How Leftwing is Master_Pedant?

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He can't even turn to the right!

I hope you realize that the back and forth was playful banter.

That being said, the matter gets kind of messy. I agree that radical ideologies are hard to impossible to square with reality. It's also true that many official doctrines are themselves pretty absurd as well, so take American exceptionalism. Very common ideology, but not really square-able with reality.

I was really just making the case that I was more ideologically interesting, NOT that I was more correct. I *could* end up at a position more correct than M_P, but that's going to depend on a lot of things.

Well, almost right. You have to recognize that much of northern Canada seceded due to mutinous polar bears. While many map-makers have refused to extend the polar bears any political legitimacy, the fact that the mounties have not taken back the land yet still weighs in the minds of many when assessing the size of Canada.

You think we would let those douchebears secede? I have news for you. Global Warming is a Canadian plot to destroy the Arctic climate and thus take back our land from those damn ice floe jockeys

Polar bears? You must mean those Godless Killing Machines who lure small children with cute teddybear poses and sugary carbonated drinks? Last I heard they were constructing an secret underwater nuclear weapons facility. They claim it is for the peaceful purpose of combating global warming in order to preserve their Arctic habitat. Suuuuure...

No one ever went into business with the best interests of their potential employers as priority one, that usually is becoming profitable. Now the best companies realize that taking care of their employees is actually good business, but unfortunately it's not a lesson that many of them learn. One of these days, when the statute of limitations is up, I'll have to tell you some stories about what happened to various employers of mine who tried to rip me off over the years, the damage I did to their profits far exceeded what simply paying me what they owed would have. Actually, it's kind of remarkable that I'm as pro business as I am given my employment history, but my experience with bad bosses and bad companies has been tempered by having had two entrepreneurial parents, and getting to see the benefits of small businesses run well up close and personal.

Often it's not so much the employer ripping the employee off as much as the employee realizing they are being paid to rip off the customer and take the flak with a smile when they become understandably irate.

Small businesses face natural social repercussions of bad behavior because owners and managers are often face-to-face with employees and customers. Big business owners and managers are able to hide behind impersonal bureaucracies, increasing the temptation to act poorly because distance shelters them from guilt. And we should face the fact that we wouldn't have efficient capitalism if all businesses were small. Things like natural monopolies and the economy of scale make big businesses an unfortunate necessity.

As it stands, US politics are so skewed and narrow that neither democrats or republicans begin to approach what could be considered leftism.