If you are like me and a bit of partisan political commentary from a political nobody just makes your day, then I am sure your well versed in the ins and outs of the political blogosphere. Now I know it is in the very nature of modern political commentators to reject allegiance to any particular ideology, but I am starting to question if most of the writers I am reading even actually subscribe to anything at all. It is easy to characterise oneself as either right wing or left wing, maybe even liberal or conservative, but what does that really mean to the writer? Reading some of the “conservative” and “liberal” writings on the internet, I wonder how many truly subscribe to the values of their proclaimed political leanings. Is there anything distinctly conservative or liberal in their writing?
There are libertarians and classical liberals that write about social justice and the modified provision of a welfare state. They pitch free market laissez-faire economics while suggesting policies that are more a reflection of some kind of bastardisation of social liberalism and Keynesian economics. Just last week I read the post of a self proclaimed “aggressive libertarian” talk about the “right” to education! Maybe I missed something but how in the blue hell could the right to education be construed as a negative or natural right? There are conservatives talking about progress and reform and the importance of individual responsibility. When one believes in atomism and egoism to this degree, yet still hammers the importance of law and order with the zeal of a fundamentalist, what is the point they are a making? Their criticisms and suggestions lack coherence to the point of being devoid of any value altogether.
Maybe it is symptomatic of liberalism to strive for the development your own opinion to try to assert your individuality, distinct from the political dogma of ideologues, but there is no point to contradicting oneself at every turn. I’m starting to wish every blog was accompanied with a statement of belief and purpose so I could ascertain what it is exactly the writer is proposing.
/end rant.
