• culprit@lemmy.ml
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    1 day ago

    leftist : anti-capitalism :: liberal : pro-capitalism

    Why is this so hard for some radlibs to understand? I think it is all the propaganda they passively consume.

    • lewdian69@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I’ll say it again, in the United States the term “liberal” is used to refer to liberal social ideas NOT liberal economic ideas. To the average US citizen left and liberal are synonyms. This doesn’t mean your definition isn’t correct for academics and the entire rest of the world. But this meme, and this left vs liberal argument for this post, are US based.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        6 minutes ago

        This is also wrong. US liberals are just as anticommunist as their further right counterparts, and their “social liberalism” goes only so far as not to infringe on capitalist “freedom” to do whatever they can get away with. Hence their hatred of homeless / the poor, communists, and colonized peoples.

        As the saying goes, US liberals are against every genocide except the current one. Hence their staunch support for Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.

        • lewdian69@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I’m not sure how colloquial vocabulary usage prevents developing class consciousness. I’d potentially argue refusing to accept the evolution of language and refusing to communicate to people in the terms they use and understand inhibits said deprogramming.
          Again very US centric in this definition but it’s who needs deprogramming.

          • PunnyName@lemmy.world
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            20 hours ago

            You don’t think words can mean things?

            You just live in some kind of word salad blob?

            • lewdian69@lemmy.world
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              19 hours ago

              What? That’s literally the opposite of what I’m saying… I’m saying words can have multiple meanings depending on context.
              But the point of this was how does “liberal” having a different colloquial definition from how op was using it have anything do with “developing class consciousness” which can be done regardless of this single word?

              Yes

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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            1 day ago

            Sometimes the evolution of language isn’t so much organic as it is a political project, such as a century of red scares and socialist purges.

            Americans believe Sanders when he calls himself a socialist because they’ve lost a vocabulary for socialism itself. And they think Sanders’ centrism is “the left,” because the Overton window has shifted so far right that there is no left left.

            We can’t simply use their terms, because their terminology is both muddled and lacking.

            • lewdian69@lemmy.world
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              24 hours ago

              Sometimes the evolution of language isn’t so much organic as it is a political project, such as a century of red scares and socialist purges.

              Ok. But regardless of the cause, organic or political project, it doesn’t change the fact that the language has moved on correct?

              We can’t simply use their terms, because their terminology is both muddled and lacking.

              But there’s the rub. You/we ARE using their terms and the message is muddled and lacking BECAUSE OF the difference in perceived definitions. And as the past couple decades have shown there is zero chance of getting the American people to learn things, or unlearn as the case may be.

              I assume very few people this far down a thread into a political discussion, on Lemmy, don’t know what the Overton windowS are and how fucked the US is because of the current far right position on the left/right scales. I find it lacking and dislike it’s libertarian origins. We are even now discussing the difference of a word being used for social vs economic ideas and these two scales do not necessarily overlap.

      • bloubz@lemmygrad.ml
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        23 hours ago

        Isn’t it progressism?

        But anyway liberalism is the ideology of capitalism. The artificial differences created between conservatives and progressists is just a smoke screen to create a false debate and prevent from challenging capitalism, switching the enemy from the rulling capitalist class to the person next door with different views

    • Belly_Beanis [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 day ago

      Capitalism is so all-consuming it’s like water to fish. “Capitalism” becomes synonymous with words like economy, markets, trade, laws, and government. It no longer is an ideology, but an immutable force in the universe.

      • Dessalines@lemmy.ml
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        4 minutes ago

        Of course. Its the “liberty” of capitalists do to whatever they can get away with. Unlimited power for the capitalist class.

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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        15 hours ago

        Liberalism means PRO CAPITALISM.

        The first sentence from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism:

        Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, the right to private property and equality before the law.

        From the first paragraph of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_property†:

        Private property is foundational to capitalism, an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit.

        Liberalism: A Counter-History (online copy)


        †Not to be confused with personal property.

        • Quadhammer@lemmy.world
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          15 hours ago

          That line says nothing about capitalism. Pro ownership? That is a tenet of some branches of leftism. I dont agree with corporations or the state having a monopoly on land ownership. Though the government cant come and take an individuals shit for no reason. Being an abusive billionaire though has an asterisk in the foot notes.

          Though I’d argue that anyone owning shit comes a large and wide second or 3rd to human rights.

          philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed

          It says it right there.

      • dubyakay@lemmy.ca
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        17 hours ago

        Liberal means pro capitalist liberty. Nothing about personal freedom, equity and social safety nets in that.

        • Quadhammer@lemmy.world
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          14 hours ago

          based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed

          Okay buddy. You guys just want to twist a good ideology into a wedge issue. The only thing vaguely “capitalist” about a liberal is the belief that the government isnt allowed to seize your shit unlawfully. The right to own property comes way after personal liberty in my book. That means billionaires dont get a pass for abusing the populace.