6d ago

‘Liberal’ has become a term of derision in US politics – the historical reasons are complicated

In this setting, liberals face a conundrum. How far should they maintain traditional liberal ideals, and how far should they move towards non-liberal, and potentially illiberal, ideologies if these seem more promising for the purposes of social change?

23 comments

Liberals are devout capitalists, and the majority of people on the planet are getting fucked by capitalism in some way. It’s not complicated.
Been a term of derision for a lot of us for a long time
As I commented elsewhere 20 mins ago, the context of the term depends on the context of the OP/meme/audience. All of them are derision.
If they are NOT a fascist then "Liberals" means the neoliberal, DNC, "white moderate" types who arguably run as counterintelligence against the left, and help the right "sow the seeds of fascism".
If they're a fascist "Liberals" refers to EVERYONE left of fascism, as it is used interchangeably with communist, marxist, woke; whatever they don't like.
- Neoliberals are fascists. The DNC is pro-war, pro-surveillance, pro-genocide, etc.
- I'm an outsider because I'm a European who has studied politics, but I'm pretty far left and consider myself rather liberal.
  I don't believe in strong private property rights, and I consider liberal market economies to be complete failures. But I am a strong believer in political equality, consent of the governed, human rights, rule of law, secularism, and freedom of speech/press/assembly/religion.
  It's not primarily a theory of how to organize our economy. Neoliberalism fucking sucks.
  To me, values like human rights and political equality cannot be guaranteed without heavy redistribution and some form of socialism.
  
  Sounds like you're a socialist rather than a liberal.
Liberals had their moment when they invented the guillotine but it was downhill from there.

23 comments