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<blockquote data-quote="henschman" data-source="post: 1290919" data-attributes="member: 4235">Veggie Meat, most people grow up being taught that political beliefs fall into 3 categories on a bi-polar spectrum:&nbsp; conservative, liberal, or moderate.&nbsp; When people who believe in this paradigm hear someone criticizing beliefs that are regarded as &quot;conservative,&quot; they believe that person must be a liberal, and vice versa.&nbsp; Most people do not defend against such criticisms by defending the policies in question on their merits, but by attacking the &quot;other&quot; side of the political spectrum, regardless of whether the person who made the initial criticism actually falls into that category.I don&#039;t know how many times I&#039;ve criticized redistribution of wealth or something else that is considered a &quot;liberal&quot; belief, only to have somebody respond by saying, &quot;oh yeah, well Republicans do X, Y, and Z!&quot;&nbsp; To which I have to respond by asking what the hell that has to do with the evils of redistribution of wealth, and why the hell they think I support those things just because I&#039;m against redistribution of wealth.The same thing happens all the time when I&#039;m arguing against prohibition or government marriages... people assume that to question those things, I have to be a liberal.Just get used to it.&nbsp; Most people don&#039;t realize that there is more to political philosophy than the two main arbitrary collections of issues that most people in this country subscribe to.We have to get people to stop thinking in terms of left and right, but in terms of liberty.&nbsp; Both major philosophies believe in some parts of liberty, but not others.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="henschman, post: 1290919, member: 4235"] Veggie Meat, most people grow up being taught that political beliefs fall into 3 categories on a bi-polar spectrum: conservative, liberal, or moderate. When people who believe in this paradigm hear someone criticizing beliefs that are regarded as "conservative," they believe that person must be a liberal, and vice versa. Most people do not defend against such criticisms by defending the policies in question on their merits, but by attacking the "other" side of the political spectrum, regardless of whether the person who made the initial criticism actually falls into that category. I don't know how many times I've criticized redistribution of wealth or something else that is considered a "liberal" belief, only to have somebody respond by saying, "oh yeah, well Republicans do X, Y, and Z!" To which I have to respond by asking what the hell that has to do with the evils of redistribution of wealth, and why the hell they think I support those things just because I'm against redistribution of wealth. The same thing happens all the time when I'm arguing against prohibition or government marriages... people assume that to question those things, I have to be a liberal. Just get used to it. Most people don't realize that there is more to political philosophy than the two main arbitrary collections of issues that most people in this country subscribe to. We have to get people to stop thinking in terms of left and right, but in terms of liberty. Both major philosophies believe in some parts of liberty, but not others. [/QUOTE]

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