Haha, fun times.
Lets start on the responses to the last one. My idols tend to vary on how much people approve of them, from Lenin to Derrida, Lenin and Marx have the obvious flaws, Derrida has his theories maligned by people that are not thoroughly entrenched in Post Modernism, but as a scholar he was fairly undeniabley great and is one of the few that actually didn't die prematurely (I think the biggest beef people could have with him is that a guy he didn't know as well as he thought he did was a bit dodgey and Derrida supported him while only really hearing his side of the story because he was on another continent at the time). So no, I wouldn't put it down too much to declining approval over time (Although I imagine Bill Hicks would have been a lot more unpopular if he didn't die).
Now on to the conflicting ideals with life style, well there is a happy medium to the socialist propaganda I put forward and the consumer society I indulge upon. It comes back to the socialist democracy that I usually put forward when I am arguing honestly and stripping out the humor. You can still have consumers and an economy, it is just far more in the control of the government than a more pure free market capitalist system that we exist in these days. It has the whole "Big Government" thing that seems to get shit kicked in the states though, so yeah milage will vary. I put forward everything the way I do in the name of some kind of perverse humor.
And how exactly are you supposed to practice a socialist lifestyle in a communist system exactly? Outside of cutting yourself off entirely from the system and becoming a hermit that lives in the middle of nowhere growing your own foods (which is far more anarchist than socialist, since you know, socialist relies on the government network). Only other option is to go into politics. Otherwise, you just live how you can and effect the system in the way you can, how I vote, which companies I buy things from, the arts I enjoy, the discussions I have with my peers. They can all be part of actually living the lifestyle that aligns to my ideals. Because they are ideals that generally are impossible to align with society, to change ideals to how I have to exist would be to let the majority dictate my beliefs, that would be the single biggest lie I could make to myself and would be a betrayal of my ultimate goals in life (came up in the Politics thread. Aim towards Self Actualisation, to do that you need intellectual honesty at least with yourself). I mean what is the point of ideals if you just shift them to be accepting of the lot you have now when you know for a fact that they are flawed and an ultimately bad direction for society? No, I am not that cynical or jaded yet.
I think most of the people that attended DL Cons (I would hope anyway) can attest to the fact that in reality I am not nearly as angry or depressed as I put forward online. Online it is for the laughs and is usually hyper exaggerated because I stick to the topics that make me feel the need to say something, where if I am having a good time I am just kind of cruising and partaking in the event.
And Jim, dude, Nihilism and Socialism do not have to be seperate things. Nihilism shouldn't be about living in the moment and letting everything crash and burn, that is a flawed approach to it taken up by teens who know nothing of real philosophy. It should be a celebration of human achievement (much like any good Atheist movement), where there is no ultimate reason for existence or reality we should construct one ourselves, in this case it is aiming for a utopian ideal at the end of Socialism (or something akin to it). I like to think I am quite good at the Nihilism at this point, I am both improving my own life as best I can while aiming to improve it for everyone.
