So, things like depression and anxiety do make some people incapable of holding a job.
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Fair. But that was not what I was speaking to. I meant more of an intellectual disability.
As opposed to a Neuro Divergent disability?
Not calling you out at all, just curious about your take as a health professional. I am sure that @EmilyQ has a take as well.
To be clear, I suffer from both, am blessed with both, appreciate the conversation.
I donāt think I can speak from a healthcare perspective. I do ultrasound. Mental health and neuro divergence is in no way my specialty. I can speak to anatomy and fetal anomalies fairly well. I was in no way trying to be argumentative or dismissive of any particular issue. I was just trying to make the point that social support is a necessity even if someone can only see it in very specific situation. I apologize if I offended you in any way. It was not my intention.
For severe mental disabilities and other legitimate things that prevent you from working, I absolutely think there should be a safety net.
Mental illness is a tricky one for me. Iām bipolar and understand what depression and anxiety can do to a person. I also know there are things you can do to take care of yourself. I take my meds every day, I keep a consistent sleep schedule, I donāt abuse drugs or alcohol, I exercise. Getting diagnosed and medicated completely changed my life.
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You cannot offend me at all, in any way shape or form. I see you, so I know that you come from a place of love.
Be yourself, appreciate you.
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Iām not sure where this places me on the political spectrum, but I see governmentās job as ensuring everyone has an even starting point in the race, in order to ensure that we maximize everyoneās individual potential.
After that, individual drive and responsibility take over, and government has no responsibility to adjust the results, but should prevent people from pulling the ladder of success up after them.
So Iām for a robust comprehensive educational system, clean air and water, accessable quality food, family support systems like child care and maternity/paternity leave, a reasonable path to home ownership, the estate tax, and so on.
Iām not a fan of welfare, at will employment, tax loopholes, having insurance tied to your job (seriously, the amount of potential entrepreneurs I know who would make the jump if we had single-payer healthcare as an option is amazing), the governmentās food recommendations based on lobbying instead of science, legacy preferences in school admissions, or too-big-to-fail bailouts.
So based on the current terms, Iām for liberal policies at the starting line, but then more conservative as the race goes on, if that makes sense.
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So, not to piss in the chili, but to piss in the chili.
The role of the government is to divide the people (I think the last election was about 50/50) and to provide distractions so that the proletariat does not realize that we are being milked by big oil, big pharma, the industrial military complex.
Letās argue about who is or isnāt a woman, same sex marriage, who is a liberal and who is not, who is an American and who is not, Zionism, etcetera and lose focus on the fact that, here we go, we are all just Source experiencing itself through vibrations.
If you are a Hylic or a NPC, step to the front and call me on my bullshit.
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I separate left and right from liberal and conservative.
Latter I already defined. Left and right are about equality vs freedom. Since you can not support absolute equality and absolute freedom at the same time.
So you can be leftists conservative or right wing liberalist. Usually weāre a mix of things of course.
Political context matters too. Finland is generally much more left than USA, since weāre a Nordic Welfare state. But our economy is going to the shitter. Many right wing politicians are liberal/progressive for wanting to weaken the welfare state to make more competitive enviroment. Left is conservative in this subject, since they want to preserve the welfare state.
Iām seeing these days there really is no difference.
The whole thing about conservatives being for freedom and less intervention hasnāt been showing proof.
They want to cancel someone that says things they donāt agree with or even I donāt agree with as dangerous as much as the other side.
With that said, hereās a somewhat view point that can be tied to this- I now really believe Kirk was murdered under some form of capitalism, not āleftā extremism. The brand, the brand, the brand.
The only reason I bring that up is because the first thing I said on Kirk was itās a shame someone gets killed for speaking, well I think itās more than that, yes he was speaking, but again, the brand, the brand, the brandā¦. A big brand, a brand that many want. Typical of a capitalist.
From what I observe in 2025, āliberalā and āconservativeā are growing increasingly meaningless, but I agree with @T3hPwnisher ās broad take upthread for a simple way of understanding the two.
Iāve been doing a lot of political observing for most of my adult life, but particularly so in the last five years at the state and especially local level. What I am seeing is a Democratic party thatās first and foremost a coalition of āmarginalizedā people and their āalliesā, with actual government policy details an afterthought when it comes to campaign rhetoric.
It is more of a cult of collective consciousness with philosophical roots in Hegel, Marx, and a few other mostly German purveyors of difficult-to-understand ideobabble that embraces serious contradictions as a matter of course. It amounts to an esoteric religious cult with roughly two dozen schools of academic thought forming the esoteric nodes of this religion, all of which are rooted in varying oppressor/oppressed frameworks. Iāve had a lot of discussions both online and in person, and the consensus thinking on the left today is that they see themselves as awakened (woke) to historical injustices that must be repaired by using wealth redistribution that uplifts the people labeled as āmarginalizedā, removes the people labeled as āoppressorsā from power, and then conditions will somehow improve. From my point of view, the political movement has all of the elements of the dictionary definition of ācultā. It has hidden knowledge curated by a priesthood class (mostly social science academics), vast wealth extraction schemes, its own vocabulary of manipulative language, and weird sex stuff with kids. Some philosophy guys can even trace a coherent line from Hegel back to the gnostics, who sort of did the Tyrion Lannister method of āI drink and then I know thingsā.
American conservatives have elements of collective consciousness as well, but it still remains comparatively firmly planted in Enlightenment thinking and a more simple conception of government, which theyāve largely failed to execute politically for most of my adult life.
Here in Maine, the choice seem to be shaping up along an increasingly hardline conception of socialism called āDemocratic Socialismā thatās an odd blend of National Socialism and Marxist-Leninism, with race-based identity, class-based identity, and sexual identity all being the in-groups this time around, and Republicans who closely resemble 1990ās Democrats from other states.
The Deep State is trying to divide you - and doing an excellent job. MAGA is looking for a hero to save them. The Dems doing the same. All focused on the surface things that donāt really matter, but serve to divide us.
Not to be Kumbaya and shit, but none of it matters. If you hate the Dems, youāre a tool. If you hate the GOP, youāre a tool.
Donāt be a Hylic - pull the curtain.
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I agree.
The minutiae. āThe government needs about 20% of our collective income. Corporations need to pay their fair share.ā āThe government obviously needs money. The poor arenāt paying their fair share, so they need to pay.ā
At this point political parties are so meaningless that it basically just boils down to which podcasts you listen to