The Untold Truth About Liberals

I've met many liberals. I've talked to them, listened to them, and at times have argued with them. But through all of my experiences I've noticed that they all have one thing in common: They want change, but, more importantly, they are the very thing that they claim to hate: People with an over-simplified view of how the world should operate. In their minds, they are always the oppressed, and anyone who disagrees with their views is the oppressor. It's the only way that they can cope with the simple fact that they're mostly wrong.

Barack Obama is possibly one of the more liberal presidents America has seen in years, and it's not by mere chance that his main campaign slogan consisted of a single word: “change”. It's the main force that drives the liberal agenda. That single word allows people to romanticize their irrational ideas so that they can feel like advocates of innovation. Perhaps they should consider a change that builds, not destroys. 

With the word “change” as their banner, they move forward with their beliefs doing the best they can to change the status quo. They celebrate feminist ideas, promote anti-traditional marriage rhetoric, and condemn the rich all in hope of changing the system already set in place. They love the idea of creating a society flowing with the smell of sweet equality. But, according to them, the only way to accomplish this goal for total equality is to hurt the successful or obliterate the do-gooders. In other words: eliminate any person whom they don't like, or anyone who seems just a bit better than them. It reminds me of the words of Aristotle when the said, “The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal.”

It's popular among liberals to crucify those who don't agree with them, and at times they will play victim to acts that normally wouldn't offend anyone. A good story relating to this topic is about a woman named Mary Spellman, who was quite recently forced to resign her position as dean of Claremont McKenna College. The situation was brought about by a student protest, for in the students' opinion, the college had “not done enough to create a safe space on campus for students from marginalized backgrounds.” Meaning, of course, that the college didn't help people enough who were black, Hispanic, etc. As a response to these claims, Spellman sent out an email to one person in a sympathizing manner, wanting to discuss the issue even more so that they could “better serve students, especially those who didn't fit our CMC [Claremont McKenna College] mold.” In outrage over this line, students felt offended that anyone would assume that some people didn't fit in at their college, and the protest continued at the expense of Mary, who was forced to resign a few days later.

In conclusion, it's not that liberals want to be treated fairly, find solutions, or help other people. But instead their goal is much more shallow. Using oversimplified views, they rationalize anything they can that makes them feel better about themselves as human beings. They want to appear fluffy, sweet, and caring even though their actions hinder more than they help. They want reversal of power simply for the sake of change, not for the sake of morality. And I doubt if any idea on this earth is more dangerous for a society.

Stop Trying to Be Better Than Everyone Else...

If you look at any business then you'll undoubtedly see someone who doesn't do their job well. Whether we're talking about a cashier, a cook, a waiter, or even a car-hopper, the chances are that you've seen someone who doesn't have a freaking clue, or has absolutely no business being in their line of work. This is the world we live in... get over it. People everywhere suck. Don't worry though, there's also good news.

Because people everywhere suck at everything, it makes it easier for those who wish to excel. By simply showing up, you could be at the top of your class, workforce, business, or even profession. It's pretty sad. So if you want to be better than everyone else, just try to outdo them. But wait, there's more.

All of the above sounds great, but unfortunately it's evil to throw away your full potential. Being better than other people shouldn't be your goal in life. Since people are horrible at literally everything they do, it's easy to out-perform them at literally anything. So instead, you should be the most that you can be. Never stop until you know you are giving your work your all. By doing this, you have just become better than everyone else and then some while making your life incredibly amazing in the meantime.   

How to become a more rational and mature person.

An extremely important part of becoming mature is understanding that no matter how hard you try, you can never make someone be logical, and that you may very well be the one who is being illogical. Step back to analyze the situation, and don't be too vocal of your opinions unless you have all the facts. Also, never use your knowledge to criticize others relentlessly. Instead, try to understand their point of view so that you know their arguments or beleifs better than they do themselves.

History Analysis: Political and Economic Theories Going From One Extreme To Another

Populares and Optimates, Saxons and Normans, Republicans and Democrats; Political parties have basically been around since history began, and while the definitions may have changed over time, the overall ideas haven't. There will always be two parties of people who disagree with each other. Each will have their own narrative as to why they're right, and why their enemies are wrong. Each party usually gets a turn to put their theories to the test (this is also true in science, economics, religion, and almost anything else you can think of that involves people). But over time, each party learns to hate the other. As Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels concluded in their Communist Manifesto (please keep in mind, they were literally wrong about everything else), "Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps". Basically, tension grows between two parties until war breaks out.

People literally die in these struggles for power. A great example is the Russian Revolution. The Revolution started in 1917, and ultimately lead to the execution of the imperial Romanov family on July 16th, 1918, by Marxists (yeah, thanks Karl). Russia is still recovering from the effects Marxism had on its country. Now Russia is slowly becoming Capitalist (extremely strict Capitalism, but Capitalism none the less). It's almost as if they went from one extreme to another.

The Civil War had a lot to do with political parties too. Confederates were generally Democrat, and Unions were primarily Republican. Please note: These political parties are not the same Republican and Democrat parties we have today (They have more or less swapped definitions with each other over time). Republicans back in the day essentially believed that government should have power over the states, while Democrats wanted limited government controlled by the states. The Republicans believed the narrative that Confederates were traitors to their country for wanting to leave the Union, and Confederates believed the narrative that Unions were violating their states rights by not letting them leave the Union. Both sides were correct... kind of. As a result of the Republicans (Unions) winning the war, we are now seeing the effect of having a government that's too big, leading to conservative extremists who want to literally abolish all forms of government (Ron Paul supporters) and Liberal extremists who want government intervention in almost everything.  

Do you see a pattern? After one idea goes through its cycle, it's eventually replaced with an opposite theory. It's like a clock pendulum: Back and forth, back and forth. 

How People Continually Lie to Themselves...

People rarely understand why they don't like or enjoy something/someone. Most people have a gut feeling that's telling them something, but they don't know what it is, and they're lucky if they even know what it's about. When they do know what it's about, then they start looking for reasons to rationalize their feelings. It's actually pretty interesting when you think about it because it's almost as if people are literally making up reasons to try to solve a puzzle that they themselves made.

Here's an example,

You know somebody that you really don't like. When people ask you why you don't like that person, your response is, "I'm not sure, I guess it's just his (her) attitude."

A lot of people do this. It's quite common. Subconsciously, people try to rationalize their beliefs, even if they themselves don't know why they believe it. People ultimately lie to themselves by finding reasons to hate things that they don't like. 

Favor: An Investment That Pays Dividends.

Give someone something today and they'll remember it forever. It's true, favors buy power. The Italian Mafia did it, lobbyists still do it, and the concept has been shown to work numerous times. People have a tendency to repay favors, It's only human nature. Sometimes, people repay favors by doing favors even greater than the ones you did for them. It can almost be thought of as payment plus interest.

By doing favors constantly, you can get people to do random crap for you, right? Essentially, yes. According to a social experiment done by Dennis Regan in 1971, [1]  the force of reciprocity (exchanging things for benefit), is so strong, that most people feel obliged to repay favors from people, even if they don't like the person who originally did the favor in the first place. But of course, there are always some exceptions.

[1] Regan, R. T. (1971). "Effects of a favor and liking on compliance". Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 7: 627–639.

Debate: Not Always the Best Tactic

Let's face it, debating rarely changes the opinion of your opponent. You could literally disprove their idea/belief a thousand times, but overall, they will probably make excuses and disregard your arguments. Why is this? Honestly, I blame human nature. In the overall scale of things, people tend to value proving their ideas right, rather than actually believing in ideas that truly are right. No one wants to be wrong, so people subconsciously rationalize their beliefs in a way that makes them still seem creditable.

Keep in mind, I'm not saying that debate doesn't have an effect on people's beliefs, because it sometimes  does. Debating usually helps the undecided find the most plausible idea to agree with. But argument rarely changes the beliefs of someone who disagreed with you before-hand.    
 

Living Life as If It Were a Game of Chess...

Failure is usually the result of uninformed guesses and bad choices, and while this may not be entirely true for some people, it is true for most, depending on your circumstances. For years now, people have been making horrible mistakes that could be entirely avoided by analyzing the consequences of their decisions before they make them. Life is basically a complex strategy game, and simply requires you to think before you move. If more people lived this by this rule, the world would become an epic Utopia.

Finding Faults Within Yourself... And Mending Them.

Let's face it, nobody's perfect. We all have flaws, though some may not be as apparent as others. But we have the power to mend those flaws. It's almost like detective work: Your job is to look for clues of unwanted traits and habits within your person. Now mind you, this is no simple task. It requires open-mindedness and good character to find places where you can improve in everyday life. Using constructive criticism as a tool, you can start picking away at your faults almost instantly.

Now I'll say this again, all faults aren't as blatantly obvious as others, so you'll need to search for them. For instance, without realizing it, you may have a bad habit that drives other people absolutely crazy. This is usually the case for most people. Subconsciously, people do things that even they don't notice. Ask others what they find annoying about you (in a subtle way, of course) and try to get to the root of your problems.

Searching for faults in others is great too. You can learn a lot about what's considered acceptable just by analyzing others around you. Reviewing other people's faults and making sure not to have them is the best strategy for molding your very existence into a piece of art. 

Are The Wealthy Really The Cause Of Lower-Class Suffering?

There have been rumors pertaining to whether wealthy people are the root cause of economic decline within the lower-class, and this article is meant to shed light on the topic.

In today's populist, socialistic environment, people are refraining from becoming "too" successful financially, for fear of somehow taking part in the willful theft of income that is somehow meant for the lower-class. In the minds of some, there seems to be a direct relationship between some people gaining wealth, while others don't. There is simply no correlation.

I have personally read articles that try to justify high taxation of the wealthy, simply because they make more than the average John Doe. I have read articles claiming that raising minimum wage to groundbreaking heights will help everyone, including the employers. The deeper I dig, the worse it gets. Some people are of the opinion that evil corporations are keeping the cost of goods high, while keeping the cost of labor at an extreme and unjust minimal. Are these theories based on sound knowledge of economics and reason? Absolutely not. If you notice, the only people who support these theories are either poor, or have something to gain. Go figure.

Rich people are not the lower-class's enemy, but society is. Because in a free market, the only affect wealthy people have on the economy is a positive one. The earnings of the rich usually go right back into the economy. Whether dealing with companies, corporations, or individuals, you can almost always see a correlation between them and job creation, and/or accumulation of wealth elsewhere. Again, go figure.

So You Think Starbucks Is Expensive?

Eating is one of life's more enjoyable pleasures and people should try to make the most out of every meal. Restaurants aren't as expensive as most people make them out to be. Some are affordable while still remaining tasteful and delightful. Some places, like Starbucks for example, are thought of as expensive coffee houses with nothing served besides a bucket of whipped cream and a teaspoon of espresso. This just isn't true (except the part about the whipped cream... that's totally true).

A list from restaurantmenuprices.net shows the current prices of Starbucks' breakfast sandwiches. I compared them to the prices of McDonald's breakfast meals. They're relatively the same price... no joke.

Results,

Avg. Price: $3.46

Avg. Price: $3.61

Not as bad as you originally thought eh? Let's do the math. The average breakfast meal at Starbucks is only fifteen cents more than the average McDonald's meal. Sort'a makes you think. I'll take Starbucks over McDonald's any day.