# What's too "Loony Left" for you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2022, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503 "2022-08-11T18:54:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/201 "2022-08-15T03:09:17Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Are you claiming that modern day workers in America exist in conditions that are remotely equivalent to being a peasant, serf, or slave? …I’m claiming that the conditions that modern day workers in America work in are not great in comparison to societies that have strong social safety nets, decent minimum wage protections, universal healthcare, and don’t have an industrial prison complex that profits of the backs of the most incarcerated people in the world. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Do you guys realize slave owners used this same argument to defend slavery? Do you realize that you are using the same argument to defend the industrial prison complex? Do you realize you are using the same argument to defend the modern day version of “robber barons”? Capitalism in America today sucks. It isn’t as bad as things were back when Americans could be openly racist. But it still isn’t great. You’ve still got a virtual handful of people at the top who are making all the money. You’ve got a lot of people at the other end who are barely surviving. Then you’ve got the people at the bottom who nobody really cares about at all. I mentioned this the other day: but you could release **half** of all the people incarcerated in America right now and you would still have **twice as many** people locked up as they do (per capita) in Australia. That just isn’t right. There is something inherently wrong here. And thanks to the 13th amendment, involuntary servitude isn’t off the table. You want slavery? _That’s_ your [slavery](https://innocenceproject.org/13th-amendment-slavery-prison-labor-angola-louisiana/). The entire thing is a rout. In America, capitalism is _barely_ restrained. Capitalism doesn’t deserve to be worshipped. It isn’t inherently bad. But it needs to be balanced. ---
**Author:** ![ASL\_v2.0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asl_v2.0/32/3525_2.png) [@ASL\_v2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASL_v2.0)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/202 "2022-08-15T03:45:26Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Capitalism doesn’t deserve to be worshipped. It isn’t inherently bad. Here we may disagree, or we may just have a difference in definitions, but to my mind Capitalism—unfettered, undiluted Capitalism—_is_ inherently bad. The concentration of wealth, and by extension power, is a feature not a bug. Call me a loony leftist (@Little_Nemo), but I do not see our present degree of capitalism _or_ our respect for private (as distinguished from personal) property as nearly so essential to a better society. On the contrary, I see them as impediments. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/203 "2022-08-15T03:58:01Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > Has anyone written a sf/fantasy story in which a modern women is stranded in a medievalesque setting, and finds herself in a place where no one thinks women have equal rights or even any rights and absolutely no one is going to defend her? And she has to figure out how, in a society ruled by strong violent men with fists, clubs and swords, she can ever be anything more than basically a rape slave? IOW, given the realities of a feudalistic setting, how could upholding women’s rights even be possible, short of postulating an entire society of altruistic saints? Um, by vigorous law enforcement? I mean, it’s a well-known trope that [a Turkic historian literally wrote of the “Pax Mongolica” under the khanate that “‘a young virgin with a tray of gold on her head’ could travel unmolested from the Pacific to the Mediterranean”.](https://asiasociety.org/hong-kong/events/mongolia-and-silk-road) I hold no brief for the gender-equality wokeness of medieval societies in general, but jeez, I think your imaginings about them may be a little too luridly licentious. It’s not like there weren’t laws against treating women—even female strangers—as “rape slaves”, as you so elegantly describe it. While women in medieval Christendom were generally exhorted to stay home and not go gallivanting off on pilgrimage or whatever, [that seems to have been more from distrust of women’s alleged natural propensities for loose behavior](https://achahistory.org/2010/06/07/whose-rules-medieval-women-and-pilgrimage/) than from the assumption that they would automatically be immediate prey for “violent men with fists, clubs and swords”: > [@](#): > > Satirical portraits of women who wandered (of whom the single most famous example is Chaucer’s Alison, the Wife of Bath) hinged on the assumption that women were naturally lustful, greedy, proud liars, who would do nothing but strut their finery, fornicate freely, and lie to those with supervisory authority over them if they were allowed to wander about. […] Indeed, female pilgrims were so closely associated with illicit sex and other misbehavior that one carnival, or satirical, pilgrim’s badge from the fifteenth century badge dressed a vulva up as a pilgrim. […] > > It is in the context of these sorts of social limitations that real, flesh-and-blood women went on pilgrimage anyway. […] Further, a woman who wished to undertake pilgrimage might also find that she had powerful allies. Husbands and sermon-writers and givers of social advice might have thought it safer for women to remain at home, but others – specifically, the keepers and promoters of saints’ shrines, the destination of most European pilgrims — had ample reason to encourage women to undertake sacred travel. […] > > When women took pilgrimages on their own behalves, authors supported their actions by evoking empathy for their suffering. […] > > But the other way of presenting female pilgrims as blameless and sympathetic was by emphasizing that, in becoming pilgrims and seeking miraculous healing, they were acting in their daily roles as caregivers. This approach appears when women took pilgrimages not for themselves, but as intercessors, seeking healing for somebody else. All told, 43.4% of women, either alone or in groups, were seeking help for someone else, but only 25.5% of men did the same. Outside the contexts of planned journeys like pilgrimage, lone women stranded in strange places could seek shelter at religious houses or private homes. There’s the extreme case of [the Middle English legend of the English pilgrim to the Holy Land who loved a Saracen maiden who subsequently followed him to England, knowing only his name “Gilbert” and her destination “London”:](https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/18054/origin-of-the-story-of-gilbert-and-the-saracen-maid) > [@](#): > > The Saracen lady, who was more loving than the merchant, left her father’s house in disguise to follow him, and made her way, under many hardships, to the sea-shore. The merchant had taught her only two English words (for I suppose he must have learnt the Saracen tongue himself, and made love in that language), of which London was one, and his own name, Gilbert, the other. She went among the ships, saying, “London! London!” over and over again, until the sailors understood that she wanted to find an English vessel that would carry her there; so they showed her such a ship, and she paid for her passage with some of her jewels, and sailed away. Well! The merchant was sitting in his counting-house in London one day, when he heard a great noise in the street; and presently Richard came running in from the warehouse, with his eyes wide open and his breath almost gone, saying, “Master, master, here is the Saracen lady!” The merchant thought Richard was mad; but Richard said, “No, master! As I live, the Saracen lady is going up and down the city, calling Gilbert! Gilbert!” Then, he took the merchant by the sleeve, and pointed out of window [sic]; and there they saw her among the gables and water-spouts of the dark, dirty street, in her foreign dress, so forlorn, surrounded by a wondering crowd, and passing slowly along, calling Gilbert, Gilbert! When the merchant saw her, and thought of the tenderness she had shown him in his captivity, and of her constancy, his heart was moved, and he ran down into the street; and she saw him coming, and with a great cry fainted in his arms […] No “rape slavery” involved. Sheesh. I don’t know whether anybody has written a time-travel fantasy story set in the sort of medieval dystopia you describe, but such a setting would not be a historically accurate depiction of feudal societies as a whole. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/204 "2022-08-15T03:58:09Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > Do you realize that you are using the same argument to defend the industrial prison complex? Do you realize you are using the same argument to defend the modern day version of “robber barons”? No, I’m not. I’m saying society has made substantial progress since 1776. The conditions that ordinary people live in today are overwhelmingly better than they were two hundred and fifty years ago. Being an average worker is the United States in 2020 is incomparably better than being a peasant or a serf or a slave. This type of progress is not some historical inevitability. There was no similar overwhelming leap forward in the two hundred years between 1750 and 1550 - or in any other two hundred year period ever. But once capitalism appeared, progress began accelerating at historically unprecedented rate and the living conditions of ordinary people began to improve. As you note, society has not reached an ideal state. But I think that means we should keep moving forward and not halt the process that is moving us forward. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/205 "2022-08-15T04:04:09Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Here we may disagree, or we may just have a difference in definitions, but to my mind Capitalism—unfettered, undiluted Capitalism—_is_ inherently bad. The concentration of wealth, and by extension power, is a feature not a bug. Capitalism isn’t inherently moral or immoral. It’s a tool. Some people will use it for good purposes and some will use it for bad purposes. Society should regulate the use of capitalism to prevent its abuse. But it would be as foolish to try to prohibit capitalism as it would be to try to prohibit science (which is another powerful tool which can be used to produce good or bad results). ---
**Author:** ![Banquet\_Bear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banquet_bear/32/373_2.png) [@Banquet\_Bear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banquet_Bear)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/206 "2022-08-15T04:18:19Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > Here we may disagree, or we may just have a difference in definitions, but to my mind Capitalism—unfettered, undiluted Capitalism—_is_ inherently bad. The concentration of wealth, and by extension power, is a feature not a bug. > [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > In America, capitalism is _barely_ **restrained**. Capitalism doesn’t deserve to be worshipped. It isn’t inherently bad. **But it needs to be balanced**. …relevant points bolded. Unfettered, undiluted Capitalism is inherently bad. And what you have in America is uncomfortably close to that. I also own my own business, and I love the freedom of being able to be-my-own boss, and work within a system that also has universal healthcare and a decent social safety net. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’m saying society has made substantial progress since 1776. The conditions that ordinary people live in today are overwhelmingly better than they were two hundred and fifty years ago. Being an average worker is the United States in 2020 is incomparably better than being a peasant or a serf or a slave. I don’t think the metric here should be the “average worker.” The average black or indigenous person trapped in the [school-to-prison pipeline](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/School-to-prison_pipeline) is probably not much better off than a peasant or a serf, and depending on where they live in America, especially if they are locked up at a place like Angola Prison, they probably have it not much better than the average slave. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But once capitalism appeared, progress began accelerating at historically unprecedented rate and the living conditions of ordinary people began to improve. As you note, society has not reached an ideal state. But I think that means we should keep moving forward and not halt the process that is moving us forward. In much of the rest of the world once capitalist-socialist systems appeared, progress began accelerating at historically unprecedented rate and the living conditions of ordinary people began to improve. Let’s move towards that instead of effectively unfettered capitalism that America currently embraces. Unfettered capitalism isn’t progress. For things to progress in America, capitalism needs to **slow the fuck down**. Yes: lets halt the process that locks up more people per capita than anywhere else in the world. Yes: let’s stop the process that health insurance ties you to an employer, where without insurance healthcare is unaffordable, that even with insurance healthcare is **still** unaffordable. The problem isn’t capitalism. It’s _American_-style capitalism. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/207 "2022-08-15T07:11:51Z")
> [@Banquet\_Bear](#): > > The problem isn’t capitalism. It’s _American_-style capitalism. There’s no other kind. American-style capitalism _is_ naked capitalism. Your Jeff Bezoses and the like aren’t _bad_ capitalists. They’re the _acme_ of capitalists, with all the wealth unequality and living hells for workers that entails. Medieval peasants could always take a piss while out in the fields. Amazon warehouse workers, [not so much](https://mashable.com/article/amazon-admits-peeing-in-bottles-problem). ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/208 "2022-08-15T15:29:46Z")
[quote=“Kimstu, post:203, topic:969503, full:true”] > [@](#): > > Satirical portraits of women who wandered (of whom the single most famous example is Chaucer’s Alison, the Wife of Bath) hinged on the assumption that women were naturally lustful, greedy, proud liars, who would do nothing but strut their finery, fornicate freely, and lie to those with supervisory authority over them if they were allowed to wander about. Hmm… sort of the medieval equivalent of “Girls Gone Wild”. 😄 ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/209 "2022-08-15T15:44:57Z")
Srsly. It is weird to contemplate how much the medieval concept of a devotees’ pilgrimage to a holy shrine (and not just in the Christian world) seems to overlap with attitudes that nowadays we’d associate more with holiday bus tours or even a singles cruise. I mean, the cast of the Canterbury Tales are not a bunch of pious saintly types undertaking this trip as some kind of ascetic penance, not even the Nun or the Friar. They just “longen to goon on pilgrimages” because “priketh hem Natúre in hir corages” because it’s Spring! 🤣 ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/210 "2022-08-15T15:52:35Z")
The crowd that believes in healing crystals, homeopathy, and universal peace and love for everyone. Nice in principle but not reality outside of their little bubble unfortunately. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/211 "2022-08-15T16:03:12Z")
Granting people the freedom to believe things is not that looney. Religion in general is not really left-wing, though; an orthodox position would be that “religion is the opium of the people” (including crystals and Jesus Christ and what not). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/212 "2022-08-15T16:23:12Z")
> [@control-z](#): > > The crowd that believes in healing crystals, homeopathy, and universal peace and love for everyone. Interestingly, the “healing crystals and homeopathy” part isn’t by any means exclusively “Left”. The right-wing version of it is often combined with some variant of Christianity, as in the case of [this cultist:](https://www.pod.fo/carolina-snowflakes-podcast/episode/6c765292a6ea50cffdd37d21348fb432bf701c46/view) > [@](#): > > One such truth-seeking cult made national news recently […] > > Carlson was a hardcore Trump supporter who happened to also believe much of what Q regularly touted as “truth”. As if Qanon followers weren’t culty enough, throw in some God and fear and end-of-days rhetoric, plus some astrology, tarot and crystal healing and you’ve got yourself a recipe for disaster. Such is the case surrounding Carlson’s death as it is believed she may have accidentally poisoned herself by consuming an excessive amount of a compound her anti-vax cult was touting as “a cure for covid”. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/213 "2022-08-15T16:44:10Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > So: what happens if I tell you I’m an at-will employee who (a) wasn’t coerced or cajoled, but who just agreed to do some work in exchange for the money they agree to pay me, and who (b) thinks it’s fair that they could tell me not to bother coming in to work tomorrow, much like how I could quit working there tomorrow? Just to expand on the fact that ‘at-will’ employment is not a universal law of the universe; here’s the UK Employment act, particularly the section on dismissal notices. Most, but not all, people in the UK would think at-will employment a step backwards. > **[Employment Rights Act 1996 | Part IX, Dismissal notice and reasons](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Rights_Act_1996#Part_IX,_Dismissal_notice_and_reasons)** > > Employees have a right to reasonable notice before having their contracts terminated under s.86. At present this means everyone should get a minimum of 1 week's notice before being dismissed if they have worked for the employer for more than a month. After 2 years, the minimum is 2 weeks' notice. After 3 years, 3 weeks' notice, and so on, up to a maximum of twelve weeks' notice. Many employees will have higher notice periods in their contracts, or under the protection of collective agreements es... ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/214 "2022-08-15T17:05:47Z")
> [@eburacum45](#): > > Just to expand on the fact that ‘at-will’ employment is not a universal law of the universe; I’d hope that everyone would already know that it’s “not a universal law of the universe” — and I like how your link goes on to spell out that many employees will have even higher notice periods in their contracts. Which goes to the rest of my point: even if you happen to object to me and my employer agreeing on at-will employment, I of course have no objection if someone else and their employer agree to put one of those Higher Notice Periods in a contract — just like I still want to be free to stop buying stuff from that employer if I ever _do_ object to something that employee does, and just like I want to be free to let said employer know about my objection, and just like I’d want everyone who reaches the same conclusion to be free to relay it likewise; and just like I’d want said employer to be free to react accordingly, though within the context of the contract they, y’know, freely agreed to. And if that’s cancel culture, then AFAICT I’m all for it. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/215 "2022-08-15T20:21:30Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > > [@Hari\_Seldon](#): > > > > As far as too loony left for me, well abolishing the police would be that for me. But I would certainly like to see some reforms in policing. Same two comments for prisons. > > I agree. Fire the bad police. **Get rid of the police unions** whose only purpose seems to be protecting bad cops. Make it the mission of police forces across the country to protect and serve. But getting rid of them altogether? That’s ridiculous. As a pro-union person, I thought getting rid of Unions was a right wing thing. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/216 "2022-08-15T21:32:05Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > As a pro-union person, I thought getting rid of Unions was a right wing thing. Distrust of police unions [seems to be a bipartisan position.](https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/the-trouble-with-police-unions) Liberals who normally support organized labor condemn police unions as a heavily corrupt “shadow organization” in law enforcement that enables and shields criminal behavior by LEOs. Conservatives who normally support the police without question condemn police unions as just another inefficient unresponsive public-sector union bureaucracy. (And some of them are also concerned about the corruption thing.) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/217 "2022-08-15T21:54:14Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > As a pro-union person, I thought getting rid of Unions was a right wing thing. The police unions should cover every employment issue between officers and the department _ **except** _ firing for cause. Those should go to a neutral arbitrator agreed upon by the department and union. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/218 "2022-08-15T22:30:17Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > - Agender > - Androgyne > - Androgynous > - Bigender > - Cis > - Cisgender > - Cis Female > - Cis Male > - Cis Man > - Cis Woman > - Cisgender Female > - Cisgender Male > - Cisgender Man > - Cisgender Woman > - Female to Male > - FTM > - Gender Fluid > - Gender Nonconforming > - Gender Questioning > - Gender Variant > - Genderqueer > - Intersex > - Male to Female > - MTF > - Neither > - Neutrois > - Non-binary > - Other > - Pangender > - Trans > - Trans\* > - Trans Female > - Trans\* Female > - Trans Male > - Trans\* Male > - Trans Man > - Trans\* Man > - Trans Person > - Trans\* Person > - Trans Woman > - Trans\* Woman > - Transfeminine > - Transgender > - Transgender Female > - Transgender Male > - Transgender Man > - Transgender Person > - Transgender Woman > - Transmasculine > - Transsexual > - Transsexual Female > - Transsexual Male > - Transsexual Man > - Transsexual Person > - Transsexual Woman > - Two-Spirit This, exactly. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/219 "2022-08-15T23:17:12Z")
Too loony left is banning cars, removing public parking, and removing travel lanes in the roads under the mistaken assumption that this will magically solve the problem of a lack of adequate public transportation. No car? Put your kids and 5 bags of groceries on a bicycle. In the snow. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2022, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503/220 "2022-08-15T23:54:49Z")
But as Mijin responded, > [@Mijin](#): > > That’s not claiming there are n genders. We may as well complain about users being allowed to choose from 250 emoticons (or whatever the number is) that they can put next to their name. Having a preferred specialized phrase to describe your own gender identity doesn’t mean that you are declaring that phrase to be some kind of officially recognized separate gender category. Any more than preferring to describe your eye color as “slate blue with grayish-green specks” means that it can’t be validly described on official documents with one of the [ten or so standard eye color codes](https://pdfslide.net/documents/missouri-the-2018-mvr-access-and-decoder-digest-missouri-the-2018-mvr-access.html?page=7) for standardized color names like “blue” or “gray” or “brown”. (When looking up official lists of eye color codes I was a little startled to find that all of them seem to include “pink” as one of the standard eye colors, but then realized that duh, many people with albinism do have eyes that appear pink. Diversity and inclusion for the win!!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-too-loony-left-for-you/969503.md?page=12)