Michael Mitchell: Archive

I hate politics, but my girlfriends have me on read, so let there be light...

This is the right and left today, as I see it. In the context of our modern political views -- which are the philosophical consequence of middle-of-the-road, moderate, intellectual renunciation and moral cowardice, assuming only that one thinks freedom is moral and slavery is not -- the right is fascism and the left is communism. Ignore the technical terms, if necessary, if you can't abstract out the genocidal associations, but the result on policy is the same.

The right only wants about a million regulations and the left wants about a billion. That's really the only difference. Both sides agree the economy should be regulated by the government. They only disagree on how it should be regulated, and how much -- which is not what is truly meant by "constitutionally limited government", by the way.

If "statism" is total government control of the economy regardless of any property ownership illusions, and "capitalism" is total ownership and control by private individuals, then this is what the political spectrum really looks like:

Collectivism <-> Individualism

Statism <-> Capitalism

Statism <-> Communism <-> Fascism <-> Capitalism

Statism <-> Liberals <-> Conservatives <-> Capitalism

Statism <-> Democrats <-> Republicans <-> Founders <-> Capitalism

Taxation, Infrastructure (Utilities, Roads, Etc.), Public Education, Federal Reserve, Social Security, Welfare, Medicaid/Medicare, FDA, EPA, CDC, FTC, Business Regulations, Antitrust Laws, Gun Laws, Drug Laws, Etc.

We use "socialism" and "capitalism" as insults against our opponents, but we live in a statist system by definition. The government controls our lives so effectively we don't even know what capitalism, total freedom, is. Every government institution or regulation or interference mentioned above, and much more, requires the violation of individual rights, yet we obliviously argue about rights as if they're "privileges" graciously bestowed upon us by our almighty rulers. We've simply replaced God with society. How fucked up is it that a businessman hiring an illegal immigrant for cheaper labor is considered anti-American while mask mandates because of a "viral pandemic" are considered moderate? Where are "we the people" really drawing the line?