Wearing a Confederate flag should be as intolerable as wearing a swastika.

Celebrating Robert E. Lee is like honoring Erwin Rommel.

There’s a reason the “unite the right” rally organized over the removal of a Lee statue in Charlottesville: he is an ongoing symbol of white supremacy despite the lost cause myth perpetuated by reactionaries.

He was a cruel slaver who sought to permanently entrench the practice. There was nothing honorable about what he fought for and he doesn’t deserve the respect of a single person, much less that of the government.

Edit: Some added context for this piece of shit, from an account of one of the enslaved people he inherited who expected to be emancipated upon the death of their previous enslaver as promised:

[W]e were immediately taken before Gen. Lee, who demanded the reason why we ran away; we frankly told him that we considered ourselves free; he then told us he would teach us a lesson we never would forget; he then ordered us to the barn, where, in his presence, we were tied firmly to posts by a Mr. Gwin, our overseer, who was ordered by Gen. Lee to strip us to the waist and give us fifty lashes each, excepting my sister, who received but twenty; we were accordingly stripped to the skin by the overseer, who, however, had sufficient humanity to decline whipping us; accordingly Dick Williams, a county constable, was called in, who gave us the number of lashes ordered; Gen. Lee, in the meantime, stood by, and frequently enjoined Williams to lay it on well, an injunction which he did not fail to heed; not satisfied with simply lacerating our naked flesh, Gen. Lee then ordered the overseer to thoroughly wash our backs with brine, which was done.

State courts in both 1858 and 1862 denied Lee’s petition to indefinitely postpone the emancipation of his wife’s enslaved people and forced him to comply with the conditions of the will. Finally, on December 29, 1862, Lee officially freed the enslaved workers and their families on the estate, coincidentally three days before the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect.

Should have called it the Nintendo Top.

You’re telling me that shocking one’s nards on a hunch and writing it down isn’t real research?

I’m starting to think I know nothing about science. What have I been doing?

Conservatism is the theoretical voice of this animus against the agency of the subordinate classes. It provides the most consistent and profound argument as to why the lower orders should not be allowed to exercise their independent will, why they should not be allowed to govern themselves or the polity. Submission is their first duty, and agency the prerogative of the elite.

Though it is often claimed that the left stands for equality while the right stands for freedom, this notion misstates the actual disagreement between right and left. Historically, the conservative has favored liberty for the higher orders and constraint for the lower orders. What the conservative sees and dislikes in equality, in other words, is not a threat to freedom but its extension. For in that extension, he sees a loss of his own freedom.

Corey Robin: The Reactionary Mind

There’s also a fantastic book called The Reactionary Mind that’s the best thing I’ve read on conservative ideology. The newest edition has updated chapters through the Trump administration. It’s essential reading, in my opinion, for understanding what drives them.

He also has a great chapter shredding Ayn Rand to bits.

I think they just whittled down their ideology into the most privileged and selfish extreme. They do believe the insane things they spout like “tax is theft.”

I think you’re right that the rank-and-file libertarians don’t really think their ideology through or educate themselves on its flaws or alternatives, because it really is about identity. I’m pretty convinced that it always has been though. Conservative ideology is based on hierarchy, and they think the right outcomes result from having the proper social stratification— this is usually wealth-based.

“Transsexual” is kind of being phased out in favor of “Transgender,” I believe.

Remember when I said you weren’t up to the task?

Hit and run like a coward. You blocked me because you’re well aware that you’re unable to defend your position.

There are other people who have explained this to you already.

That’s stupid.

Gender and sex are not exactly the same thing, and you have to be purposefully obtuse to ignore the entire context of the conversation. I won’t entertain your faux ignorance. You’ve had multiple people correct you on this, and you haven’t responded to any of them, because you know you’re not up to the task.

If you say sex=gender, you are factually incorrect. Try again. If they were exactly synonymous, then words would also have a sex. Tell me where “telephone’s” genitalia are.

Who is rejecting biology?

Other than Dawkins I mean?

It seems like you’re confused between sex and gender?

But there’s nothing religious or dogmatic about what the FFRF did. Dawkins is just framing it that way because it’s how he became popular.

He’s just an asshole who constantly acts like an asshole, and people are done with his shit, so he’s having a little fit on his way out the door.

If anyone is acting “religiously” here, it’s Dawkins, who constantly lies and misrepresents medical science because it doesn’t match up the beliefs he grew up with.

Yeah, telling your superior to obey obvious ethical standards undermines their authority.

How dare he expect the highest court in the country abide by the same standards as the rest of the judiciary; doesn’t he know who they are??

A save-scumming wizard could be a great main character.

The whole idea of parading suspects in front of the media is a mockery of the principle.

Fuck the NYPD.

Right?

When your business model is an engine that creates desperate people with nothing to lose, you have to expect something like this.

I don’t play many free games, they’re too expense.

I’m sure Academie (or whatever they’re calling Blackwater these days) and the Pinkertons are about to see a lot of new business.

The Texas Observer is maybe the best paper in the State.

Ooh, then he got the satisfying little ping sound at the end of the clips!

Because reactionaries are inherently cowards— it’s the entire reason behind their worldview.

Afraid of society changing, so their bigotry isn’t as acceptable. Afraid of minorities being more competent than them and outcompeting them. Afraid of being ostracized for their beliefs. Afraid of using the apparatus of the state to improve people’s lives. Afraid of fake conspiracies and false-flags. Afraid of immigrants. Afraid of anything different and non-conforming. Afraid of non-compliance, afraid of checks-and-balances, afraid of the press, and of the freedoms that others enjoy. Afraid of alternate religions and worldviews, afraid of being laughed at by women. Afraid of other people’s self-determination and agency.

And they’re terrified of progress.