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Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Sure, to be an epic timmy, you can argue that any thinking can be an ideology. This would, of course, rob the word of any meaning at all.
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I wasn't, but I suppose you could. "I'm tired, so let's go to the earlier movie." "Oh, you ideologue." Yes, that would be stupid. If you'd care to engage with what people here are actually saying to you, that would be more interesting.
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A pure tax voter is amoral. He has no basket of notions for which he stands. He is not even voting on multiple considerations. He has one binary aim: Pull a lever that costs less. You're ascribing a level of thinking he has not reached. It's lizard brain voting.
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I understand your notional pure tax voter. I disagree with calling that "immoral." It's a morality. Bentham's utilitarianism is similar.
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If a pure tax voter has a true ideology, my cat has one. He acts exclusively in furtherance of getting something he wants. He has no belief or broader thought on the implications of his actions beyond the rote calculation of the moment.
Go ahead and call that an ideology if you like. Webster's may back you up. In a conversation with non-lawyer non-twits, however, anyone arguing that tax voters have ideals, or principles, would be met with:
"Shut the fuck up, Ed. You must be drunk off your ass. A tax voter's just voting his pocketbook."
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Your cat doesn't have an ideology, and doesn't vote. Your notional pure tax voter takes the irrational step of spending the time and effort to get him or herself to a polling place and wait in line to pull a lever to express a preference that almost certainly will not have any effect on whether or not he or she pays taxes. The number of tied elections is vanishingly small, although I almost voted in one once. I do think acting out of pure self-interest would also be a form of ideology, but I don't think I've ever met a human being who acts that way, so it's a thought experiment. The kind of people you're talking about are acting ideologically and pretending that they're not. Or rather, you're pretending that they're not.
