What, the devil, do liberals mean when they say, " Everyone is equal, everyone deserves equal rights" ?
Are they really implying that everyone is identical? That there are no such things as superior and inferior? And why does everyone deserve equal rights? Do liberals even follow through with this? Do they believe that a layman should have an equal right to perform open-heart surgery on a patient just as much as a certified surgeon does? Do they believe that rapists and killers should have equal rights just like a law-abiding citizen does? I mean, everyone is equal, right? We are all part of the " human race ".
Almost as foolish as those folks who insist on making distinctions between superior and inferior – and then insist in turn that they are the yardstick by which these things are to be measured.
This has nothing to do with blank slate. This is a citizen’s legal standing at birth.
You have exactly the same rights as the heirs of the Johnson family.
That’s not what they mean; " Everyone is equal " quite, literally, translates into " Everyone is identical, everyone is the same ". That, of course, is malarkey.
" Everyone deserves equal rights " means that all should be treated the same. A thuggish ignoramus should have the same rights as an eloquent and distinguished citizen who contributes to society.
This is all part of a nihilistic, life-denying impulse - an impulse to invert reality into unreality. A leveling of mankind into an amorphous paste, oneness, or in this particular case " equality ".
You ask what they mean and then when I suggest two possible intepretations, you claim to already know what they mean. Okay, Phoneutria seems to be right.
We’re all the same at birth? Same size? Same color? Same gender? Same strength? Same potential? Hmmm
"That there are no different birth rights for being born in a specific class, sex, race, etc. " Well, actually, that depends on where you go. Some places don’t abide by those artificial legalities. In addition, this doesn’t account for why liberals think people are, inherently, equal or why people should be treated equally.
“Treated equally under the law”…
…is what it was.
“Equal opportunity”…
…is what it was later (communistically) promoted into, and
“No difference”…
…is what is required in order to establish equal opportunity.
The idea was (and is) to average all influence from the masses so that only the average has to be dealt with by the chosen. It is a strategy for socialistic/communistic governing (which is why “the liberals” promote it while at the same time demanding absolute authority over everyone else). And it demands an order of chaos; necessary conflict, inequality, and suffering.
“Equal opportunity for everyone” means “no opportunity for anyone”… to challenge the overlord.
We’re all the same at birth? Same size? Same color? Same gender? Same strength? Same potential? Hmmm
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Same rights.
I assume you are talking about liberalism as practiced in the US or Europe.
Places without these “artificial legalities”, by which I assume you mean democracy, are probably out of scope for this thread, since you started it with “Why liberals…”, but you started it, so feel welcome to provide a case.
It does. It is because without [birth] equality, there can be no liberty.
Sadly, there are those that believe as erik describes, thankfully they are the minority. They seem loud and powerful only to those in the minority that are the exact opposite.
In the statement “everyone is equal”, “equal” means “identical with regard to the natural or God-given rights possessed”. In the phrase “equal rights”, “equal” means simply “identical”–though in the statement “everyone deserves equal rights”, the word “rights” does not refer to natural or God-given rights, but to positive rights–i.e., rights posited by human legislators. In fact, the latter statement means so much as “everyone has the natural or God-given right to identical positive rights.”
[size=95]“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed[.]” (The United States Declaration of Independence, Preamble, with my emphasis. Note also the mention of an “equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle [a people]” in the Introduction.)[/size]
With regard to your example of open-heart surgery, a distinction can be made between means and opportunity. Liberals tend to believe everyone should have the opportunity to become a certified surgeon, but this does not mean everyone should have the means–e.g., the talent. And as for rapists and killers, liberals tend to believe disregarding other people’s natural or God-given rights implies waiving such rights oneself–though not necessarily the same right: a murderer need not receive the death penalty–which would require him to waive his right to life–, but may instead receive a long prison sentence–which requires him to waive his right to liberty.