[Urbane Guerrilla]

Aliantha, that's where the evidence takes you: the history of all the Left is the history of man's inhumanity to man, and of active calls for such inhumanity in the service of this or of that. Check Hitler, check Lenin, check Mao, check Pol Pot, check the hundred million or so slain in internal genocides by the most conservative estimates. This is the kind of thing that happens when sociopaths gain power, and they are invariably about extending government, which is a Left thing. Were government never enlarged or extended, would the world suffer so?

The Left has been exhibiting inhumanity since shortly after it was conceived, circa 1800. Before that time, the inhumanity was more in the realm of kings. The politics of the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and the early modern era have been aptly compared to a country club -- one run by a brute. Collegial atmosphere and beheadings, courtesy and carnage -- these were the order of the day. Eventually, a new wrinkle came along -- and the remaining royal rulers left the oppression business, and the big-government-to-control-everything set took it over. Political science being the fuzzy art it really is, the sterile perfection of "Everything not forbidden is compulsory" was never realized.

The left wing of politics gathered power for a century, getting tested in 1848 -- Paris Commune -- and turning truly virulent sometime after 1905. A hundred or so million dubious killings later, we arrive in our day. As I'm a decent enough man to be offended by pogroms large or small, I'm here to say this sucks bad enough you'd best reserve for yourself any killing tools you think suitable -- against the day, hopefully distant, the pogrom should come for you. You can bet it would come as a surprise; they always do. Otherwise they can't actually be managed.

That the world suffers is a big reason why I'm a conservative. It's also the reason I think the conservatives are a lot more humane than the radicals.

There's good "different" and there's bad "different." I am firm as a rock against the abuses of too much government -- it is an essential ingredient of the American republic's mindset, not so firmly established in the Australian. That's really the one thing I'm ever always on about.

And Shawnee isn't managing a rebuttal. She's locking horns with a mind here, and I don't think she's used to the idea yet. She's not coping.