What exactly is progressivism?

ShaneEnochs

ShaneEnochs

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I've been watching The Young Turks some because I like to have an equal balance of liberal and conservative information (because I think that's the best way to understand a topic), and they keep saying how being "progressive" is such a good thing. I've heard the term before (usually to substitute liberal), but I've read a couple threads here which makes it sound like something a bit different.

So I'm wondering: what exactly is progressivism?
 
I have no help except to point you to the wikipedia page if you haven't seen it already.

The term "progressive" is today often used in place of "liberal." Although the two are related in some ways, they are separate and distinct political ideologies and should not be used interchangeably. ...Social liberalism is a tenet of modern progressivism, whereas economic liberalism (and its associated deregulation) is not. According to John Halpin, senior advisor on the staff of the center-left Center for American Progress, "Progressivism is an orientation towards politics. It's not a long-standing ideology like liberalism, but an historically-grounded concept... that accepts the world as dynamic." [11]
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Also, I find it amusing that you think liberal and conservative information are somehow opposite viewpoints. The opposite of an ideology is not another ideology. The opposite is philosophy.
 
Progressivism is a more accurate term for what people used to call "liberalism". Classical liberalism is more akin to Libertarianism.
 
Fermli said:
I have no help except to point you to the wikipedia page if you haven't seen it already.



Also, I find it amusing that you think liberal and conservative information are somehow opposite viewpoints. The opposite of an ideology is not another ideology. The opposite is philosophy.
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Conservative: "I don't think gays should be able to marry because it destroys the ideal of the family unit."
Liberal: "Gays should be able to marry so that they have the same rights as straight people."

Opposite view points.
 
ShaneEnochs said:
Conservative: "I don't think gays should be able to marry because it destroys the ideal of the family unit."
Liberal: "Gays should be able to marry so that they have the same rights as straight people."

Opposite view points.
Click to expand...

Who the hell am I to either allow or disallow anybody else to "marry"...

Where does my point of view fall?
 
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Not a textbook definition, but from my experience in dealing with more than my fair share of progressives...I would describe them as know-it-all intellectuals who want to engineer almost everything (climate, education, reproductive issues, speech, etc.) They are as far from liberty-loving people as you can almost get because the LAST thing they want is to have everyone running around, doing as we please. In their opinion, freedom is what makes a mess out of everything and ruins their idea of a perfect society which is only possible if we follow their plan to the letter because they know oh-so-much better than anyone how a population should be managed. We have them to thank for over-regulation, eugenics, central banking, hate-speech laws, attempts to take away guns, single-payer health care, etc.
 
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By contrast, I view current liberals as those who merely want government to be the force for redistributing wealth from the upper incomes to the lowest...populism.
 
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