Come now. It’s a liberal trending board, with some participation by conservatives, libertarians, socialists, moderates, and anarcho-syndicalists, just for variety.
I hardly think that an unfair description of this place.
Indeed, this goes back to that most terrible of American political insults, actually calling a liberal a liberal.
The label is surely descriptive. Why shake it.
Any board with a reasonable number of posters from international countries will always seem to lean to the left, at least from an American perspective. To me (from my perspective) the board actually seems to lean to the right , but that is a personal thing and I fully accept that my idea of the centre will vary a great deal from others. I will also accept the SDMB is to the left of the American centre. It is almost bound * to be due to its international poster quota.
- And yet I vote with the accepted conservative parties in local elections. It’s all relative.
And how, precisely, does that have anything to do with liberals and/or conservatives? If you’re somehow convinced that the current American culture of overprotectiveness and overlitigiousness is in any way a liberal or democratic creation, then Karl Rove is even more of an evil genius than I already thought he was.
Aro your post stamped 05:40 PM was spot on. Perfect.
You latest one was, meh, alright I suppose 
Aro your post stamped 05:40 PM was spot on. Perfect.
Your latest one was, meh, alright I suppose
Who’s arguing with you? There seems to be almost universal agreement that the board is left-leaning. The only argument is whether conservatives are a minority, or whether they’re a hyperbolically described vanishing few voices in an overwhelming storm of liberality, or something like that.
I thought double posting was impossible now?
It is.
Not quite. I’ve seen two double threads today. And double posting within a thread can happen in rare circumstances.
It is
You are, like me, and many others here, a semi-libertarian. You want government to stop interfering with your rights and get its nose out of where it doesn’t belong, but you don’t go to the libertarian extreme of wanting government out of everything- you recognize the importance of government acting within the limits of what it can reasonably achieve and with regarding to public good ideals that the private sector can’t take into account.
Unfortunately, given the weird dichtomy of liberal/conservative, that puts you firmly against half of what each side believes in, while firmly for the other half. You want the economic freedom of conservatism with the social freedom of liberalism, and rail against the social totalitarianism of conservatism and the economic totalitarianism of liberalism. And absolute libertarianism is a little too “jump off this cliff- honest, thoughtful people will guarantee you land safely” for your taste.
You are an Independent. Relish it. You are now free to laugh in the faces of those whose politics torture their ideology, and you may instruct candidates to jump through hoops to gain your considered vote.
For the record- My positions are 90% similar to Gobears; I am a bit more neo-conservative on foreign affairs. I am a registered Republican not because I agree with everything they say, but because if I keep voting in primaries, I can eventually make them agree with what I say.
I’d scale that back slightly, but perhaps we just have different impressions of the leanings. I think on fiscal it leans somewhat liberal and on non-fiscal, fairly strongly.
Naw, I apologized to stpauler for accidental inclusion, but Rune’s a conservative, by just about any definition. Nothing wrong with that, so I’m not really sure why he denies it. Heck, he’s a European that is conservative by American standards, so he’s probably way to the right at home.
I’d actually guess it’s a fiscally centrist board with left of center leanings on non-fiscal issues, but it’s a big board, and I’m not willing to go count them all. It does tend liberal overall, but I don’t consider it a liberal board. If I wanted a liberal board, I’d go visit Democratic Underground, but that’s boring.
I hope I made it quite clear earlier that I felt the majority on my list were quite intelligent posters who debated in good faith. Conservatives were not the target of my pitting, persecution complexes were.
I should probably quantify a previous statement I made. When I say I think it’s centrist fiscally, I do think it’s a slight left lean even there. Perhaps 40-45 on that scale being used elsewhere. By the same token, I think socially the board is likely in the 25-30 range. Definitely a lean on both counts, but not very far on the first.
I actually think you’re pretty typical of the folks on this board, which is why you wouldn’t be on my list of liberals or conservatives (which were overly broad to begin with, as I don’t truly think there are more than 20 people here who I would accuse of group-think, and they are likely in equal numbers on both sides). I guess you could say that you “swing both ways” but don’t tell your boyfriend that. 
No, I’m not saying you’re average, as you’re anything but.
::snicker::
I’m a conservative now?
OK. :smack:
Thanks, I get that impression from a lot of Libertarians, but have never really asked before. Perhaps that’s why I weight them more on the conservative side. I think that that impression is bolstered by the “State’s Rights” argument on the social side. While I applaud those who actually believe in that (like yourself, and I have never questioned it in your case), it IS used as an excuse by too many bigots, so oftentimes rings hollow even when it’s not.
Yes, it does get a bit ugly at times. To be fair, when FellatioGate was happening, I sometimes felt like I had accidentally landed on the New Republic messageboard, but then, as now, there were plenty of people to provide the balance here. I do think some of the threads are necessary, such as when new issues arise, but agree that probably two out of three Bush-bashing threads are just rehashes of previous threads.
You say it’s descriptive, but whqat does it mean?
Our founding Fathers considered themselves to be lberal. Milton Friedman considered himself to be liberal.
And the current Admin’s staffed with “big-government conservatives,” whatever the fuck that means.
For those who keep insisting that this board slants left: does it matter? Nobody wins a debate around here by taking a poll. Do you think you lose a debate if more posters side against you? I just don’t get why some people make such a big deal about it.
See, I get the impression the board slants right on fiscal issues: overall, the board is more libertarian than anything else.
Daniel