this post was submitted on 02 Apr 2024
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chapotraphouse

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Yes. I'm definitely interested in learning more about leftism. I would identify as 50% liberal, 45% leftist, maybe 5% crazy libertarian.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (1 children)

45% leftist

Rookie numbers. Gotta pump those numbers up ;)

Welcome. People here can be a bit overly aggressive sometimes when they see someone posting from another Lemmy instance due to the high likelihood of trolling or bad-faith engagement.

I didn't get the impression you were engaging in bad faith so I don't know aggression is warranted yet, even if many of us disagree with you.

Personally I can imagine a context where a person is compensated for their trouble when donating, whether that be blood or bone marrow or plasma or kidneys. But in a profit-driven system it opens up a lot of potential for hyper-exploitation of vulnerable communities. As it is, the idea that people have to sell their body parts to survive gets normalized incredibly quickly once any regulations are pulled back. Someone posted recently an ad for plasma donation with a smiling woman saying she donates plasma to pay rent. Sell yourself or be homeless, effectively.

We also have a very low opinion of the New York Times, a publication that frequently manufacturers consent for war, downplays working class struggles, etc. So the ghoulishness isn't solely coming from the basic idea of compensation for donation, but also that it's a bourgeois rag talking about yet another way poor people can be commodified. The same rag that tries to tell us inflation isn't a big deal, that the economy is doing fine, actually-- why are the poors whining again?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Thanks for the welcome! I'm not trying to argue in bad faith. I think this scheme would help minorities and the poor disproportionately, so I'm hopeful I can convince leftists that despite the dollar signs involved this is actually a very good plan.

It seems to me that the monetary blood donation reward is poorly thought out and has a lot of problems that this kidney-selling system is trying to sidestep. In particular, I think this kidney system isn't going to encourage poor people to donate their kidneys at all -- it will only give a monetary reward to people who pay lots of taxes (the middle class+).

I have a low opinion of NYT also. I was onboard with (carefully) monetarily rewarding kidney donations already.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What parts of lefism and libertarianism do you agree with?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

An incomplete list:

Leftism

  • structural racism/sexism/etc. exists and is a serious problem that needs to be addressed
  • police as a concept needs to be completely rethought
  • we should tax the rich and give to the poor
  • free healthcare, maybe UBI even
  • The U.S. needs to stop interfering in the political systems of other countries

Libertarianism:

  • Privacy should be a human right
  • The DMCA is a disaster, DRM is evil, and copyright terms are way too long
[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Those two things you put under libertarianism are rather leftist, and not very libertarian as they actually practice their beliefs, see Milei

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Fair enough. So maybe I'm only 4% libertarian :)

My gut response when those things are challenged is "but muh freedom!" so it certainly feels libertarian.

Also, the left-of-liberal party in my country (NDP) disagrees with me on these matters.