• katve@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    I’ve had multiple conversations about liberalism and come to realize there’s a multitude of definitions none of which make complete sense. A left-wing definition might be “liberal democratic capitalism” like most of Europe is, with neoliberal being a more right-wing version of that like the US. A right-winger might use liberal to mean someone culturally progressive. Sometimes liberal is used to mean someone who wants a smaller government, sometimes it is confused with libertarianism (which was originally left-wing but co-opted by free market capitalists).

    I don’t think the term “liberal” is useful anymore, it’s mostly thrown around towards people you perceive to be the status quo.

    • 14th_cylon@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      not understanding or trying to intentionaly appropriate words (similar mechanism to discussed eee) and change their meaning is indeed a thing, but these are still a facts:

      • liberal is not a term on left/right scale.
      • person using phrase “liberal virtue signaling” is still sending pretty clear message about himself