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cheese_greater @lemmy.world

Series: Conservatives of Lemmy: What do you think has gone awry in modern society and how might it be constructively addressed?

I'd like to start a series seeking viewpoints from across the political spectrum in general discussions about modern society and where everyone stands on what is not working, what is working, and where we see things going in the future.

Please answer in good-faith and if you don't consider yourself conservative or "to the right", please reserve top-level discussion for those folks so it reaches the "right" folks haha.

Please don't downvote respectful content that is merely contrary to your political sensibillities, lets have actual discourse and learn more about each other and our respective viewpoints.

Will be doing other sides soon but lets start with this and see where it takes us.

78 comments

  • I suppose I'm conservative according to lemmy, (I'm also not great at internet arguments, but do like conversation, so let's keep this nice.) Also, I'm not an expert, but I'd like to get the ball rolling here.

    In my opinion, I think modern society is just more disrespectful. Social media makes the "shock and awe" approach the way to go to get views and get heard. Everyone is just pursuing their own "mic drop" moment. There's just so much noise.

    So to get heard and stand out you have to get more extreme and entrench in your own views.

    So how do we fix it?

    In my mind, respect comes from better parenting. More time off from work for people does not necessarily mean more time with their own kids, but it certainly can't hurt. So maybe a reduction in the normal working week from 40 hours to maybe 35 would make a difference.

    I'm not sure how we could make incentives to have people be better parents.

    • It's a fair point. I don't know if I could say I put all the blame on bad parenting, but I do think absence of parents (or, maybe, absence of parental attention) is definitely a thing that stunts kids emotionally for a number of reasons (including overexposure to social media).

      I think the incentive to be a better parent is already there for most people; humans are pretty well hardwired to want to look after our offspring. But it's being drowned out by multiple other incentives to spend time elsewhere, or risk falling into trouble - financial, social, whatever. It's going to take more than an hour off from work a day to ease the incredible anxiety we're filled with to focus on working more/harder.

      Unfortunately, I don't think I have all the answers either, but I think it's going to take a multi-pronged approach.

    • So what do you make of my experience? For background, I used to live in an apartment in an otherwise-wealthy and desirable neighborhood, and worked at a grocery store. Within several blocks of me, there were three different well-to-do families that adopted daughters as infants from troubled backgrounds, probably with drug-abusing birth mothers.

      One daughter worked at the same store I did. She regularly called in, or otherwise didn't show up for work. Her diet was atrocious, she was always fighting with certain other employees, and eventually got fired for swiping her employee badge to get the discount for any cute guy who'd talk to her. Not the sharpest tool in the shed, or the most ambitious. Her sisters, though, were star students, and went on to attend Ivy League schools, and got high-powered jobs.

      The 19-year-old daughter of another family moved into the apartment across the hall from me. Her parents paid the rent, because she would fight with her mother constantly at home. She couldn't keep a job, even at the co-op across the street (absenteeism, again). She kept a string of pets that she couldn't take care of, eventually a rabbit that she tortured by leaving alone for several days at a time while she was staying with her 50-something boyfriend. One time, she met a homeless man, and let him move into the apartment she wasn't using (without informing our landlord). While she lived there, I had a chronic problem with small flies in my apartment, no matter how much I cleaned. When my landlord finally evicted her, he threw out the refrigerator, because it was caked and crawling with maggots. (The flies went away.)

      The daughter of a third family, a friend of my landlord, got involved with a troubled young man, another student at her school. They hatched a scheme whereby he'd rob her parents, but the robbery went wrong. He shot them and left their bodies by the side of the road in a nearby wooded area. Same deal as the first family, though, her siblings were well-behaved, and good students.

      These particular kids were problem children, although raised in exactly the same environment as their siblings, by the same parents. They had love, wealth, good schools, close involvement in their lives, lots of activities, medical needs attended to, et cetera, et cetera. What more could any of these couples possibly have done? In contrast, most people who have abusive, neglectful parents turn out to be responsible citizens, despite their emotional turmoil. Bottom line, I don't buy the "bad parenting" explanation. There are way too many holes in it. What would better parenting look like, exactly?

  • Lemmy's loudest seem to believe me thinking the "democratic" part of "democratic socialism" is pretty important makes me a conservative. So here's my "manifesto" for what needs to change in this country, not even to fix our problems but to give us the tools we'll need to finally finish cleaning up this inherited mess that's been made in this land for over 400 years now.

    • Abolish the independent executive, inherently the body will become a parasitic leach upon the powers and responsibilities of the legislature until we get Caesar types running for the office just for the immunity to prosecution. Rome reserved that much power entrusted to a single person for ABSOLUTE EMERGENCIES for a reason, and the only two men in US history I think have ever actually needed that level of power were Lincoln and FDR.
    • Delegate the responsibilities of government to a vastly expanded parliamentary house
    • Delegate the responsibilities of state to a vastly expanded senate (still equal number of senators it's just now you elect a handful at a time every two years instead of one every two or four)
    • Multi-Seat STAR voting to fill the house and senate, every election will see every voting district/state send a delegation which roughly reflects the political cross section in each district and state, even Wyoming would send at least one democrat, and that fact that everyone would have at least one senator or representative who they feel validates their issues and concerns and hears their position will I think let a significant amount of steam off the building frustrations people have with their government. Plus these vastly expanded bodies will naturally end up being host to more people who previously had been kept out of the halls of power, more accessibility in terms of women, PoC, and Queer folks getting into office sure, but also, people who aren't any of those things, but who also have been kept out of the discussion because they're too poor to meaningfully challenge the established incumbents. It'll also make lobbying WAAAY harder since you have to spread a massive amount of dough to make any differences at such a grand scale.
    • Replace the current circuit system of the federal court with a sortitionate system that draws the judges randomly from across the entire pool of federal judges to try cases with federal jurisdiction. Court stacking and jurisdiction shopping both are too easy at present and both wildly undermine the idea of blind justice, so let the lawyers focus on putting a case together that can win in front of any judge instead of just choosing the judge that'll say yes to them.

    Again, none of this will fix all our problems, it won't fix anything except our inability to get out of our own way when trying to solve the problems we face as a country, but goddamn is even that much desperately needed in this land made for you and me.

  • I would not consider my self a "conservative" and definatly don't associate with all the baggage that come with the word now, but I don't consider myself republican or democratic either. Some can probably sort me in to a category, and thats okay, have fun.

    I will support everyone living their best life as long as it doesn't disrupt others from living their life. Overall I try to support policy that will benefit society and indivules as whole while respecting individuals freedoms.

    Here's some hot takes that will probably upset all kinds of people. These are poorly witten generalization of what goes on in my head. I do try to keep open mindied to other opinions and perspectives.

    • LGBTQ+ - I fully support you, 99% of you are great, but the 1% on scocial media needs to stop throwing a tantrum whenever a stranger mistakenly misgenders you. It makes the 99% look bad. (hartasment/bulling not okay - If some jerk insists on calling someone who appears to have fully transitioned the wrong pronouns, after being asked to use the correct one - fuck em, they're no better than racits and scum of society.)
    • Letting children transition? This one is much more nuanced, personally I belive letting a child dress/behave (I know theres more to it than that) in any fashion they like is absolutly okay. Putting them through various medical procedures/treatment like puperty blockers is an act I do not belive in due to some major (rare) side effects. Asking a 11 year old if they want to risk never having a child is absolutly insane to me. On the flip side, I do recognize the fact that pre-puberty is, medically speaking, the best time make the transtsion.
    • guns? Don't care, but treat them with respect and don't blame the gun for muder. If you have a violent history - no gun for you. If you're the type to pull out your gun to show your daughter's BF how tough you are - no gun for you. If you the type to wave it out your car window when someone upsets you - no gun or drivers lincess for you. If you don't keep it locked up/secured at all times - no gun for you. If you make a gun safe that can be opened with a spoon (LPL) - prison for you.
    • ProLife/Choice - I'm personally pro-choice, but belive there's got to be a limit, maybe after 6 months in its too late unless it's medical or result of rape or something. Abortion clinics need to be seriously overhauled and properly avalible across the nation and regulated like any other medical facitly.
    • On the flip side, take a serious look at why individuals are choosing abortion over having children. Is it the economic burden, lost hope for the future, poor access to brith-control, poor education about birth control?
    • police - needs serious work. While most are okay, the bad ones get away with some terrifying life-destroying shit and it makes the rest look terrible. A law-abiding citizen should not fear the police, that's is 3rd world dictator shit.
    • Corporations - need some serious regulations that basically say "if the government can't infringe on citizens rights (privacy) neither can you".
      • stop making the fines for these big coportaions cheaper than doing the crime
      • who tf let Microsoft buy all those game companies in an obvious antitrust violation?
      • Ownership - when I buy something it is mine. If I buy access to a movie through service X, I have baught it. If service X shuts down, my access should be transfered (download perfered) at no cost to me.
      • Terms and conditions - if they change after purchase, I should be entitled to a full refund if I disagree. You can't abritaritly change a contract. Forced arbitration should be illeagle.
    • labor laws - mandatory holiday/vacation pay for all, even part time. Cut out the " tipped wage" bullshit. Find some way to raise wages without business needing to jack prices so high the new wages are worthless.
    • Drugs/Weed - again do as you please but treat it like alcohol. DUIs should be treated as major crime - they are operating a death box and not treating it as such.
    • Institutionalized gamabling/lotteries - go away. Its the poor people who get sucked in the worst, we don't need people dumping the last of their money into slot machines and scratch off cards. Things like games of skill that can result in a prize, a raffel for charity or playing privately with a group of friends are all fine with me.
    • Healthcare/Insurance - step one is to make it so insurance isn't the one deciding what to cover. The ones making profit when they don't pay should not be the ones making the decision.
      • Step two - universal coverage: everyone's covered for life threatening emergencies and related medicine needs. Everyone's covered for 1 head to toe physical a year (that includes basic vision and hearing tests). 2 dentist visits a year. Everyone's covered for 2 therapy sessions a year. That alone should be good for most heathy people. If you need more coverage then you start paying a bit more. Any voluntary procedures, I.e cosmetic - not resultant of an injury or medical condition - will not be covered by default.
        • Militay vets and first responders have full coverage for life as a thank you for putting your body at risk for others. Any one in an executive or political postion making more than $500,000 a year in personal profits gets 0 coverage as a fuck you for hoarding your money.
      • Step 3 - no "in network" doctor bullshit. If they are a licensed doctor at a legimatly accredited/licensed? medical facility then they are okay. If insurances find that they have repeated issues with a person/place, they needs to be investigated and probably shut down.
    • public education - boy what a underfunded mess it has become. Besides fearing for their lives, children are essentially being taught for one goal - pay into the college debt nightmare or go get a job as a garbage man. While an exaggeration and oversimplification, depending on where you go kids are being tested on high level collage literature (and all failing and made to feel like shit about it) or missing out on basic facts (yes the Earth only has moon, 5G towers won't spread disease and Europe is not country.)
    • rioters disguised as protestors - arrest/fine them. I'm sorry, but destroying random people's property or harming people (even if they are police) is not okay. They need to be held accountable for their crimes. At the same time, violent maniacs disguised as "peace officers" or something is also not okay. Peacefullly protest, find ways to inform unrelated parties of your problems with out disrupting their lives. While maybe not as effevtive, don't make your self the bad guy - no will support you. Those oil protestors who sit in traffic need to be run over. All they're doing is holding up traffic, creating a ton more of the exact emissions,wasting peoples gas, time, holding up emergency vehicles or some doctor headed to preform emergency surgery. Imagine if your kid dies because Doc McMiracle got held up by protestors preaching about leaving a healthy planet for our children...
78 comments