• Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Can you tell me what liberalism is, then? Because to me it’s always meant “left wing on cultural issues.”

    • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      in most of the world, “leftist” implies that you are anti-capitalist, while “liberal” implies that you support capitalism. Leftists believe workers should control production, while liberals believe owners should control production. Liberals might be “left wing on cultural issues” but it’s a lot less consistent among liberals than among leftists. You can find, for example, a large number of anti-trans liberals, but you’ll have a harder time finding anti-trans leftists.

      • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        That still doesn’t tell me what a liberal is. How do you define liberal? At best, what I’m getting from that is “a liberal is someone who supports capitalism,” but that makes Donald Trump a liberal.

        • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
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          1 year ago

          in America, “liberal” also usually implies “left-wing on cultural issues,” which excludes Trump — but like I said American liberals are a large group and aren’t always consistent on cultural issues. I’m also necessarily being kinda reductionist because political labels are pretty messy and hard to pin down. I chose to reduce it in a way that highlights the main disagreement between leftists and American liberals because I think that’s the most clarifying.

          • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            I don’t think highlighting the disagreement between “leftists” and “liberals” is very clarifying here. That kind of clarification tells me “liberals are leftists except for the differences highlighted,” but the differences highlighted seem to be everything that makes a leftist a leftist.

            Google tells me that liberal means socially progressive (i.e. culturally left) and promoting social welfare.

            How does your definition differ?

            Please don’t tell me it’s just “they’re not always progressive and don’t always promote welfare.” : )

    • awwwyissss@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Asking a Lemmygrad user to explain something political won’t work out well

      • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Maybe, but you have to know the definitions they’re using to understand what they’re saying.