this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2024
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The difference between liberals and the left is the stance on capitalism. Liberals believe they can make capitalism work, leftists insist we must move beyond it. The people obfuscating liberal and leftist are the people who want the discussion of moving past capitalism to stop. Don't help them.
I disagree. There are plenty of examples of liberal anti-capitalists such as David Ellerman
The difference between liberal and left is not fully capitalism dependant. It has more to do with lateral vs horizontal power structures. Liberal rhetoric tends to focus very much on personal property rights which means it basically is a machine to enable unchecked capitalism because it resists anything that would enable seizure or social checks on acquisition or regulation. It reinforces heirachy by legitimizing and protecting wealth and ensuring it snowballs creating greater inequity over time. Any check on what is considered personal property is anti-liberal to some extent.
There are actually liberal and social attitudes towards capitalism. Anti-trust measures, stock restrictions, union organization, reabsorbing privately held services and property into public trusts and services. These things exist as social counter measures to unchecked capitalism but not an attempt to explicitly remove the basic idea of investment capital existing in some form or another. The focus on decentralization of wealth agrigation and empowering labor still makes it nominally left of center.
So that's it, is it? I can support all the social progressiveness I like, but as soon as I balk at the prospect of an autocrat hosting a violent revolution and instating communism, I'm the enemy?
Here is the definition I run on: Anyone left of centre is left. Anyone reaching for the guillotines (or more likely just meming about them from a basement) is far left. So far left that they will never see power and see everyone right of them as an enemy.
You've chosen a definition thats dependent on where you percieve 'center' to be. Its a variable point therefore to you that word doesn't have a fixed meaning. A European centerist is an American left leaner, a decade ago the american 'left' was talking about UBI and medicade for all, now they're talking about fixing bridges that are about to fall down. You're either blind to the overton window shifting or happy that things like infrastructure upkeep is now considered 'leftism' but despite your best efforts, words still have meaning. You're one of the people trying to obfuscate those meanings.
You don't get to gatekeep leftism behind communism.
Nice buzzword, but it's not me gatekeeping anything. Thats what leftism has meant since the phrase neoliberalism has existed. Im not the one who made the definition, you're just ignoring it.
Words mean what people think they mean. "Decimate" means to remove 10% of something but everyone uses it as a synonym for annihilate. You need to understand that the vast majority of people see "liberals" and "leftists" as the same thing. Your conspiracy about obfuscation is cute but you're giving people too much credit.
Only if you are an exceptionalist usian. Liberals are not the left in most parliaments around the world.
If words mean only what people think they mean then according to near or more than half the country Biden is in fact a communist. Words have meaning, Biden isn't a Communist and liberalism and leftism are different things.
Maybe 2% of people think that, it just seems like a common position because every one of them is on Reddit.
I'm not trying to be rude but you're embarrassing yourself. Please educate yourself of political theory, philosophy and terminology before you start speaking on words and concepts that you clearly don't understand. Here's a good place to start. He makes great political theory videos. Here's a playlist geared specifically towards liberalism. Here's something on anti-fascism. All of those resources aren't the end-all-be-all of politics but they're at least a good place to start and you'll be better off for it. Have a good one
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Being anti-capitalist doesn't immediately imply being a communist. There are other alternatives to capitalism such as Economic Democracy.
This is also a straw man fallacy