Comment by ptr2voidStar | Hacker News Reader

Comment by ptr2voidStar | Hacker News Reader

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> Saying that political thinking, of any stripe, is about power is pretty much a tautology.

I never stated that (you did). I merely pointed out the fact that humans are largely hypocrites and duplicitous by nature. ALL interactions between humans is underpinned by power.

In the past, the power grab was explicit, nowadays said power is sought after behind the veneer of "civility" and "niceness".

It is basic human nature that I'm criticising. The left are just as bad as the right - but at least, with the right - you can see them coming, because they are mostly explicit (at least relative to the left).

The left are just as power hungry as the right, but are very well versed in this "we are nice, caring people" act - this is why I (a seeker of the truth - and nothing but the truth), am enjoying their dirty inner workings coming to light.

I don't think that quoting you as below substantially changes the meaning of what you wrote, and seems to very directly say that "the left" is "about power". As I said, this is tautological, but you present it as though it were a concealed truth.

> The left ... was never about equality and justice, it was always ... being about POWER

It feels more than a little reductive to attribute this behaviour to "the left" as a whole, when in fact it is a very small number of people. Perhaps you feel it is appropriate in your own context, but again this is a (common) presentation that purports to dismiss an entire "wing" of political thought, but actually just presents crude stereotypes.

Finally, I think the idea that the right present their attempts at power in a more naked fashion just isn't borne out by the evidence. Right wing policies are frequently presented as being dictated by either reason or common sense (often depending on the audience), and those of their opponents dismissed as unrealistic. This is the same kind of veneer you decry on the left, just a different colour - one that some find more appealing.

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