this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Liberal just means not conservative. There is no monolithic body called "the liberals" whose beliefs are all alike. It's a spectrum.
It's frankly incredible how often this needs to be stated.
Liberal has a very specific definition that's used in polysci.
There's distinct flavors of liberalism in political science. For example in Classical Liberalism most modern conservatives are included because they want a democratic government.
That's kind of my point. Saying 'liberal just means not conservative' is so vague that it's effectively meaningless.
I also think it's done intentionally to normalize/consolidate voting patterns for a set of people who share very little actual views or policy goals and enforce a political binary. In that way I think it's worse than meaningless - it's actively harmful.
Both parties engage in this word play. It's about creating a team mentality.
Well as long as you're aware of the coercion
A lot of us speak colloqial, speaking colloquial is more common. You cannot enter a discourse held by laymen, assume and use academic definitions, and expect to be understood or agreed with
Much of the English speaking world uses liberal to mean its formal definition, for example, the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK.
Maybe not if the definition is left assumed to be shared, but you'd think the layman may come to a richer understanding of meaning once presented with a precise distinction .