Thank goodness we have all these meaningful political labels to argue about instead of focusing on the 90% of policy goals we agree on.
this post was submitted on 21 May 2024
95 points (80.3% liked)
Political Memes
5428 readers
2063 users here now
Welcome to politcal memes!
These are our rules:
Be civil
Jokes are okay, but don’t intentionally harass or disturb any member of our community. Sexism, racism and bigotry are not allowed. Good faith argumentation only. No posts discouraging people to vote or shaming people for voting.
No misinformation
Don’t post any intentional misinformation. When asked by mods, provide sources for any claims you make.
Posts should be memes
Random pictures do not qualify as memes. Relevance to politics is required.
No bots, spam or self-promotion
Follow instance rules, ask for your bot to be allowed on this community.
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
In France liberals belong to the right
They do in America as well.
Well I didn't understand the meme then haha
touché
Gotta love American politics.
So, what's your choice? Centers right? Or far right? You can only pick one.
You must pick one
You should vote in political primaries where there are many more candidates to choose from.
You should also be politically engaged so that those candidates have to address your concerns.
I do not understand why leberals are supposed to be left wing. Given that free market concepts are far from left wing and the height of liberal ideas.
In the war of rhetoric, people like to use terms to try and bias you to their side.
liberal actually just means "free" and so there are many types of liberalism: social liberalism economic liberalism (as in free market economics) political liberalism etc...
In the USA liberals tend to be highly socially liberal and highly political liberal. Social liberalism tends to be associated with the political left, and when using liberal as a pejorative, it's usually meant to claim that the opponent is "too socially liberal."
US liberals also tend to be associated with the creation and maintaing of a welfare state which is commonly seen as being a left wing concept.
In the US, there is also a large history of debate between what the size and scope of government should be, and how the government should be run. This debate can somewhat be characterized as "liberal democracy vs populism", i.e good governance based on institutions rules and ideas versus well, populism, a decent example is Donald Trumps rhetoric about "draining the swamp." US liberals tend to be associated with institutionalism and supposed "good governance", and populism is commonly seen more as a right wing ideal, so in this area US liberals are considered on the political left as well.
Because American democrats call themselves liberals, and it is inconceivable to them that they might share something in common with Republicans (gross)
When it's pointed out to them that property as a right is a central pillar of capital-l liberal while being the central point of contention in leftist ideology, they simply deny property is any issue at all to left wing ideology except at the fringe (gross)
Modern discourse in the US about democrats and being "liberal" is usually as a pejorative using the term to describe yourself is usually as a reclamation from the political right in the US and less about being an actual "liberal" as in liberal theory.
Is it a reclamation of it from the political right, or is it an affirmation of the tenants of liberal theory?
I would say it's a bit of both depending on the context.
It seems to me that this is how the term is used (excessive capitalism) in a lot of non US places.
It's interesting that the modern "right-wing" (a rather nebulous term, in itself) seems to use "liberal" as a pejorative. If one is living in a Western society, I would hope that they recognize that it is generally founded on "liberal" ideals.
Generally not what happens, I can only think of one modern style democracy that does that.
Would you mind providing examples to clarify your point? I don't want to assume meaning/intent.
Of course, happy to expand on my point!
I mean, so far as I know, liberal is only a pejorative in the USA. Not heard it used that way in other political systems, likely because of the reasons you mentioned.
so far as I know, liberal is only a pejorative in the USA
The term is also used that way in Canada — though, arguably, this could be due to bleed over from the USA. To add to the confusion, Canada has a political party called the Liberal Party of Canada (its members are commonly referred to as "Liberals"), and, arguably, they are not actual liberals (by the political science definition, that is). I could be misremembering, but my memory seems to have me believe that I've heard it used that way in the UK as well.
If those kids could read they'd be very upset right now
It's cool. The neolibs allowed (and encouraged) heights of commodification of education so egregious that much of a generation has been robbed of levels of literacy that were considered "normal" in previous generations.