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--- a/.md/thoughts/society/steelmanning-liberals+conservatives.md
+++ b/.md/thoughts/society/steelmanning-liberals+conservatives.md
@@ -1,4 +1,24 @@
+*Better articulated* [*here*](/static/media/Conservative-Liberal-Socialist.pdf)
 
+I find it necessary to remind myself lately that everyone, no matter how
+crazy they seem, generally arrived at their opinions through good
+arguments. It's probably true that most people don't, and we really just
+arrive at our opinions by random osmosis. But that is a depressing
+thought, and I would like to believe otherwise...
+
+I believe strongly in steel manning oppoising arguments. You should
+never feel too strongly about something that you can't argue the other
+side of, because there's a good chance you have a blindspot.
+
+In both definitions, I will try to focus on just those qualities that
+all in the American right/left spectrum agree on. So for conservatives, I tried
+to make a definition that includes the far-right (plutocrats, monarchists,
+theocrats, authoritarians, etc.) and vice versa for the far-left (socialists,
+communists, etc.)
+
+Full disclosure, my own sympathies tend to be with the left, although
+I'm a strong believer in tradition, family, and fiscal
+responisbility that tends to be associated with the right.
 
 ## American Conservatives
 
@@ -19,14 +39,58 @@ Not a pessimisitic outlook on life (as liberals might sometimes claim),
 but a humble one, that recognizes that people usually get things wrong
 before things go right.
 
+What institutions are most important to conservatives?
+
 These arguments were inspired by points from various authors and
 commentators. This is not an endorsement of their work necessarily, or
 that they originated these arguments, just that I heard it best
 articulated by them at some point.
 
 - Edmund Burke
-- Glenn Beck / my high school history teacher
-- Jordan Peterstein
+- Glenn Beck / my high school history teacher who loved him
+- Jordan Peterson
 - Ben Shapiro
+- William F. Buckley
 
 ## American Liberals
+
+The root of the word "liberal" comes from "liberty." It follows that
+anyone who identifies as a liberal surely values liberty in some sense.
+
+But there are many senses of the word "liberty." In the most basic
+sense, it means autonomy or self-government. The ability to act in
+accordance with one's will. But this naive defintion has some clear
+defects. For one, it has no consideration for the liberty of others. If
+I wish to steal bread from someone, I cannot do so without depriving
+them of the liberty of owning it. For two, the matter of "one's will"
+is rarely something we are individually free to decide. To paraphrase
+Schopenhauer: "Man is free to do what he wills. But cannot will what he
+wills." Our wants and needs are ultimately products of our environment.
+
+The modern sense of liberalism is often narrowed to "social liberalism"
+to refer to those particular positions that promote the ... sense of
+liberty.
+
+Most liberals would acknowledge that liberty is not an absolute good,
+and the responsibilities and costs of freedom that necessarily follow.
+Instead liberals see liberty, equality, and fraternity as ideals to
+aspire to. Conservatives often critique liberals for being unrealistic
+because of this, but a liberal can point to the long history of triumph
+of these ideals, for example the abolition of slavery, women's freedom
+to vote, the fall of monarchy worldwide. And they can point the failure
+at attempts to supress these ideals, such as Prohibition, racial
+segregation, and the War on Drugs.
+
+Where the conservative may point out the longevity of institutions as
+proof of their success, a liberal tends to be more critical. Keeping in
+mind that anything man-made can be man un-made, a liberal always tries
+to imagine how reality can be different in unexpected ways.
+
+
+As before, these arguments were inspired by points from various authors
+and commentators, including:
+
+- George Orwell
+- Christopher Hitchens
+
+