link to original reddit post by /u/sussheiss


Just some thoughts I wanted to pass by you all.

I've come to the conclusion that politics is becoming increasingly enamored with people, rather than ideas. Trumpers, Marxists, Leninists, Maoists, Bernie Bros, and a few other groups have become personality cults, where those inside are so ingrained with the thoughts of a single person that they find themselves unable to disagree, even if their instincts tell them that they should be against that. Forfeiture of principles in favor of letting the poor starve because "X" says this is the way to fix society is one of the great fallacies of our time. Do I like some stuff Reagan touted? Yeah. Do I like everything her did? No. Yet, I feel the need to defend him, even if I principally disagree, as if drawn by a compulsion to align myself with the man, and not the principles. It's not jus Reagan, either. I've seen friends fall into worshipping Trump, AOC, Marx, and even Ayn Rand, agains theit better judgement, because they believe that they are infallible. I now wholeheartedly believe that one of the great troubles plaguing the world is the refusal to believe that politicians and businessmen are not infallible, that we must support all they do because they have done good in the past, or that one principle they tout can be beneficial. I suppose this relates to qualified immunity in the sense thatwe must not always believe not just elected officials, but philosophers as well. From this, I conclude that we must not continually vote the same people into office over and over, to become complacent with the status quo, and more importantly, we divorce the principles espoused by philosophers from the philosophers themselves, so we may become so entrenches in a singular belief system that we fund ourselves unable to justly and fairly judge the views of others. The Republican and Democratic parties have become the New American Religions, compelete with Pantheons of politicians to worship, and have become so far removed from their principles that they only know institutionalization. Don't let the Libertarians follow.