Open thread, May 17-31 2013

If it's worth saying, but not worth its own post (even in Discussion), then it goes here.

Liberal: 427, 36%

Libertarian: 359, 30.3%

Socialist: 326, 27.5%

LW used to be Libertarian dominated, but as it's grown it has gained more and more progressives.

That's interesting. I wonder what made me think that. Perhaps it was from reading plenty of old threads, or perhaps libertarian types are a more vocal minority. It's definitely a stronger part of the zeitgeist here than I'm used to, though.

0Viliam_Bur13y

I wish the next census to taboo "socialism". In my experience people use this word to describe three rather different things. a) An imaginary post-scarcity utopia where money is not necessary, work is voluntary, and all people are educated to love each other. b) Sweden -- either the real one, or its idealized imaginary version. c) The political and economical system led by Communist parties in the 20th century. And I hope the majority of those people meant something like (a) and (b), because honestly, I can't imagine how (c) could be related to rationality or truth-seeking or altruism or ethics.