It’s probably an unfair attitude on my part, but I consider all Objectivists to be arrested adolescents until proven otherwise.
I’m not sure the proposed equivalency is apt. I didn’t take a principles-based, moral stance regarding paying more taxes–I simply expressed a willingness to do so. On the other hand, Ryan’s Objectivist objection (see what I did there?) to entitlement programs is principles-based, and is a moral stance. So I would say that renders his willingness to take entitlement-program monies rank hypocrisy–in contrast to, say, Ron Paul, who as a physician refused to accept Medicaid/Medicare (owing to his principled objection to such programs).
I can’t give someone credit for doing necessary work in (what I believe to be) a wholly inappropriate and disastrous manner.
Yup! Every time that subject comes up I either find myself going “nuclear” or managing to not say anything. That’s one particular topic I don’t think I can manage to have an in-between response to lol.
Fair enough. They certainly haven’t the track record of maturity as a demographic.
I really don’t think it is a moral point in the sense you are thinking. I also think that Ryan’s actual stance on Medicaid is a tad softer than you believe. But in any case I could make the opposing point: he could believe that–while Medicaid is still present in the market–it is a greater moral wrong to deny someone that relies on it care that they need. I would argue that is the stronger moral claim and thus his decision is not hypocritical.
One of the outmoded concepts…probably for the last 10-15 years…that many are still living with…is the idea of “the” Media.
It should have died with Dial-Up Internet and the rise of FOX and other Conservative/Right-Wing News outlets.
CBS, NBC and ABC are now just parts of an ever-expanding landscape of not only how and where people get their news…but how they spread their own beliefs and vitriol.
And my hell…FOX is crushing them all in the numbers!
It’s my opinion that people need to get over this idea of “the” MSLM as part of some broad conspiracy to keep the “silent” (right) majority down.
"This week, the White House decided to make those emails from concerned citizens public through the commission’s new website. But the administration made a big mistake: It didn’t censor any of the personal information — such as names, email addresses, actual addresses, and phone numbers — included in those emails.
In effect, the White House just released the sensitive personal information of a lot of concerned citizens giving feedback to their government. That’s made even worse by the fact that the White House did this when the thing citizens were complaining about was the possibility that their private information would be made public"
Gee whiz, it’s almost like they can’t be trusted or something…
Well, this hypothetical has problems to start with - number one, it doesn’t appear to acknowledge marginal tax rates (as @ActivitiesGuy pointed out earlier), which is what we have in the USA. But taken on it’s face, you scenario might be an EP problem, if you and I pay different listed tax rates on the same dollar. Is that what you meant? I’m simply not sure. [quote=“Basement_Gainz, post:2782, topic:229190”]
I think where we differ is in how we view “property”. I view property (and/or income) as an inalienable right like speech or association. It is well established that Congress can restrict our speech (can’t yell fire in a theater) or association (can’t riot). So of course a government needs to tax.
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Well, you don’t share the same view of property as the FFs - the 5th Amendment says you can’t be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. Ok, well, that means you can be deprived of property so long as there was Due Process of Law. You would agree with me that duly seated and constituted legislatures voting under the power given by their respective constitutions to enact taxes to secure revenues for government expense comports with Due Provess, right? [quote=“Basement_Gainz, post:2782, topic:229190”]
Where I nitpick a bit is that nobody would consider it moral if arbitrarily chosen racial/income/age/political groups had differing rights to free speech, or differing rights to association. See where I’m coming from?
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Well, yes, that because there’s no real justification to do any of those things on those categories except to target, punish, and make life harder for those groups. Progressive taxation may make life harder for rich people, but that is incidental to the purpose of the tax, not the purpose of the tax.
Well, then, you’re not quite getting how Equal Protection is applied. Nearly every law benefits someone more than another - see the GI Bill. Discriminatory impact incidental to a legitimate purpose isn’t a violation of Equal Protection. And, importantly, what you’re suggesting is not what the FFs had in mind for EP.[quote=“Basement_Gainz, post:2903, topic:229190”]
Progressive taxation hurts the middle income arguably more than the rich… who have figured out how to not trade their time for money.
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Again, this is a policy argument, not one based on whether or not there is an EP problem or not.
While most US media outlets (rightly) focused on his fake doctoral dissertation and Nazi sympathies, I think that due to the language barrier many things were missed out on Gorka’s political career prior to immigrating to the US from Hungary.
I’ve been visiting my wife’s relatives in Hungary so I was able to read up on him and get more first hand information.
Sebastien Gorka achieved a brief mainstream fame (infamy?) in Hungary in the early 2000s as the “fake security analyst that is always wrong”.
Political as well as satirical shows played his earlier predictions and “security analyses” from a fringe far right radio show and contrasted them with how the events actually transpired, always diametrically opposite to his analyses and predictions.
Later he accused the Hungarian media outlets for “bullying” as he claimed he was being “harassed” and denied security clearances just because he was a “high-ranking spy for the British Government”
After an unending string of business and political failures, including failing to scrounge money for several of his one-man think thanks, he launched his final desperate gambit in Hungary - running for mayor of a quaint little town of Pilicsaba (pop. 7 306). He ran a bizarre vintage 1930ies fascist campaign blaming communists, Jews and “lesser races” for all the ills in the world. Unsurprisingly, he lost the election to the guy who promised to refurbish the local swimming pools. Immediately after losing the election, he emigrated to the US.
When the local Budapest paper ran a blurb about the mayoral elections in Pilicsaba titled “Infamous snake-oil peddler blames communists for electoral loss” everyone in Hungary rightly assumed they’ve heard the last from dr. Gorka.
The GOP came off as hypocrites. One of the defecting Senators (Moran-KS) complained about the closed door negotiations and lack of transparency.
The defectors included moderates and Tea-Party types, meaning no faction of the GOP fears Trump. Regardless of what anyone thinks of the merits of the bill, hurray to the Senate for continuing to regrow its backbone.
