“Science isn’t about WHY. It’s about WHY NOT. Why is so much of our science dangerous? Why not marry safe science if you love it so much. In fact, why not invent a special safety door that won’t hit you on the butt on the way out, because you are fired.” — Cave Johnson (Portal 2)
On Elections
American elections do not represent people as well as they should. Local races matter a lot, but first-past-the-post pushes voters into defensive choices and keeps the two major parties more secure than they deserve to be.
I would like to see voting systems that make third-party and independent preferences less punishing. Ranked-choice voting is not magic, but it would be better than asking people to vote strategically forever.
On Ideologies
Conservatism
I do not think every right-wing idea is automatically worthless. The problem in the U.S. is that conservative politics often treats any loss of hierarchy as a loss of the country itself. That makes compromise difficult and progress slow.
Neo-Conservatives
“At its root is a disease that has infected our politics, one that will make some political leaders do anything – including lie and incite violence – to hold on to power. That’s what we’re seeing before our very eyes.” - Rep. Greg Stanton (January 6th, 2021)
I try not to write off whole groups of people, but the current neo-conservative style of politics is dangerous. It is too comfortable with anti-democratic rhetoric, grievance, and loyalty tests.
Traditional Conservatives
Traditional conservatism says it values institutions, markets, and individual freedom. In practice, it often protects existing power more than it protects ordinary people.
Tax cuts for the wealthy, deregulation, and resistance to civil rights do not land evenly. They tend to help people who already have power and make life harder for people who do not. I understand the appeal of stability, but stability is not neutral when the current arrangement is already unjust.
Liberalism
Liberalism is the tradition I am closest to. I care about individual rights, equal treatment under law, representative government, and the separation of church and state.
That does not mean I think liberal institutions are automatically good. They have to be maintained, repaired, and pushed when they fail. But I would rather improve democratic institutions than replace them with something more authoritarian in the name of speed or purity.
Leftists
I share a lot of concerns with the left: inequality, worker power, healthcare, housing, climate, and the way markets fail people when left alone.
Where I split from more radical leftists is usually on state power and economic centralization. I support a mixed economy: private enterprise, strong regulation, public services, and real redistribution. I am less convinced by systems that require concentrating too much power in the state and hoping it stays benevolent.
Capitalism
I am a capitalist with serious qualifications.
Capitalism is good at generating wealth. It is bad at deciding what wealth is for. Left alone, it produces monopolies, externalities, exploitation, and a political class that bends toward whoever has the most money.
That is why I support regulated capitalism with strong public services. Markets can be useful, but they should not be allowed to decide whether people get healthcare, housing, education, or a livable environment.
One area that bothers me a lot is publicly funded research becoming private property. If the public pays for knowledge, the public should benefit from it. Locking it behind patents and private access is hard to defend.
Populism
“It is fatal to look hungry. It makes people want to kick you.” ― George Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London
I do not trust populism.
It runs on a clean story: the people are good, the elites are evil, and politics is only a matter of defeating the right enemy. That story is emotionally powerful, but it flattens reality. You can see it in Trump-style politics and in some online left spaces. Different aesthetics, same temptation.
Anger can be justified. A politics built mostly on anger is easy to manipulate.
Socialism / Communism
“Truth And Good Are Values Proven To Cause Division.” — Delamain (Cyberpunk 2077)
I disagree with socialism and communism as governing systems. I do not think they have a good record of producing prosperity, freedom, or stable democratic institutions.
My issue is not that every socialist is malicious. My issue is the model. Like pure laissez-faire capitalism, it depends too much on optimistic assumptions about human behavior. It expects people with power to use that power selflessly. I do not think history gives us much reason to trust that.
Voting
Voting matters because real policy matters.
People need healthcare, housing, education, safety, and a future that is not being burned for short-term profit. The most practical way to move those things forward is to organize, build coalitions, and vote at every level of government.
It is not glamorous. It is still necessary.