It's been bugging me and I want to see if anyone agrees. Calling yourself a progressive sort of makes you an arrogant jerk. The reason is, don't most people consider themselves a person that likes progress? So who considers themselves regressive? I think progress is made when liberty wins out...People calling themselves progressives makes it seem like if you oppose them, then you must be agaisnt progress..That is annoying.
Sorry.Looking for a place to rant.
Yep. It's the same with phrases like pro-choice, pro-life, reform and modernisation. Words that politicians understandibly throw about a lot - I mean, who could be 'anti-life' or 'outdated-isation'?
who could be 'anti-life'
The beloved Francois Tremblay
http://francoistremblay.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/arguments-for-anti-natalism-12/
That is how all these anti this pro that none-sense labeling started. The progressive party which started out as the "Bull Moose party" under Theodore Roosevelt . Where the progressives saw the constitution as an old out dated document that needed to be modernised. Hence annyone whom was opposed was "regressive". Unfortunately the disease of this form of labeling also branched out into other forms. It is the reason why politicians give their bills nice sounding names and as a means to stop criticism. For example the "Affordable Health Care Act (ObamaCare) well if you oppose this then you MUST be against affordable H.C. All the recently introduced Obama "American Jobs Act". The one that aggravates me the most is "21'st century". Where somehow politicians believe they can invest or regulate in a "smartly 21st century way".
As Thomas Sowell said: "government is progressive the way a disease is progressive throughout the body".
It bugs me as well. You can make "progression" towards any number of objectives/endpoints, either positive or negative. Neither progress or conservation is intrinsically good or bad.
I saw that someone quoted Thomas Sowell in this thread. After reading the OP, I am reminded of commentary by Sowell (that I can't find for some reason) where he commented that there is a growing trend of people attributing disagreements about policy to the intentions of the people they disagree with, rather than errors of fact or general analysis.
I used to get really wound up when people did this to me. Now, I just let it roll off my back.
That blog post is braindead in so many ways, it's really hard to put into words.
Clayton -
Well, I don't expect Misesians to understand basic logic... :)
They have to label themselves "progressive" because if they just labeled themselves "statist" , it wouldn't sound so appealing.
I just can't ever see myself going around proudly calling myself a progressive. "I'M A PROGRESSIVE!" Oh how arrogant.
Not the the term "liberal" was good for the statist either. I still think that the real Liberals are Libertarians.
Crikey! I fear I may have stumbled upon an unexpected area of agreement with the mises.org community.
We should form a bipartisan coalition to tackle newspeak in all it's forms. Onwards and upwards to the giddy heights of political integrity comrades.
Do you just lurk here or did BP alert you to this tiny reference to you? Perhaps a self-search on Google? :P