fact that i have a large degree of white privilige and dont know what to do about it. I am an idealist at heart, but cant shake much of my capitalist socialization to think it could ever work. Im not very good with women. I also tend to think that religious extremism is a bad thing for democracy, which is a system ive also been socalized in.

Anyway thats a lot for one post, and if anyone else dose this you dont have to do it in paragraph form. It just seemed like a neat idea when your waiting an hour for class on campus and dont have anythign to do cause your mafia games are kinda in a standstill at the moment.

[unriggable]

Okay I'm 16, I'm a democrat, I'm all for saving the environment and against the use of violence (see the thread 'should england use force against iran') whenever possible. I'm very anti-creation. I'm also against any racism or sexism of any kind, and against any 'common sense' law (cannibalism, for example). I'm all for marijuana being legal.

[millej11]

I'm 19. I'm pro/neutral for the war. (there, happy now bk)

I'm against the government messing with our economic system. Government should be left to take care of building things like roads, taking care of mail, and national defense, and some eduaction sectors, all areas of which private businesses can't succeed.

I consider myself more conservative and support the capitalist economic system.

[b.k. barunt]

I'm 19. I'm pro/neutral for the war. It seems that the soldiers aren't the ones complaining about the war, just the onlookers who aren't involved one bit.

Evidently you are ignorant of what happens to a soldier who speaks out against the war. As one who has been on the receiving end of a Special Courts Martial, followed by 41/2 months in a military stockade, i have to say it's not something you will see a lot of soldiers doing. You're 19 and pro war - pardon me for asking the obvious, but what are you doing waving the flag and cheering for the war if you don't have the balls to serve yourself? I enlisted on my 17th birthday because i was raised to believe in all the crap you swallow - yea i swallowed it too - but when i was confronted with the reality of the situation, i couldn't swallow anymore. Do you think you're doing your patriotic duty by cheering from the sidelines?

[millej11]

I'm 19. I'm pro/neutral for the war. It seems that the soldiers aren't the ones complaining about the war, just the onlookers who aren't involved one bit.

Evidently you are ignorant of what happens to a soldier who speaks out against the war. As one who has been on the receiving end of a Special Courts Martial, followed by 41/2 months in a military stockade, i have to say it's not something you will see a lot of soldiers doing. You're 19 and pro war - pardon me for asking the obvious, but what are you doing waving the flag and cheering for the war if you don't have the balls to serve yourself? I enlisted on my 17th birthday because i was raised to believe in all the crap you swallow - yea i swallowed it too - but when i was confronted with the reality of the situation, i couldn't swallow anymore. Do you think you're doing your patriotic duty by cheering from the sidelines?

I thought about deleting that part of my post because I knew idiots like you would turn this topic into another war debate.

[chewyman]

Yup, BK this thread is for detailed your own position. If you want to argue about somebody else's then go ahead in another thread.

Anywho, I'm an 18 year old white male from Melbourne, Australia. I am currently studying Global Arts at Monash University, but I'll probably change to an arts/law double degree next year. My grandparents all migrated to Australia because of WW2. My mum's family is German and were very poor except for my mother became a successful lawyer. Dad's family fled Europe for the opposite reason, his family was Jewish and came from Poland/Italy/what was Czechoslovakia/a whole heap of other Eastern European countries. They were relatively well off and dad went to an elite private school for his last years of schooling, he too is a lawyer. I suppose our family is relatively well off, I did go to the same school as dad where going to university was definitely the normal thing to do after high school. I class myself as a liberal in the true sense of the word. I believe in a free market economy with a safety net for the disadvantaged. If I lived in the US I'd consider myself a Democrat but in Australia I am a member of the Liberal party.

[jay_a2j]

First of all b.k., if you hate the country so much.... why don't you leave?



Back on topic.


I was raised by two Republican parents, although they were nowhere as "into" politics as I am now. I am pro-life from womb to grave. I'm for pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and making something of yourself instead of expecting the government to make something out of you. I believe smaller government is a good thing. I believe there are two kinds of people...Doers (Republicans) and Takers (Democrats). I believe there are absolute right and wrongs... with no shades of gray. I was dragged to church off and on as a child. Which I hated until the day Jesus became a real in my life. I believe that God's laws trump man's. I believe the purpose in life for all men is to serve God and learn to love Him. I am close-minded because I believe God is and accept what God says. Yeah, I'm a Jesus Freak.

[Aimless]

I'm a hawkish minarchist. (No, that's not a contradiction in terms; I believe one of a minarchy's fundamental jobs is to use force of arms in the service of minarchy.) I'm also a 27 yr old white American male, and a student of physics.

[DirtyDishSoap]

Okay I'm 16, I'm a democrat, I'm all for saving the environment and against the use of violence (see the thread 'should england use force against iran') whenever possible. I'm very anti-creation. I'm also against any racism or sexism of any kind, and against any 'common sense' law (cannibalism, for example). I'm all for marijuana being legal.

MAKE WEED LEGAL WOOOOOO!
I really do think we should pull out of Iraq...there really is no point of being there

[beezer]

Yes, let's please not turn this into a debate out of respect for the person who started the thread.

I am biased towards:

The Bible being correct
Doing good unto others
Generally supporting our leaders (even when it's not who you voted for)
Limited government
America being a good country that tries to do the right thing

I am biased against:

Communism and other worldviews similar to it
Law-breakers
Hip hop music and entertainers

I can't think of anything else right now, but I'm sure that I have many more biases for and against things. I think that our life experiences also shape most of our biases.

[Anarkistsdream]

Okay, my turn, I suppose...

I was born in Oklahoma, and have lived here for most of my life. That being said, I face the most judgemental, close-minded bible thumping assholes that have ever been conceived. I was raised by two bigoted, racist parents who fought with each other and beat the shit out of my brother and I. They would use so many racial slurs, but then tell us they weren't racist... Due to the fact that we lived in a college town, there are large numbers of minorities here... So I heard the worst things about Middle Easterners, Asians, Latinos... basically everyone. And yet, my parents aren't racist...

My brother and I both broke away from the mold of our parents- he's gay and I'm a journalist- neither one of those things were what my parents wanted us to be... I was supposed to be a cop... bah. And my brother, now one of the most liberal guys ever, was supposed to be a politician... haha A REPUBLICAN politician.

My father refuses to read most of my columns and articles because he thinks I'm "an idiot". Neither of my parents graduated high school, both dropped out and got married- not to each other... Because of that, they were both depressed and shitty, most of the time... I have very few good memories.

In any case, I am pro-choice, pro-capital punishment, pro-gun ownership, pro-legalizing most drugs, Anti-Bush, and pro anything else that I like... *smile*

[nagerous]

basically for me I am the completelopposite to beezers views:

im all for more care of the environment, less laws, less restrictions. I believe that civil disobedience is a fair way to get minority rights through as the government will not listen otherwise.. The USA claims to be a democracy yet for hundreds of years, it was based upon a bigoted system where whites see them as superior to other races. This is emphaisised in the 1875 Page Law which stated that all chinese woman were prostitutes. Personally this makes me sick and in this sort of case there should be no support our leaders. Although I sympathise with your point on doing good for others, surely this contradicts with your belief that you should support your leaders..

Also, why so against communism, have you ever actually studied into it or do you just believe this because this is what you have been indoctrinated through your country via propaganda and McCarthyism.

I am sorry for turning this into a debate, exactly what you stated what you didnt want but I just feel that one should work out their own morals as opposed to rigidly sticking to ones taught upon you..

I am pro freedom of speech and freedom of movement.
I am as liberal as you can get and against any form of conservatism

[nagerous]

overall this is the kinda guy I am most against in the world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2swEcsZTxPc

[2dimes]

I'm on the look out for chinese ladies from now on!!

[btownmeggy]

I was raised on a farm in a town of 300 people in a region that is very poor, very racially diverse, very religious, and very conservative.

For most of my childhood, my parents were quite religious and socially conservative, which accounts for the fact that I have eight siblings. However, my dad especially was always very economically socialist. He strongly reinforced in me the idea that both the government and individuals have responsibilities to help the poor. I now know that by the time I was a teenager, my parents were no-longer "believers", but thought it was important to raise their children with the ethics and community fostered by religiosity. I, though, as a teenager, resented their religious pesterings, which in part leads me to the next paragraph...

I went to college thousands of miles from home at a school that is often considered the most liberal college in America. Most of my professors were Marxists, and I for a time was as well. I lived in Cuba for a year and worked for the Cuban government. I grew to love and hate the revolution. Afterwards, I somehow fell in with some people who are simply liberals, not leftists, and through hundreds of hours of political debates, they moderated me considerably.

Now, in my 20s, I'm in the profession with the greatest propensity to vote Green and Democrat, in a subfield that is particularly to the left. I think GMOs can solve world hunger. I believe amnesty coupled with developmental aid for Mesoamerica is the only viable option. I dream of a world where everyone can afford a bicycle and no one can afford a private jet.

[Stopper]

It just seemed like a neat idea when your waiting an hour for class on campus and dont have anythign to do cause your mafia games are kinda in a standstill at the moment.

Do you play on mafiascum? Your name is familiar...

Well, my story's straightforward. My brother and I were raised as Catholics until our teens in a Scottish family about 20 miles south of the border in Northumberland, England. My father, a prison officer, is nominally Protestant, but in fact has been a straightfoward and adamant atheist all his life. My mother's Catholicism dropped away suddenly for some reason when I was about 12, and from then I never had to attend church, which was the most important thing to me then. Plus, I didn't actually get confirmed. Anyway, all my family and most of my extended family are now more-or-less agnostic/atheist, and religion plays no part in most of our beliefs (as far as we're aware.)

My parents, while apolitical, have always been more-or-less Labour-supporting - I suppose I could summarise what they thought as they strongly believed that the Government should provide for the people from the cradle to the grave, not uncommon where we are. The Conservatives and the Communists have always been beyond the pale. The rural area where I was brought up is the most right-wing area in the most left-wing area in the UK (and any British people who can't believe the north-east of England is the most left-wing area in the UK will quickly die, buried underneath a wealth of voting patterns), which means that people are generally liberal.

I then went to Durham, the first in my whole extended family to go to university, to study physics - one of the most privileged and conservative universities in Britain in one of the most left-wing constituencies in Britain (I should mention my tuition fees were paid for by the government - it was standard here when I was a student). Also, in my last year in 1997, and I was the campaigns officer for the Labour Club, and organised the campaign there in the year of Labour's landslide victory in Britain. That probably doesn't mean much to people here, but it was certainly very satisfying from my point of view.

I work as a chartered accountant. So, I became enrolled in one of the most apolitical professions there exists. Every accountant makes pro-low-taxes noises when it makes them look good in front of their clients, but in secret, they wish (and possibly even vote for) for left-leaning governments, because then the tax system always becomes more complicated, and our clients must pay us more.

So, left-wing but hard-headed and realistic, that was my socialisation, and my current political beliefs.

Damn, I was all set to show that socialisation, from a political-development point of view, doesn't actually make that much difference, but it sure as hell looks like I just fit into the groove set for me.

[btownmeggy]

Damn, I was all set to show that socialisation, from a political-development point of view, doesn't actually make that much difference, but it sure as hell looks like I just fit into the groove set for me.

Sure seems to matter a lot for everyone who's answered.

[Numia Kereru]

I live in hope of seeing the day when all indigenous peoples around the world will resume their sovereignty in their own lands.

[flashleg8]

I live in hope of seeing the day when all indigenous peoples around the world will resume their sovereignty in their own lands.

Just out of interest are from Maori descent? If so how do you see your peoples treatment in modern day New Zealand. I ask this because I have family in Australia and when they visit us they are universal in pronouncing that the indigenous peoples there (the people I would commonly know as Aborigines) contribute little to the society and are a drain on their economy. I completely disagree of course, I’m curious if this is a wide held belief in New Zealand also?

[Numia Kereru]

I live in hope of seeing the day when all indigenous peoples around the world will resume their sovereignty in their own lands.

Just out of interest are from Maori descent? If so how do you see your peoples treatment in modern day New Zealand. I ask this because I have family in Australia and when they visit us they are universal in pronouncing that the indigenous peoples there (the people I would commonly know as Aborigines) contribute little to the society and are a drain on their economy. I completely disagree of course, I’m curious if this is a wide held belief in New Zealand also?

Yes, I am of Maori descent. I know of the widely-held perception that Aborigines are a lazy lot in modern society. Maori have been regarded in similar fashion in years past, probably still a bit even today.

Personally, I think it is probably a perception that is generally held of any indigenous people in the world, the majority of which have not been able to adjust to colonisation and post-colonisation society.
I think it's basically like catching up, or starting your life all over again with a new set of rules and new masters.

In the Aborigines case, I think it's more of a mindset that they may have after all these decades of persecution - a mindset of having been abjectly defeated by the system that now rules their land; they may have lost all hope, they may have accepted it as their fate, or quite simply... they may have just given up on themselves.

If the above is true, then that is the difference between Maori of Aotearoa and Aborigines of Australia - Maori will never give up.

[btownmeggy]

I live in hope of seeing the day when all indigenous peoples around the world will resume their sovereignty in their own lands.

What do you mean by that, in practical terms?

[Numia Kereru]

I live in hope of seeing the day when all indigenous peoples around the world will resume their sovereignty in their own lands.

What do you mean by that, in practical terms?

Well, the basic idea is to see my own people running the Government institutions here; right up to running the Government itself. At this stage we at least have a political party called the Maori party - that is a huge thing for us - and they hold a few seats in parliament (which other mainstream parties are trying to have abolished).

On a wider scope, I'd love to see indigenous people the world over in that sort of position.

I don't hold MUCH hope of that happening any time soon, or ever. But it's hope nonetheless lol

I'm no politician and I have no aspirations to be, so I am not sure how practical it would be - it's probably not practical at all.

But it's a nice dream

[I GOT SERVED]

Well, I figured I'd chime in on this one.

I'm currently 16 years old, and I'm attending a prep school. I consider myself on the middle-ground of a hell of a lot of issues. I grew up in a rather rural part of New Hampshire, which I am fine with. The only problem is that there's basically no diversity at all in my town. My local high school has a club called the "Foreign Student Alliance". It had a total of 7 members. But at least the high school I go to has some diversity. Even though the school is diverse, there's still that white, protestant majority.

But anyhoo, I'd say I'm pro-choice, but only in certain cases (i.e. Rape). Politics, I'd say I'm liberal, but only to a very small degree. I'm certainly not for the war in Iraq. I'm agnostic, and I've tried the whole church thing, but it just didn't really work out for me.

Yeah, save the earth, and all that jazz. But I've just about had it with this issue. My school is so liberal, we cancelled classes, in observance of Earth Day. And yet somehow, we don't observe Columbus Day, Presidents Day, Labor Day, or even MLK Day, for that matter (I kid you not, we had school that day).

[CrazyAnglican]

I know you're expecting to see a long treatise on religion, but really it isn't in me to tell someone else what to believe. So I tend to be a Christian apologist (defender) rather than an Evangelist. I've had, and have, good friends that are Atheists, Muslims, Jainists, Bhuddhists, Pagans, merely nonreligious, and agnostic, and usually tend to feel honored when people speak with me about their beliefs. They are, after all sharing, something that is incredibly important to them. I disagree that tolerance shows a lack of commitment, but a sign of security in your beliefs. I won't share in your religious services, but I will listen to your views, and if need be defend your right to have them.

Politically, I'm a Southern Democrat. Generally, I'm socially liberal, don't mind paying taxes to help others out. I do not believe that anyone should be reliant on the government for any period of time though. It's just better to get out and make a living yourself. If you want student loans, unemployment ins, etc. great, but if your family has been living with a government check for three generations, that isn't. I'm Pro-Choice (I'd choose life though). I'm in favor of no religion being taught in school, but would be more in favor of representative religions being taught (those in the area). So kids see that people believe different things and don't often kill each other over it.

Socially I'm a legalist. I don't like ambiguity. When people are allowed to set there own ethics, then situational ethics become too much of a concern. I like having a clear set of rules as a guideline. I will break them. Usually not without a really good reason though, and I'm ready for the consequences when I do.

[luns101]

basically for me I am the completelopposite to beezers views:

im all for more care of the environment, less laws, less restrictions. I believe that civil disobedience is a fair way to get minority rights through as the government will not listen otherwise.. The USA claims to be a democracy yet for hundreds of years, it was based upon a bigoted system where whites see them as superior to other races. This is emphaisised in the 1875 Page Law which stated that all chinese woman were prostitutes. Personally this makes me sick and in this sort of case there should be no support our leaders. Although I sympathise with your point on doing good for others, surely this contradicts with your belief that you should support your leaders..

Also, why so against communism, have you ever actually studied into it or do you just believe this because this is what you have been indoctrinated through your country via propaganda and McCarthyism.

I am sorry for turning this into a debate, exactly what you stated what you didnt want but I just feel that one should work out their own morals as opposed to rigidly sticking to ones taught upon you..

I am pro freedom of speech and freedom of movement.
I am as liberal as you can get and against any form of conservatism

Dude...take a Valium