Summary of political beliefs

[xxorange_gamerxx]

How I'd label myself: more-or-less a social democrat, broadly left-wing on most issues

Civil Rights
- Strongly supportive of civil rights (including the rights of indigenous people, LGBTQ+ rights, women's rights, etc.)
- think Canada has a responsibility for respecting & not infringing upon the rights of First Nations people
- Against prejudice & discrimination, including against Jews, East Asians & other groups where discrimination against them isn't always accounted for

Economics
- strongly support labour unions and think they are both important & necessary for a functioning society and the welfare of employees
- against income inequality; support regulation of business, anti-trust laws and breaking up monopolies/oligopolies so smaller businesses have a chance to succeed and customers are protected from exploitation
- support (when or if possible) taking away offshore tax havens to have more money recirculate into the economy
- broadly support free trade, and think it's significantly better compared to protectionism, but want the well-beings of non-rich people to be taken into account and not brushed aside in favour of billionaires or multinational corporations

Environment
- climate change is necessary to grapple with and is far too important for anyone to ignore
- rich countries must do everything in their power in order to reduce their carbon footprints & stop it from getting worse than it already is, and to not shift the blame onto poorer countries that do not contribute anywhere close to the amount of CO2; no exceptions

Healthcare
- support universal healthcare & government funding of it; business interests should not take precedence over the health & well-beings of other people

Criminal Justice
- support abolishing the death penalty & put more effort into rehabilitating criminals

Drugs
- support ending the war on drugs across the world
- support either legalizing or decriminalizing drug possession
- at the same time, support the regulation of drug companies that seek to make a profit off of getting people fatally addicted to drugs
- strongly in favour of rehabilitating people with drug addictions instead of placing them in jail

On Immigration, Refugees & Displaced People
- in full support of bringing in refugees & people who have been displaced from their homes into the country
- supportive of immigration regardless of which parts of the world they come from
- against rhetoric that seeks to demonize & stoke xenophobic fears over immigrants

Elections
- think they are important & should exist
- against first-past-the-post (FPTP) voting and more in favour of voting systems that can more properly represent the interests of more than two voting blocs

Governance
- against authoritarian governance (regardless of the self-declared ideology of the authoritarians in question)
- hard stance against fascism & governments with fascist tendencies
- complicated feelings on populism; on one hand, I think it's important and even necessary to rally support, but am against less inclusive versions of populism that discriminate against (real or perceived) foreigners or disadvantaged groups
- think political alliances are an important part of running an effective government & think working on your own is rarely effective without the support of others; this should not, however, lead to the civil rights of others being compromised

International Relations
- anti-war 99 times out of 100 (only support war if it is used in genuine self-defense against a more powerful country with imminent plans to invade & to never attack first or preemptively invade, especially not against countries that do not pose any real threat to us)
- think the United Nations is, despite it's notable flaws, a necessary and important institution (though still frustrated with how often countries with veto powers often stifle the decision-making process)
- against corporate & political exploitation of poor countries