Gorbie's Journal: Repost of something Trolling4Dollars had in his journal

I am reposting this because I thought it was a great post, but I was unable to comment because comments were disabled.

I disagree with this post almost in it's entirety, but it is a helluva rant and deserves a chance to be discussed.

Trolling4Dollars, if you make it over here, I think the ongoing debate over political worthiness when it comes to philosophy is an interesting one. I will respond to the post with comments later.

Right now this is just a repost of a post I made in Twirlip of the Mists journal. I will (if I ever care to) try and expand on it. Since I don't care about politics all that much, it will probably take time. But, hopefully this document will be useful when going up against some particularly unpleasant anti-libs:
At this point it's just a personal thing I have against Twirlip and his fans. I'm not here for debate, I'm here to taunt and jeer. I highly dislike anyone who believes the following:
-Liberals are bad or misguided people
-Open source is bad because it's "bad for business" (at least the way you define business which is really more chicanery with smoke and mirrors)
-Socialism is bad because it hurts business ...and I also dislike anyone who believes these lies:
-Capitalism is good because it makes everyone wealthy
-The United States the greatest nation on the planet
-The war in Iraq is an anti-terrorism campaign
-President Bushboi is a good and honest man
It is my right to defend what I believe in, just as you defend what you believe in. In general conservatives are so arrogant that they actually believe there is only one way to do things: their way. Trollip subscribes to this because he believes in the concept that there is only one "truth", one way: his way. I am only being as arrogant about my beliefs as he is, yet somehow, conservatives seem to think this is a bad thing. I don't unsderstand why since I am only aping EXACTLY how you behave towards liberals.
If someone wants to debate these things with me, they have come barking up the wrong tree. There is no debate. I have no plans to be persuaded. Just as there really is no civil or logical debating with any of you. You are incapable of this. You have no plans to open your minds to any other way of thinking. Your sole goal is to persuade everyone else that you are right. I've never once seen any of you change your mind on something and swing from the right to even just the center, no matter how wrong you may be. This is because you never will. You hold to your stubborn idea that there is only one way, one answer. In general, it's capitalist imperialism that you believe in.
I have my beliefs and they will never change, just as many of you have your strong beliefs too. However, since mine directly oppose yours, they must clearly be "wrong". In your view, I need to be "educated". And if I don't change my mind to your way of thinking, then I am "arrogant", "ignorant" or at worst, "an asshole". it works both ways baby... I could easily apply the same terms to you.
Even though we (liberals) have opposing beliefs to yours, we are going to just as stubbornly hold to them no matter what we are told. Simply because, as human beings, we have our own best interests at heart and the left is much better at protecting me than the right will ever be. I'm willing to admit that I am thinking of what benefits me. How about you?
On another note:
Here's my answer to Trollip about a "challenge" he posted a long time ago. He claimed that liberals have no idea what their beliefs are. Well here's my answer, more or less in my own inimitable fashion:
Liberals accept the fact that many systems and concepts are constantly changing in the world on all fronts. We believe that in order to cope with those changes, it is necessary to tolerate even the most incompatible concepts as long as they don't bring any harm to bear on individuals.
When I use the word harm, I speak of protecting the guarantee of a certain baseline level of the quality of life that EVERY human being is ENTITLED to. If something threatens this guarantee, that something MUST be dealt with. Whether the tool is discussion, politics, technology, medicine, etc... Some examples of threats to the individual: war, famine, greed (corporate gain at the expense of those who will never attain the wealth of the owners), corruption (the collusion of conservative politicians with big business), racism and nationalism. These are only a few examples of what I stand against as a liberal. This means that I am FOR peaceful negotiation when applicable and a hands off approach when peaceful negotion fails. I am FOR providing foreign aid to countries that are in need and ask for help, with the aim of leading them to independence. I am FOR regulations that place the average citizen's needs above that of the corporate greed. I am FOR the in depth investigation and dissolution of the ties between politicians and business on all sides (left, center and right). I am FOR the counselling and imprisonment (if counselling fails) of racists who believe that their race is superior to others. I am FOR the destruction of the concepts that one country is better than another and the replacement of those ideas with the concept that we are all the same. We all come from the same place: planet Earth. The world is full of so many other problems, that this barely even scratches the surface. While conservatives pay lip service to their opposition of these same things (and seeming support of some of the things I said I was FOR), their actions betray the true core values of conservatism: every man for himself at the expense of all others. That's what we're doing now in Iraq.
This is by no means an exhaustive definition of what it is to be a liberal simply because being a liberal is a BIG JOB. To be a liberal means to strive for an unachievable goal: Complete and total fairness, equality and an equal baseline standard of living for every human being on the planet. This is a difficult task because we ourselves are battling our own inner flaws to try and squash down our own tendencies to greed, fear, anger and selfishness. But that IS the human condition and what I state here IS the road to betterment. I could write for days about what it means to be liberal...
Some basics:
-It means being honest with yourself and realizing that mankind is YOUR business.
-It means that YOU are responsible for everyone around you.
-It is YOUR responsibility to make sure that people less fortunate than you get their fair share of what you have, no matter how little you can afford (not out of greed, but out of ability) to give of yourself.
-It is YOUR responsibility to take people to task when they are not willing to do their fair share for the betterment of others.
-And especially, it is YOUR responsibility to tear down and stand in the way of the systems that would try and take these guarantees away.
Claim all you want that the US is a great country and that capitalism is the best economic system in the world. You still can't claim to have eliminated all the ills that exist in this country and you haven't even touched the world yet. You also can't claim that conservative thought isn't what is responsible for many of the problems that the less fortunate experience. You can't claim that all of your efforts to stand in the way of gun control AREN'T the reason that we have the most violent crime perpetrated with guns in the world. You can't claim that the conservative penchant for aggression (whether in discourse or on the battlefield) isn't responsible for giving our society an uglier and more selfish demeanor.
One last aspect that I will mention of what it means to be a liberal is that we try to clean up after the messes you conservatives make when you are making a grab for yet more profit... Like what's going down in Iraq right this minute. We'll be apologizing to the world for the terrible actions of our government for decades.