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Because this is Hacker News and we can have opinions with more nuance and respect people with intellectual differences to improve our understanding of the world...

we should also note that, at its best, there can be wonderful things that you get from certain principles of order and uniform civil codes and right-wing thought, such as the Rule Of Law (Not Of Men) and the idea of Equality Under The Law. but we shouldn't.

These principles, if combined, mean that no one is unfairly oppressed by the legal system and the government (that most powerful of all potential oppressors) and that no one is favored with special rights and privileges and handouts. This is not the sole essence of freedom in and of itself in isolation, but it's an important component of the foundation of freedom, and a powerful check on dictators like Mussolini. Our strong tradition around these principles here in the Anglosphere is why our tyranny rate has been so incredibly low for centuries.




If you are attributing to me any disrespect toward conservative members of HN, please point out the words. We need to be able to say things that are critical of ideas without people jumping to the conclusion that it's personal disrespect.

I absolutely agree that order and many other ideas that are more associated with the right, such as the free market, are extremely valuable. I don't happen to agree that everything you named is actually right-wing, including the rule of law, equality under the law, or resistance to tyranny. As a simple example, conservatives in the US supported slavery and segregation for centuries, and still work to limit voting and other rights of minorities.


Nah, I'm not accusing or anything. though I should have stricken the "because we shouldn't." from the previous post but didn't because I was on the edge of falling asleep and editing nonlinearly and missed it. But if you can compare a wing to Mussolini I can surely point to the virtues, no? :)

> conservatives in the US supported slavery and segregation for centuries

while progressives in the US only supported eugenics and forced sterilization of minorities - thank God that's behind us, amirite?

> and still work to limit voting

You mean that they work to limit voter fraud? ;)

> I don't happen to agree that everything you named is actually right-wing, including the rule of law

Look at the current American right wing's complaints about President Obama and the rule of law. They've been complaining since his administration railroaded the GM bankruptcy settlement through the courts and gave big-money to the unions (reliable Democratic campaign contributors) instead of the senior bondholders who had paid extra for the legal right to first dibs. Later, it became a question of executive agencies being Excessively Creative with the way they wanted to enforce things: The use of the Clean Air Act, originally passed to clean up acute and toxic pollution like acid rain, in order to fight global warming, a gas which has always composed a substantial portion of the atmosphere. Various maneuvers regarding Obamacare, like whether an exchange established by the federal government should count as "established by a state". Immigration laws.

Is this noise at least as much situational whining as it is right-wing principle? Hell yes it is. Normal in most parties, obviously - one of the reasons they need each other to be healthy, and keep each other honest.

I have no idea whether the right wing of India (which sparked this thread) does the same. I won't dismiss the idea out of hand just because they're being dinged as 'right-wing' and they're pursuing uniform civil codes (though the allegations of being hostile to religious freedom will in fact bother me).




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