this post was submitted on 02 May 2024
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Political Memes

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Both parties engage in this word play. It's about creating a team mentality.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Well as long as you're aware of the coercion

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Much of the English speaking world uses liberal to mean its formal definition, for example, the Liberal Democratic Party in the UK.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

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 .