I'm pro-legalization, but more urgently pro-decriminalization. If you believe legalizing weed (as the cool cats call it) federally would increase the amount of drug use too much, I don't really know what to tell you. So, so many people are using it already, and so, so many people are in prison for it for really no reason. Ever since the Reefer Madness-era criminalization in the 1930's, which was rooted mostly in ignorance and anti-Mexican sentiment, the legal status of weed has been in limbo. I imagine the alcohol and tobacco lobbies are somewhat to blame, even today, as opening up new avenues for people to have fun would probably cut into their profit margins (which were looking rough for a while for tobacco companies, until JUUL came around of course). So, I am pro-legalization, but really what matters is getting the people out of jail who have stupidly long sentences (minorities in the South being especially affected). The War on Drugs (like the War on Terror) has not gone well.
I'm pro-choice, which really just means pro-legality for abortions. The whole "pro-choice" and "pro-life" monikers are obviously pretty ridiculous, and cast a pretty bad light on the pro-choicers. Unlike most people on this side of the issue, I try to understand where pro-lifers are coming from. I don't think most leftists in the United States really get what's going on. It's not so cut and dry an issue.
Picture yourself as a strongly religious person who believes fetuses are living people with souls, just as much as a born baby. It doesn't really matter where exactly they cut it off (like the heartbeat, or some other week-based measure). In the case of the woman's life being in danger, or if the baby is sure not to survive when born, then I don't really get the argument because someone's going to be lost either way. But for other, less extreme reasons, if you thought there were buildings around the country killing babies day-in and day-out, wouldn't you want to put a stop to it? I mean, even violent action makes sense at that point. That's the core of the issue for much of the right, as I see it. Now, I am not one of those people, it's just a Devil's Advocate position I think people need to hear. For the conservative, it's not about the woman's body if they think there's two people. Does one Siamese twin get to choose to kill the other, even if the other can't speak for itself? There's a deep ethical, spiritual question at hand.
I'm pro-LGBT+ rights. That's an easy one for me. Marriage, all jobs should be open to them, they should be a protected class, and so on.
I'm softly pro-death penalty. In my younger days, it was a lot stronger. I had more faith in our justice system at that time. Now, though, I obviously understand that a lot of non-guilty people are in prison in our country. A lot of people who are guilty of something minor are given multi-decade sentences. Things are not great. But, at the end of the day, I don't think getting rid of the death penalty is a fix to that issue at all. If there are innocent people in prison, giving them life without the possibility of parole isn't any better. Personally, I would prefer the death penalty if that was my only other option. The government could still ruin innocent lives even without capital punishment. So, the justice system is where I'd want to see changes, and probably a lot of retrials for older cases when things were even less reliable than now. I think things could be improved if people sentenced to life without the possibility of parole were actually given the option of the death penalty.
People who know me personally will know my stance on this one immediately. In fact, I'd probably be the person with the strongest view among everyone they know. I am absolutely pro-privacy. Governments and corporations knowing everything about our lives has been the gravest axial mistake we have made in Western society. By axial, I mean it's not like more obvious mistakes (like the judicial issues mentioned above, for example) where everyone knows something's wrong. With this issue, most people don't even mind! We've completely lost sight of it. Since 9/11, with the War on Terror (which was a farce), the PATRIOT Act, and now with social media and every service online being 'free' (meaning we pay with our data), that part of the foundations of our society are irreparably damaged. The idea that only criminals should be worried about surveillance is so baffling to me it makes me nervous.
Obviously mass shootings are an issue in the U.S., everyone is aware of that. We 100% need more stringent checks on who can have a gun and who cannot, and the small number of full autos remaining on the market should be made illegal. Otherwise, though, I do believe the 2nd Amendment is important. It's a hard issue for me to stand by, but I am more scared of the government controlling an unarmed populous than lone deranged citizens. We have the strongest military on Earth and they would use it if they had to. Look at how they treated Black Panthers, for example. They don't like seeing anti-Government types with guns, even if they're peaceful -- And I should append that here at the end of this one. I am pro-peace. I'd take the MLK Jr. route over the Malcom X route any day.
Let me know if you'd like me to cover another political topic, or if I need to elaborate on something, or if you have a rebuttal you doubt I've seen. Email me about it at laymanpang (at) mailfence (dot) com.