• Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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      22 hours ago

      Liberal means you support capitalist rule over society, and also their preferred model of governance (bourgeios parliamentarism / capitalist dictatorship) as being “superior” to any alternatives, and especially the existing socialist alternatives.

      Also since this model was first adopted by three colonialist western countries (UK, US, and Netherlands) in the 1700s, and adopted by most of western europe shortly after, it mostly coincides with a strong belief in white / western supremacy, as being the only “legitimate” form of governance.

      The best book I could recommend here, is Losurdo’s Liberalism - A counter history.

    • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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      2 days ago

      it comes down to capitalism vs socialism.

      progressive + capitalist = liberal

      progressive + socialist = leftist

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          Lemmy is primarily developed by Marxist-Leninists, and we have a ton of Marxists and anarchists in general. You aren’t going to get hate for being a leftist unless you’re on a more liberal instance.

        • eldavi@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          leftist is pretty vague still because others are leftist too but each other’s mortal enemies like like anarchists and communists.

          you have to study political theories to understand what they actually mean. most people calling themselves leftist in the united states are democrat-socialist because they don’t understand what socialism is due to not reading any sort of political theory.

      • mub@lemmy.ml
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        1 day ago

        US politics is weird. Liberal in the rest of the world is more aligned to socialism than capitalism. Leftist is way more extreme.

        • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          Liberalism isn’t aligned to socialism anywhere, socialism is antithetical to liberalism. Liberalism is the ideology of capitalism, which is diametrically opposed to socialism.

          • mub@lemmy.ml
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            21 hours ago

            That is classical liberalism. It doesn’t reflect modern liberal ideals which have aligned more with socialism, and a lot of european parties regularly form coalitions with socialist or social-democratic parties because their ideals align so often in modern times.

            • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
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              21 hours ago

              Liberalism cannot align with socialism, they are diametrically opposed. Liberalism supports private property while socialism supports public ownership of property. Social Democracy is a subset of liberalism. “Modern liberalism” is just maintaining capitalism.

        • SpookyBogMonster@lemmy.ml
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          1 day ago

          Liberal in the rest of the world is more aligned to socialism

          I agree that US political vocabulary is weird. But this characterization just isn’t true at all.

          For example, in Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party is ideologically conservative. Same story with the Australian Liberal Party.

          Whereas Liberalism in the US is associated with the left of the Overton Window.

    • Phoeniqz@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 days ago

      This. Never understood the term in the first place, is this something I’m not american enough to understand? Isn’t there a substantial difference between right-liberal and left-liberal?