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this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2026
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One example posted on the grad isn't many. But that aside, liberals definitely believe in something. What that is can look confusing at times because it's often not the benefits they are made out to be and there can be a certain amount of cognitive dissonance going on.
But there are themes revolving around individualism, personal liberties, and a capitalist economy / power structure. This primarily benefits the bourgeoisie because they're the ones who can actually benefit from these things realistically.
As benefits go:
For the bourgeoisie, capitalism is power. For the working class, capitalism is lattes. For the bourgeoisie, personal liberties can be assured through money where laws fail them. For the working class, personal liberties have to be fought for and there is no guarantee the system will work for them at all. For the bourgeoisie, individualism implicitly validates whatever behavior they get up to as a reasonable expression of humanity and validates the idea that they don't need to care about anyone else in society if they don't want to; with the kind of power they can hold, this can validate horrific things. For the working class, individualism is more like, getting to decide whether they wear shoes indoors, in their place of residence; they are still beholden to society for the majority of their waking life, whether through bosses at work or laws in a court.
So, much of what the bourgeoisie gains from liberalism, the working class does not actually get, whether they believe in liberalism or not. The working class also gets out of it things like: enormous political repression, having to fight tooth and nail for any rights at all in the work place, being more disconnected and isolated from others.
It is likely that in the imperial west, because this dynamic is complicated by the benefits some get from the spoils of imperialism, some liberals who would otherwise more easily see how little the system benefits them more easily believe in it. Either way, I don't think the working class ones tend to realize just how much a difference there is in the benefits a capitalist gets from the system. The working class liberal is choosing what movie to watch. The billionaire is choosing what country to own. These are not the same.