Lawrence Lessig's Pro-Conservative/Libertarian talk

[Vendetta]

Lawrence Lessig, a activist and proponent of relaxing copyright restrictions and open-source technology (and generally regarded as a liberal,) gave a talk at TEDxNYED where he pushed the notion that it has been mostly conservatives and libertarians who have historically been proponents of encouraging innovative openness and creative culture.

Now I'm not conservative by any stretch, but I think he's spot on with regards to these things. And personally I have been hugely disappointed in Dems for their ridiculous stance regarding copyright, the DMCA and ACTA.

The full talk is here (http://blip.tv/file/3309463) (it's about 20 minutes, but it's worth it once he gets going.)

And if you liked that, here's a talk he gave at TED back in 2007, again on the topic of laws that restrict creativity and how that damages us all.
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[Chriz]

I get frustrated by the conflation of conservatives and the religious. It's not entirely unfounded, but it's also only part of the picture.

You can be socially conservative and/or fiscally conservative. A social conservative is indeed your religious Republican type. But many self-identified conservatives are fiscal conservatives, who are in no way religious. Fiscal conservativism and libertarianism are highly overlapped. Fiscal conservatives and libertarians feel big institutions are inefficient, prone to corruption, and ultimately unhealthy for society. This means the bigger a business gets, the less incentive it has to address your concerns or work to your benefit. Libertarians feel government -- the Federal government in particular -- is the epitome of the "big, corrupt, inefficient, unhealthy" institution (something that liberals seem to be in denial about). Fiscal conservatives often agree with libertarians, but social conservatives are more agnostic on the matter. For example, many fiscal conservatives (and certainly most libertarians) are opposed to the concept of the draft. Social conservatives tend to be more in favor of it. Social conservatives want to pass laws banning statues of topless women in court houses; fiscal conservatives -- regardless of how they feel about marble boobehs -- think that that's way too trivial an issue to be spending precious public funds on. Social conservatives favor laws restricting "smut," while fiscal conservatives tend to favor free speech laws (since it's cheaper to just let people say what they want).

Fiscal conservatives are as much at odds with social conservatives as they are with liberals, possibly more. I wish people understood that.

[Zombie]

You can be socially conservative and/or fiscally conservative. A social conservative is indeed your religious Republican type. But many self-identified conservatives are fiscal conservatives, who are in no way religious.Fiscal conservatives are as much at odds with social conservatives as they are with liberals, possibly more. I wish people understood that.

Just to throw a monkey wrench into your argument, Im both a social and fiscal conservative who is also an aethiest.
-Z

[Chriz]

Just to throw a monkey wrench into your argument, Im both a social and fiscal conservative who is also an aethiest.
-Z

Out of curiosity, what's the basis for your social conservatism?

[Vaultdweller]

You can be socially conservative and/or fiscally conservative.

Fiscal conservatives are as much at odds with social conservatives as they are with liberals, possibly more. I wish people understood that.

I understand this is the rather silent chasm through the conservative sector that has so detrimentally hampered its effectiveness as of late.