• MystikIncarnate
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    8 months ago

    Honestly, I can’t keep track of the constantly changing definition for what a conservative represents.

    Right now, I just equate conservative with capitalist and move on.

    • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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      8 months ago

      It always makes me laugh how conservatism - the idea that we need to conserve and not change, radically changes more than other ideologies.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It really didn’t start changing until the 2010s when it was hijacked by extremists. Before that, conservativism was a pretty consistent ideology.

        • Ragnarok314159@sopuli.xyz
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          8 months ago

          The hijacking of the Tea Party movement and what happened afterwards was a watershed moment for us in the USA. And we failed miserably.

      • MystikIncarnate
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        8 months ago

        Well yeah, conserve the world order. The rich exploit their lessers to get more rich.

        Unfortunately a lot of what they’re trying to “conserve” is an ideal of what society was hundreds of years ago.

    • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Everyone in the civilized nations of the global West is basically a capitalist in effect. If you participate in the economy at all, you have engaged in the basic functions of capitalism.

      IMO you are only not a capitalist if you lead an alternative lifestyle, like commune hippies or other groups of non-property-owning collectives. Or maybe you could perform a chant of “My personhood disavows the morality and validity of this structure requiring this transaction” whenever life needs you to buy something.

      • MystikIncarnate
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        8 months ago

        I may be participating in capitalism, that shouldn’t imply I believe in capitalist ideals; the same way that someone can disagree with communism living in China. They’re a part of the system, but they don’t necessarily believe in it.

        To me a capitalist is a philosophy of profit over everything. That everything and everyone only has value based on what profit they can generate. That the more wealth you obtain the more successful of a person you must be.

        Being a successful human has a lot more to it than accumulating wealth. My value as a person should not lie solely in my ability to generate revenue/earnings/profit.

        I live in a capitalist society. I am not a capitalist.

      • Selkie@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        You’re not really a capitalist unless you own something that makes you money without you being there

        • RaoulDook@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I don’t agree with that opinion, but if that were true, then everyone with a savings account or retirement account would be in that category.

          I’m in the capitalist category either way and I celebrate the benefits it has brought me and the society we all live and prosper in. Life is good in America and I wouldn’t trade it to live anywhere else at this point.