So I did a litle research on
@Jonah.
I used to consider him perhaps the most intelligent poster in here. And the best Chess master.
However, the outrage about being referred to as "another progressive hack" has justification enough. I believe he has status like that of SirKickyAss whose family I know, and like Rev8, and even like Sir Jason Leaderguy, above even Colton.
He's not exactly the guy in the trenches in the grand Cause, and while I didn't dig into his posts much, he is correct about his more standard conservative bearings, although I fail to understand the outrage. I agree with his assessment of
@Red as being one of the more thoughtful and sincere posters in this site, although
@One Brow is the most intelligent and consistent, all with a dry sense of humor.
But really......srs..... no one who comes in this site for political discourse need take offense at being termed "a progressive hack". Perhaps most would wear that charge like a badge of honor, particularly coming from me, so maybe it just hasn't dawned on Jonah yet.
I consider most "mainstream" republican proponents in the US to be "progressive hacks" just as well. Mitt Romney deserves the charge as did John McCain. Trump is a political ignoramus who just doesn't care about political causes, but he's not far from being a "progressive hack" either.
A progressive hack is a believer in human intelligence and our capacity to organize a better future through management of our affairs, not only in business but in governance. The movement arose as a reaction to the unguided and unmanaged human liberty originally claimed by Americans after defeating the British. The British never gave up on America. They have always had grand discussions in their native English parlors after dinners about what to do to preserve their way of life.
The answer has always been to educate the rubes of America on better ways of managing affairs.
I believe John D. Rockefeller enjoyed favorable relations, and learned much from the more experienced of the Brit society, but was essentially an "American Independent", much like Trump is today.
Jonah, is, I believe something well above the middle class of Spanish or European standards. As such he has had the very best education, drawn of course from folks informed by the best Britain has to offer. My first wife was a Rhodes Scholar. Very interesting how they teach. My second wife was an employee of the Council on Foreign Relations. I got the gossip first hand, so to speak.
Progressive organizations dominate in America in every walk of life, in every Profession. In Europe, progressive institutions have of course been the standard for over a hundred years. The only way the Brit royal family has maintained the older tradition is by being the most effective instrument for progressive policies the world over. Being useful to the interests, so to speak, which certainly are not monolithic unless somehow you can imagine either God or the Devil is in charge of us all.
But the reason I differ from the progressive ideas is simply this. I don't have that level of confidence in our experts, and I see where we mess up more than we can really afford.
I think the basic idea of the American Revolution is a better idea.
Government, and the power of office that goes with it, is perhaps the addiction we humans should most fear. We need to limit it as much as we know how. We need to educate the ordinary people to be self-reliant, and keep our natural resources available for new applications
This is, and perhaps will always be, anathema to the upper classes.
But don't mistake my meaning. Marxism, and other ideals of governance, have always been lies, except for the American ideal, which we have never applied very well. Perhaps it is a lie as well. Perhaps there is no ideal that can save us humans from ourselves.
No matter what our ideals may be, as we present them in polite society, we are and always have been liars, just using rhetoric for our own purposes.
IN this site, I have chosen to appear as a sort of Devil's Advocate, hoping to glean a little edge of understanding from my discussions with whoever. I annoy some I know.
Anyway, I am astonished at Jonah's reaction, but please be assured, I have no intention of being a bore. Well, for some of you, who are in no frame of mind to be disturbed, perhaps that will just have to be "the way things are".