What exactly do progressives believe?

[Reality vs Adventure]

It seems like a lot of the things progressives believe are the same as what a liberal believes. Is there really any fundamental difference between the two? If you identify yourself as a progressive I would like to hear what your core values are. And those that oppose their values and specifically targeting progressives as @m76 has brought up in another topic. I would like to hear why you oppose them. 

A quick search brought up how progressives believe in social reform. And what is so wrong with that? I also believe there needs to be social reform in all sorts of ways. 

[Shagger]

To me, a progressive is someone who believes in social progress (hence the name). Someone who believes in principles and a social ideology that's forward thinking, looking to the future rather than standing firm with old ideals and maintaining the status quo. Ideals not built on religion, but science for example.

[The Blackangel]

This is my personal definition.

A progressive is someone looking to the future, and trying to fix today to make tomorrow better. We see the issues that are needing work, which includes the ones that are flat out broken, and we work on the ones most damaged first and then hit the small ones. We work to improve as much as we can. Brown grass today, hopefully green grass tomorrow.

A liberal is almost identical, but we also focus on individual rights as well. Not only do we try to make the grass green tomorrow, but we try to keep the rights of the gardener intact. Whether he/she is an immigrant or born a citizen is irrelevant. They have to have the same rights as the ones here who hired them or our social system is fucked. Individual human rights matter. But people are tending to abuse these rights, like the ones fighting the vaccine and spreading covid. We support their right to have an opinion, but sometimes that opinion is dangerous. Like the ones fighting against the vaccine.

 

So a progressive focuses on social issues, and a liberal focuses on individual peoples issues.

[m76]

On 8/26/2021 at 4:15 PM, Reality vs Adventure said:

It seems like a lot of the things progressives believe are the same as what a liberal believes. Is there really any fundamental difference between the two? If you identify yourself as a progressive I would like to hear what your core values are. And those that oppose their values and specifically targeting progressives as @m76 has brought up in another topic. I would like to hear why you oppose them. 

A quick search brought up how progressives believe in social reform. And what is so wrong with that? I also believe there needs to be social reform in all sorts of ways. 

Sorry, but I've missed the notification for this when it was posted.

There seems to be a misunderstanding. I don't oppose progress.

I think being progressive is the opposite of  being a traditionalist. ie.: "That's how it's always been, so why should we change it?" I think that is the dumbest mindset imaginable. My favorite quote from rick & morty is: 

Quote

Jerry Smith : Well, um, traditionally science fairs are a father-son thing.

Rick : Well, scientifically, traditions are an idiot thing

Which brings up another point: science. I also think that life should be governed by scientific truths, which include a lot of inconvenient facts, that some would like to disregard. These are the people I'm against. And these people also identify themselves as progressive. Guess throwing out science and basing society on whims is a kind of progress too, but not all progress is automatically good. Progress is change, but change for the sake of change is not progress. My definition of progress implies some measurable improvement in quality of life. The human rights movement was progress. Defunding the police is regression.

I hope that clears things up.

[Techno]

For me it's someone who believes in the three key factors of humankind, Life, Liberty, and The Pursuit Of Happiness. Progress is only true progress if it fits into one of the three. 

[The Blackangel]

The old idiom "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" is something we hear all the time. But just because it isn't broke, doesn't mean it can't be improved. My computer isn't broke, but it can be improved with some memory upgrades and possibly a processor upgrade. That is a small example, but it would be progress nonetheless. Sometimes it's not necessarily "fixing" something that is a progressive action. For those here that are parents, simply telling your child that you love them could fall under this category. You may not be fixing anything, but it can make you and your child closer when they hear that their mom/dad loves them. Progress doesn't have to be anything big and monumental that the whole world sees. Sometimes progress is small and private.

[Jayson]

I believe in some social reforms a lot, or most conservatives hate like forgetting the U.S. Confederacy as far as the public sphere is concerned.   However, on a lot of other subjects I favor anti-progressivism.  I feel like people need to change first.  Society cannot change people.  For instance, broken homes have destroyed the inner city cause social programs are anti-the-traditional family.

[The Blackangel]

10 hours ago, Jayson said:

I believe in some social reforms a lot, or most conservatives hate like forgetting the U.S. Confederacy as far as the public sphere is concerned.   However, on a lot of other subjects I favor anti-progressivism.  I feel like people need to change first.  Society cannot change people.  For instance, broken homes have destroyed the inner city cause social programs are anti-the-traditional family.

Did I fucking read that right?! You don't favor progress?! HOW GAD DAMN STUPID ARE YOU?!

[Reality vs Adventure]

6 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

For instance, broken homes have destroyed the inner city cause social programs are anti-the-traditional family.

[The Blackangel]

@Reality vs Adventure That was @Jayson that said that, not me.

[Reality vs Adventure]

4 minutes ago, The Blackangel said:

@Reality vs Adventure That was @Jayson that said that, not me.

I quoted him on your reply, now it looks like you said it...Not my intent

[Reality vs Adventure]

14 hours ago, Jayson said:

For instance, broken homes have destroyed the inner city cause social programs are anti-the-traditional family.

Here is a chart for demographics of people on SNAP benefits for single person households, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. I know it's just one program and I'm not about to look up each and every one, but this gives an idea on what people get food assistance. And of course there are also many other charts by the USDA which shows financial demographics and sizes of families. But this chart gives an overall demographic summary of individuals. Inner cities tend to be more diverse, but you can see the majority of people getting benefits are actually from white/non Hispanic, which would not reflect the demographics of inner cities. And that doesn't  show that social programs has anything to do with anti traditional family or whatever bull honkey you threw in there. So attacking social programs may not be a good idea if you are thinking that it's just for inner city or different ethnicity types. 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Reality vs Adventure

[Reality vs Adventure]

Here is some more information:

Who uses SNAP?

SNAP eligibility rules require that participants be at or below 130% of the Federal Poverty Level. 130 percent of the poverty line for a three-person family is $2,213 a month, or about $26,600 a year. Recent studies show that 43% of all SNAP participants are children (age 18 or younger), with more than half of SNAP children living in single-parent households. In total, 39% of SNAP benefits go towards households with children, 21% go to households with disabled persons, and 28% go to households with senior citizens.

According to demographic data, 36.5% of SNAP participants are white, 25.8% are African-American, 16% are Hispanic, 3.3% are Asian, and 1.5% are Native American.

How many people use SNAP in the United States?

As of December 2021, 41.5 million persons were participating in SNAP.

https://www.snaptohealth.org/snap/snap-frequently-asked-questions/

So how do those stats tie into inner cities and social programs being anti traditional family if the demographics on SNAP doesn't reflect the inner city demographics? That seems like an attack on city dwellers and those ethnicities.

[Techno]

Can someone scoop me in on why the document says Hispanic, multiple races, does that just mean mixed race (White + Hispanic, Black + Hispanic, Asian + Hispanic, etc.) or is there something more I need to know about? Nevermind I didn't know it's considered a ethnicity.

Edited February 17, 2022 by Techno

[Reality vs Adventure]

9 minutes ago, Techno said:

Can someone scoop me in on why the document says Hispanic, multiple races, does that just mean mixed race (White + Hispanic, Black + Hispanic, Asian + Hispanic, etc.) or is there something more I need to know about? Nevermind I didn't know it's considered a ethnicity.

It says not Hispanic, multiple races. I don't know why Hispanic is so segregated from all the races when it's European. I'm Hispanic and never know what race to fill out because I'm also English and a bunch of other European ethnicity as well as Native American. I'm gonna start checking every box for now on because I'm everything.