As far as I am concerned, there are no such things as a “fiscal conservative, social liberal, authoritarian.” Such trichotomies just do not exist. There is an underlying philosophy to all personal beliefs that is either consistent and well integrated with a central philosophy or schizophrenic, sloppy and ultimately subjective hogwash. The term “fiscal conservative” is just as meaningless as the terms “liberal” and “conservative” if we do not analyze these philosophies to see what underlies them. I think all of these goofy “tests” of yours fail here and that they therefore don’t even amount to a steaming pile of guts. They are necessarily normalized on someone’s (or a group of someones) ever shifting and highly subjective opinions. To be truly objective, they ought to be calibrated on one underlying philosophy which itself is anchored in objective nature.
Roughly, here is how I handle the thing:
I consider it self-evident and unquestionable that all humans are created equal, with a specific biological identity that marks them as of a certain kind of organism. Because of their mutually shared identity they are by nature given certain unalienable rights, amongst which are the right to life and freedom to express life unhindered by anything, save for nature itself, that fails to logically correspond with these rights. I consider anyone or anything that fails to correspond with our rights to be leftist (after all, they go against our rights, which are Right).
So then if you think it is the right of a government to by threat of weaponry force its citizens to pay rent on their own property through property taxes, then you are a leftist, no matter what else you think.
If you think I am philosophically or morally obligated to pay taxes on my property (or that I should feel such an obligation) simply because it is the law or because that it is simply the way revenues are collected, then you are a filthy leftist – no matter what else you think.
You may be a pro-life, Bible thumping Baptist, but if you think that the government has a right to take another human’s wealth, thereby taking part of his life, to use that wealth for the unearned benefit of some subset of the population, be it disadvantaged youth, poor students or purple-headed Martians, then you are a stinking leftist who deserves nothing but a lifelong ass kicking.
You may, on the other hand, think no one has a right to anyone else’s property, that no one has a right to force anyone else to rent their own property. You may even think the government needs to be cut down to a minimum. Yet, if you think I must be forced to accept sodomite marriage, to as an employer acknowledge and support the sodomite “spouses” of sodomites, then you are nothing but a disgusting leftist who doesn’t deserve even a second of freedom.
You may hate both sodomite marriage and being forced to pay rent on your property. Yet if you think it is right for a mother to murder her own unborn child, or that whether right or wrong public funds should in any way support this murder, then you are nothing but a stinking leftist who ought to be tied up in the square and left there to be whipped by the public until the public just plum wears itself out.
In all of the cases mentioned above the exact same evil takes place, the fundamental right to life and liberty is being violated. Whether by taking money, freedom or life itself the means of the violation is immaterial. If one violates the right or holds philosophies that support its violation, then one is a filthy leftist who by definition stands against what is Right.
That is how I see it. |
