Political Theory

Re: "Progress"ivism

Runyan — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:30:14 GMT

Most early progressives were originally Republicans and WASP fundamentalists. Even the atheists/secular progressives tended to have a fundamentalist christrian upbringing.

Re: "Progress"ivism

EmperorNero — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 11:54:00 GMT

Highly interesting indeed. What strikes me is how Progressives completely redefined such a large chunk of recent history, blaming the other side for evils they committed just a few decades earlier. Weren't Progressives the ones who liberated us from the dark ages of sexism and racism? I thought eugenics and raical ideology was favored by the right! Only right-wingers defend slavery, want immigration controls and women to remain in the home, right? Yet even educated people believe this. Public opinion is so far warped that you'd seem like some conspiracy theorist for stating undeniable historic facts.

"Progress"ivism

Wheylous — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 03:20:34 GMT

I began by reading this article:

http://www.thefreemanonline.org/featured/eugenics-progressivism%E2%80%99s-ultimate-social-engineering/

After being weirded out by the claims that were made, I decided to check out the sources. The sources are even scarier (at least half of the first one, through which I've read so far):

http://www.law.gmu.edu/assets/files/publications/working_papers/1004ExcludingUnfitWorkers.pdf

http://www.princeton.edu/~tleonard/papers/retrospectives.pdf

Wow! Scary stuff! Many progressives believed in a superior race and knowingly advocated the minimum wage as a way to make the unfit unemployable! And here I thought that "history" taught that capitalists were Social Darwinists!

I HIGHLY recommend these reads! Good material to have when someone says that improvements in conditions of labor were won by peaceful unions and people who just wanted to get by.