Next up on the RW agenda: Reinstitution of slavery in the USA...

[PCIntern]

first: "Voluntary", then "Mandatory".

You think this is "outrageous" or "outlandish"? Think again, folks. so you probably thought contraception would be off the table, and where are we now in the 'discussion'? They advocate sticking probes up your mother's, your sister's, your wife's vagina, for the good of the country (sic and sick). There is NOTHING "off the table" for these extremists.

[RZM]

1. What kind of slavery do you speak of? n/t

[PCIntern]

2. Every kind...leave it to them to be creative...n/t

[catbyte]

3. Next up: Debtor's Prisons & Indentured Servitude

[AlinPA]

4. I would think pre-civil war type.

[RZM]

6. What's the evidence that anything like that is on the table? n/t

[PCIntern]

9. Wow...

I suppose you might have trouble watching certain movies?

It was a clear hypothetical, only slightly sarcastic statement.

[RZM]

11. If you make a claim or prediction, you should back it up

If I'm missing some sarcasm here I'll plead guilty. It's not always easy to detect in text alone. But I was curious if anybody had evidence for an impending return to slavery. I certainly haven't seen any. If there's no evidence for it, what's the point of posting it?

And I watch movies just fine.

[AlinPA]

13. We express opinions. My opinion that the GOP would re-institute slavery is as credible as yours

that they would not try to do it.

[RZM]

14. Really? That's pretty funny

That's like saying an opinion that Obama would impose sharia law is as credible as one that claims he wouldn't.

There's zero evidence that any credible figure has argued for the reimposition of slavery, which in any case is specifically banned in the constitution. In the absence of evidence, opinions don't count for a whole lot.

[DCKit]

5. Dude, what do you think of our privatized prison system?

That's what it was created to do.

[ananda]

7. Yes, privatization is a rw scheme...

... to make extreme profits at the expense of workers.

[hifiguy]

8. Everything that is not mandatory is prohibited

and vice versa. That's a Repuke's idea of democracy and "freedom."

[malaise]

10. I've been saying that for a decade

You are 100% correct

[saras]

12. What kind of slavery? These kinds, that are already happening...

A prof from the U. of Massachusetts lists news stories and criminal cases

There's illegal immigrant slavery - already exists, repubs push laws supporting it except when anti-immigrant sentiment takes over.
There's the sex trade - repubs seem to prefer hypocricy on this one - a rigid, harsh prohibitory system that the wealthy can avoid easily.
There's domestic servitude - another "practice different than you preach", again polluted by anti-immigrant sentiment, which is why you often find this involving right-wing immigrants.
There's free trade zones, if they're still doing them - international slavery for industrial labor, importable here as soon as the economy is bad enough.
There's forced "volunteer" labor, like the "schoolkids as janitors" proposal
There's slave labor in prison, paid pennies or nothing for working for private corporations.


And then there's 24/7 BDSM "contracts", but that's a different sort of slavery, and one the far left approves of.

[nashville_brook]

15. the "far left" approves of 24/7 BDSM "contracts" -- gee, gotta link for that?

or is that just an all-purpose, no proof required smear against those aligned to the left of...you?

[saras]

16. Good luck finding someone to the left of me... but links, sure

The problem I have with left/right is that they meet around the back, in this case where extreme personal sexual freedom meets extreme libertarian dominance relationships.

Once you grant the idea of a contract governing sexual performance, I personally think you've crossed that line from left to right, but lots of people who live in that world don't think so - if they're leftists in other areas, they consider their position leftist libertarian.

Here's a nifty quote that sums it up for some people, from a board linked to later

Yeah, I'm with tkchrist on this. I'm as much a lefty free love social liberal as the next Vancouverite, and because what they do doesn't affect anyone else, I can tolerate it completely.

It is, however, wholly deviant and fucked in the head. I cannot accept it as normal, desirable or sane human behaviour. Because it is, I think, insane behaviour, I cannot even agree that it is between consenting adults.
posted by solid-one-love at 1:57 PM on October 1, 2006

Here's a thought piece - no grandiose claims, AFAIK
http://carnival-of-anarchy.blogspot.com/2008/12/grounds-above-all.html

and a court case
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/16/bondage-bdsm-consensual-slavery

this one is as "twisted" and "kinky" in regard to the left/right political distinction as it is in any other area... as though a tribe of actual fundamentalist Darwinists (not scientists, or supporters of evolution as theory, but devoted worshippers of the dead Charles Darwin)
http://antimisandry.com/blogs/lady-catherine/bdsm-abuse-sexism-317/

the right wing literally cannot comprehend human beings - "is he a psychopath or normal?" "dunno"
http://reason.com/blog/2008/08/20/when-does-a-slave-become-a-sla

another left/right/libertarian twisted in a tight braid
http://www.city-data.com/forum/politics-other-controversies/794777-bdsm.html

here's a good example of the left that disagrees
http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/article_comments/the_sexual_revolution_liberty_betrayed

and another, stronger one with better reasons
http://rageagainstthemanchine.com/2009/02/07/please-somebody-come-and-defend-kinkcom/

Dan Savage (thanks for the santorum), on the other hand, has no problem with it, just with bad execution
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2011/10/25/sl-letter-of-the-day-whos-the-slave

A long history of S&M law, where the author drags Nine Inch Nails in at the end in his attempt to simultaneously assert that sexual freedom is a right but too far is too far.
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/law/lwsch/journals/bclawr/42_2/01_TXT.htm

another thoughtful leftist S&M practitioner
http://sm-feminist.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html

I know, it's not the absolute pronouncement that the entire official Pravda line is "DO IT". But you're the one who postulated some sort of universal accusation on my part.

I think part of the problem is that there isn't a monolithic "left", there's a coalition of pretty different people, and there's a couple of leftist groups that are bothered by BDSM in general, or without extremely strong controls, around issues of consent. I'd put myself in that group. There are other leftists who are just as uncomfortable with it, but find it interesting or arousing. And there are leftists who try to stretch their leftism far enough to encompass their own sexuality even when it refuses to be PC. And there are people who aren't really "leftist" about a lot of things, but find themselves closer to that than anything else, or find themselves filed there by others for some other values. They're all "the left" to me, in the sense of a binary division (which isn't USUALLY the way I use the term).


Oh, and while we're at it, the right demonstrates that good is bad and bad is good, in the general case, just because. Enjoy.
http://reason.com/archives/2011/08/25/almost-everything-were-taught