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Do any of them know what the word "liberal" actually means?
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this post was submitted on 14 May 2024
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I used to think it just was synonymous with the left, but I've recently been seeing a lot of comments on Lemmy saying liberals aren't leftist so now I am not sure if it means anything or if those Lemmings are just dumb.
I've grown up with the term "bleeding heart liberals" being applied to groups like Green Peace and hippies that promote love and unity by people who are just complete pieces of shit, and in that context I was always like "I guess I'm a liberal 🤷🏻♂️"
Liberals are somewhere between center left and center right. In the US, the alternative to republicanism is the “liberal party” and because they often encompass people further left than the party line, they are seen as left wing. Generally, I associate people who are always in favor of slow electoral measures, a strong state, strong individualistic rights that are positively defined (the right to do rather than not having the right to do) and the view that capitalism is the only method that had worked so far and is therefore best with liberalism. But thats far from an academic definition.
When you add in the fact that people usually end up seeing another person’s politics in relative to their own, things get unintelligible for someone trying to pinpoint an ideology.
An anarchist like myself will probably point towards someone like Biden or Obama and say they are a liberal or neoliberal, which is probably accurate enough (if I do say so myself), but I’ll also call conservatives like Romney, Bush, and Raegan, liberals or neoliberal even though those are people most self titled liberals would hate. A staunch authoritarian communist might call AOC or Sanders a liberal because they aren’t revolutionary communists, even though I’d personally consider them somewhat socialist progressives. Heck, I’ve ben called a liberal by hardcore communists even though my views are more similar to their definition of communism than theirs, and I’ve been called a liberal by some alt right people even though their views are closer to liberalism than mine.
Fox news, on the other hand, would call a pink haired person on a college campus a liberal for the pink hair alone. They might label a gay trump supporter who has a pride flag a liberal because of their homophobia combined with the association pride has with liberals to them. They might call someone who is genuinely far left a liberal because they either can’t comprehend their beliefs or because they don’t catch some of the indicators that they are looking at a communist, anarchist, etc.
US Dems and mainstream liberals are definitely right to far right by (mainland) European standards.
The political window in the US is very different from the European ones.
Yeah. The US is a shit show. At least the Overton window now includes antizionism, small victories!
I do think a lot of liberals are further right than they realize. But I don’t think it’s accurate to call them far right unless you solely are considering their economic ideology (which is reductionist), or are lumping in people who would probably be more accurately described with a better label. Or your perspective is skewed from being far enough left.
My thoughts exactly! Every real-life human I've ever spoken to uses it to mean open-minded and every definition I look up agrees, yet for some reason half the people posting here think it exclusively means economically-neo-liberal capitalist.
The context is typically pretty important for how it is being used. The user of the term often provides more than enough context I find.
If 'liberal' is being used in a derogatory sense, which isn't going to be captured by an academic definition, it's often aimed at neoliberalism in a pretty broad sense.
Which is probably what this meme is referring to: the shared rejection of neoliberalism. The motivations are different but that's immaterial to these things. I mean: it is specifically referencing an American political party here: so I wouldn't be looking for a political science definition on 'liberal'.
Only 5,7 and 8 are "open minded" Being favorable to progress does not mean being open minded and what constitutes as progressive is in itself up to debate. Individual rights and liberties can be understood as neo-liberal capitalism of "well the law allows you, your economic situation doesn't concern us, and now back to slaving 60 hours a week." Or it could mean "We need to enable people to enjoy their liberties so we need to ensure their basic human dignity with healthcare, education and social welfare to empower them."
what the fuck is number 1 then?
what is number 2 then?
I think if you go point by point and ignore the rest then you can argue semantics, but I don't see how you can take all 8 together and argue what "progressive" means
Being favorable to reform does not mean being open minded. Open minded means to respect different people and their life choices. People hostile to traditional family or religious values are also "progressive" but often not open minded as they criticize people who choose a traditional way of life.
The same goes for economic aspects. Neoliberalism is highly authoritarian. Specifically it is embraced by neofeudalists who want to reestablish their old feudal privileges but not through formal aristocracy, but by the merit of "free contracts" and them holding on to wealth. These are technically "progressive" yet they want to reintroduce power structures from a time past.
It's easier than accepting nuance, and it's usually from the same people who demonstrate that same lack of nuance in everything else they post.
Yeah these are old school definitions, like how a "liberal education" means you get a broad education in differing perspectives (ironically, this term is now associated with a Eurocentric take on topics). In the same sense, "liberal policies" would mean freedom of religion, sexuality, etc.
All good things that progressives agree with, but it also entails more pernicious property rights, and the protection of the state/establishment against those who threaten those rights.
It doesn't necessarily have to be this way, but this is what I believe it's come to mean in practice. It also has very little to do with how one votes, especially in a democracy like the U.S. where you've just got your "monkey loves you" and "monkey needs a hug" choices.
Perhaps they are seeing "free enterprise" and associating that with being something only pertaining to capitalism, even though you can have free enterprise without capitalism.
'Liberal' is one of those words that has so many definitions that it can have contradictory meanings. It can mean 'open to / tolerant of'. It can denote a style of education that tries to be broad rather than deep. It can describe various political positions - the 'Liberal Party' is left-wing in Chile, centrist in the UK and Canada, and right-wing in Russia, Japan and Australia. This is also what OP is memeing about. At this point, to avoid confusion, I would just avoid using the word except in the purely academic / technical sense.