No kidding, Zu ....

Did I say anything to the contrary?

EXPERIENCE may show [to you in yours] that lefties do one thing more commonly than those on the right....or not.

PREJUDICE only becomes an issue when the prevalence is directly attributed to the political affliction....rather than perhaps a coincidence, or discrepancies in counting methodoligy/relevance favouring one socio-economic group over another.

Example...

What if your 'experience' was with friends of the same political persuasion as yourself [whom you favor] vs. a bunch of upper-class twit professionals, or slum-dwelling drop-ours [whatever the opposite may be] that crossed your path in inordinate numbers....so much so that these 'others' numerically appeared more prone to thieving [or less] depending on your aspect?  In other words....is it 'us and them', or is it 'we', and thus can one's stance/view be seen as purely objective?

Or is it, [as is most common a fault in society] purely subjective [and flawed]?

Categorizing people by whatever 'distinguishing' factor or trait can be read as 'discriminatory' as and when different levels of social acceptance/acceptability are ascribed to each.

Personally, I don't hate or distinguish between capitalists/socialists/liberals/conservatives, whatever you want to call them.....all bar none are exercising their rights to determine their 'persuasion'.  I certainly wouldn't want to distinguish between the prevalence of negative traits for one or the other as such simply fuels adversity through prejudice.

I know rich arseholes....and I know poor arseholes.  Successful ones and abject failures.  People who pirate and people who do not.  And people [like most] who wobble uncomfortably on the edge of the two [piracy, not arseholes]....

 

 

Again, give out things that are not theirs. NOne of the stuff mentioned is theirs to give, and they are free with the giving. Studies show that the more generous a person is, the tendency is they are more conservative, as they give from their own pockets not yours.

Piracy is me giving from your pocket, and goes hand in hand with what you said. They love to give from your pocket, not theirs.

Jafo . . I may be a bad person and parent . . but I teach my kids to discern and pre-judge to a certain extant.  I think it makes good sense.

<About to wander a bit . . . . >

I think that as responsible people we have an obligation to judge. I think that a concern about being judged poorly is a control in our society. I further think that judging (especially within a small group) will improveone's powers of judgment.

The hard part about judging is finding balance. I tell my kids that they should assume people are good. But I also tell them that if there a person who looks "wrong" walking toward you, move away from them. There's a thin line between reasonable pre-judging based on experience and wisdom, and prejudice based on fear and stereotype.

I think there are things that we all want to do or have wanted to do in the past that society as a whole may not have approved of. Maybe things that aren't illegal but just not right. What defines "not just right"? Other people. Other people judging you. It's a good thing.

The function of group judgment should be wicked strong (as they might say in the Boston of my imagination). The trick there is the group that's doing the judgment. If the judging group is not a sampling of the greater whole; instead, is a group that might reinforce the behavior being judged; all benefits of judgment is lost. If the fear of being judged harshly is stopping a person from revealing a behavior, perhaps they need to evaluate stopping that behavior.

I think that in the youth culture . . which also happens to lean to the left . . they are not judged poorly by their peers for having a "I am owed" mentality or pirating digital IP.  I think, in fact, that they are encouraged by their peers and the world of IP law will be interesting in about 20 years. 

I do find interesting the double standards people tend to hold now a days. If we pre-judge a person for possible committing a crime, we are seen as unfair and probably relate it to racism, the cleansing of a religious faith, sexism, etc. Yet, by the same token, if that same person does get to commit the crime, we are seen as incompetent and stupid for not stopping them.

I believe in a defensive lifestyle which requires a lot of pre-judging. I tend to believe most people are good but never ignore the possibility of being stabbed in the back. I trust no one, trust is earned not given. When I drive, as far as I'm concerned everyone else on the road is an idiot behind the wheel. Give me a better mentality to actually avoid encounters with the true idiots behind the wheel.

Opinions are like noses, everyone has one and they all smell. Having said that, I will now deposit mine.

No one is a devout conservative or a liberal, these are merely radio/tv personalities created to shape public opinion, and in the end to achieve more ratings. How the two contrasting points of view are accepted or rejected depends on the perceptive bias of the individual, because despite what any tv or radio station will have you believe, you are an individual that is capable of making sound decisions through cognitive thinking.

This is an important distinction because as human beings, we have the ability to make choices; whether to follow one school of thought, reject another, or pick and choose. These choices are irrespective of age groups, media commentators, demographics or polling data. The influence these two social ideologies have on deviant behavior is negligible, as during the commission of the act, the individual is pursuant to a personal gain, and rarely a political statement, at lease in this context.

Operative words such as "conservative" and "liberal" when used in the context of describing people are labels. Labels are for soup cans, stop being a soup can and re-join the human race!

I don't know. It sounds kinda like bs to me. Political leanings and morals don't really seem to go hand-in-hand as much as people tend to think.

Piracy is piracy, and without actual hard data it is unfair to "claim" that one group of people is more prone to theft than any other.

And as for labels, well.... Soren Kierkegaard put it best: "Once you label me, you negate me."

The concept of liberal/conservative is amusing to most people. For 90% of the world both these are extreme right wing...

Exactly the point I was trying to get across, pity only one person got it...

ZubaZ wonders which will break first. 

I got it... just hadn't bothered to comment, being totally disinterested in politics and outside the US. Liberals where I come from (oz) are tight arsed, mean spirited and quite pro business... the poor usually fare poorly under them.

However, people steal to make ends meet: they're poor and feel the need. These poor sods are the ones who most often get the shittiest end of the stick in court because theft is rampant... more-so because of the following two categories, who have no need.

Others steal simply because they can: most often only doing so to prove a point, either to themselves or others). This type of thief becomes so brazen that they eventually get caught, and they they cry poor and plead for leniency

Then you have those who steal simply because they want to: not because they want or need the item, nor because they must make ends meet or have anything to prove. This type of thief is probably the worst because the stolen items are quite often thrown away or discarded in some dark closet for eternity.

Of course then there is the cleptomanaic who can not resist the compulsion to steal and need help to overcome their problem.

At one time or another in my life I have come across people from all these categories, and I can confidently state that none had any political persuasions of any kind... it didn't matter to them which party was in power, because it was government and therefore an authority which was corruptly managing their affairs/the economy.

Me, well I'm pretty much like Webgizmos... I have NO party preferences/persuasions and live in a 'governed' society because there is no escaping it in this day and age. I hated the Howard Liberal Government with a passion, but I don't know that I like the Rudd Labor Government any better... despite it 'supposedly' being for the working man/lower class.

Many of my family and friends/acquaintances feel the same way, but I don't think any of them ever thought it was right to steal, irrespective of which party governed... whether or not they felt like "getting back at the bastards".

Nope!! I see no correlation between political persuasion and stealing/piracy. The complex spectrum of life from which thieves/pirates come is too wide and varied to even attempt to put them in any kind of political category.

My tuppence worth.

Liberal is not a party line. It is an ideology that can and often does cross party lines. Me thinks he doth protest too much.

Right on Starkers!



Well there ya go...When someone refers to a liberal....they are generally speaking about a particular political stance...Dem/Rep/Lib/Conservative...you guys just can't make up your minds...its just more waffling on where someone stands. And if you cross party lines...I guess your at the party then huh? Or are you just a wall flower at the party?

Your either in the game/party or not. Personally, I like to stay away from people I wouldn't even invite into my house. Then ya need all that whiteout for when everyone jumps parties...it just gets to ridiculous.

And I gave up protesting....waste of time anymore. I just get annoyed at people that double speak...try to label me...or don't have the backbone to actually stand for something and take physical action other than sitting in a chair grumbling. And I'm not talking about anyone in particular here...I don't know any of you well enough to make a judgment either way...just speaking my own mind.

And can we just call piracy what it really is....theft. No need to insult pirates.

Actually no, or at least the literati do not. There is a real difference between democrat and liberal and republican and conservative.

McCain is a republican, but not conservative. UP until 2006, Lieberman was a democrat, but hardly a liberal.