Amen. I’ve seen so many anglocentric lemmy users conflate “classical liberalism” and “neoliberalism” as liberal while such are actually functionally the opposite to the idea. Ideologies under the capitalist umbrella limit freedoms and liberties to apply only for the upper echelon
It’s America-specific, not anglocentric. Elsewhere doesn’t do the whole “liberal means left wing” thing.
Liberal here at least generally refers to market and social liberalisation - i.e. simultaneously pro-free market and socially liberal.
The Liberal Democrats (amusingly a name that would trigger US Republicans to an extreme degree) in the UK, for example, sided with the Conservative (right wing) party, and when Labour (left/left of centre) was under its previous leader, they said they’d do the same again, because economically they’re far more aligned with the Conservatives. But they also pushed for things like LGBT rights, because they’re actual liberals.
Yeah I thought that was the gist of my comment but maybe I didn’t clarify enough. The right-wing appropriation of a “liberal” market is the oxymoron as it creates a hierarchy where less money = less liberty
Internet political terminology confuses me greatly. There are so many conflicting arguments over the meaning that I have lost all understand of what I am supposed to be. In the politics of the country I live in we refer political thinking into just left or right and nothing else, so adapting is made much more complex.
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Amen. I’ve seen so many anglocentric lemmy users conflate “classical liberalism” and “neoliberalism” as liberal while such are actually functionally the opposite to the idea. Ideologies under the capitalist umbrella limit freedoms and liberties to apply only for the upper echelon
It’s America-specific, not anglocentric. Elsewhere doesn’t do the whole “liberal means left wing” thing.
Liberal here at least generally refers to market and social liberalisation - i.e. simultaneously pro-free market and socially liberal.
The Liberal Democrats (amusingly a name that would trigger US Republicans to an extreme degree) in the UK, for example, sided with the Conservative (right wing) party, and when Labour (left/left of centre) was under its previous leader, they said they’d do the same again, because economically they’re far more aligned with the Conservatives. But they also pushed for things like LGBT rights, because they’re actual liberals.
Yeah I thought that was the gist of my comment but maybe I didn’t clarify enough. The right-wing appropriation of a “liberal” market is the oxymoron as it creates a hierarchy where less money = less liberty
Thank you
Internet political terminology confuses me greatly. There are so many conflicting arguments over the meaning that I have lost all understand of what I am supposed to be. In the politics of the country I live in we refer political thinking into just left or right and nothing else, so adapting is made much more complex.