This is me.

Welcome to my very first blog.

As I peak into threads and have discussions with other members of the forum I often find that I am considered a racist or misogynist or xenophobic or any other manner of derogatory names said both on the sly and directly. Nothing new there right? The "other side", that is those that I have discussions with and often against, seem to have this need to call their opponents names. Not saying that I don't on occasion do the same things. Though I try to keep such things to a minimum and restricted to words that are not about "isms" or "ists".

Anyways, more often than not I am called these things due to my support of Rights. In fact if you were to look through my posts I would bet that at the very least 80% of my posts are about Rights in some way or other. The Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The Right to Free Speech. The Right to Freedom of Association. The Right to Jury Nullification. Right to Marriage. Right to do whatever you want with your body (drugs, abortion, suicide) Etc etc etc. I support Individual Rights. More than anything else in the political world that is my goal.

Due to this I am often on the side that gets the most crap and generally are crap. Such as racists. I HATE having to defend racists. But whether you agree with it or not. Support it or not. Even racists have Rights. Just as many Rights as anyone else in this country. And I support their Rights. Why? Because Rights are the most important thing to me. And I would hope that if I were in a situation where my Rights were being violated that someone would speak up in order to help me retain my Rights.

And having a felony conviction I KNOW what it's like to have ones Rights taken away. For 24 years I've not had the Right to keep and bear arms. And until I lived in Idaho I knew what it was like to not be able to vote. All because I made some stupid decisions when I was young and dumb. Decisions which I regret because I recognize the harm that it did to the people it concerned.

Now, I've explained to people before why I am arguing the point that I am at the time. That I am defending peoples Rights. (usually with far more verbiage than that simple sentence) Lately I've been told that doing so makes me <insert "ism" or "ist" here>. That by doing so I am supporting them. Well yes and no. I am not supporting their cause. I am just supporting their Rights. But they don't seem to get the distinction. Or simply want to ignore it because, from my perspective, they simply cannot understand why someone would want to defend those idiots under any circumstance. At worst they don't want those types of people to have Rights. (something that I have been told on this forum).

Well, now you know. I defend their Rights for the reasons outlined above. It's not because I support what they are saying. It's not because I support what they are doing. It's because I recognize that Rights are universal. That Rights are meant to protect the minority. No matter who or what that minority is. And I am one of those people that would die upholding those Rights if I had to.

So, for a large part, where it concerns politics,

This Is Me.

Like me or hate me.

This Is Me.

 

[haymarket]

I wish you well in this venture and I hope it enables people to see you in the light you wish to be seen.

I do think that what the right of the political continuum sees as RIGHTS as things which others do not see as RIGHTS. For example the right to discriminate against protected classes of people. Now the conservative element will have other terms for it - the right of free association - the right to do business as one sees fit - the right to make choices - and other terms. But as a society we have made a group decision that such things done in the furtherance of discrimination against protected classes of people are either NOT RIGHTS or are rights we can no longer support because other rights have been deemed more important to the society as a whole.

Not to pick on you, but I do think that is fundamental.

The other issue is the individual versus society. Many conservatives love to take the view that society has no rights, that only individuals have rights ,and to assert that an individual right must take a backseat to a societal right is ridiculous because societal rights do not exist.

That argument was disposed of during the Sixties when our government passed many civil rights laws in the name of the individual and to improve and advance American society as a whole.

These basic conflicts in view and approach are fundamental to understanding the gulf between those on the right and the rest of America.

I enjoyed reading your post - and admire how you have come back and built a good life after a poor early start as a young adult. Good for you.

all the best

HM

 

[Trippy Trekker]

While we tend to disagree on issues, you consistently display your principled commitment to civil discourse, no personal attacks and minimal hyperbole. I have the utmost respect for you!
As for support of individual rights, I had the utmost respect for the late Jurist, William O. Douglas.
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_O._Douglas

 

[Hawkeye10]

The concept of rights got ruined by Victim Culture when we turned the word into a political hammer, which is a destruction of our way of life that we need to go back and fix.

I do so love your old school thinking here.

I applaud your honesty too.

 

[Grand Mal]

You're a liberal. Just come out of the closet, it'll feel better.

 

[Rexedgar]

I enjoyed your post/blog. Took some thought and fortitude. I ran into a German who had a business here in America. We never got into the citizen thing, but did compare some ideas about the rights of the individual as opposed to the rights of the group (society). He had observed that the first thing out of most US citizens mouths when there was a 'challenge', (not really the correct word), was "I know my rights"! He went on to state that his observation was that Americans were too much focused on the individual's rights and not nearly as focused on the rights of the group. His observation of his countrymen was the opposite. I'be been fortunate enough to travel and have some German roots. I agree with the German's observations.