this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I'm not american so I have no idea what "liberal" is reffering to here tbh. Can anyone explain it to me pls?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago

In this context "liberal" is being used as a synonym for communist, because that's how American right wingers use it, but to a a leftist (socialist, communist, anarchist - the target audience for this meme) liberals, or more accurately neo-liberals, are center right capitalists. So while a right winger might throw all of these as insults at someone left of fascist, a leftist would only take offense to being called a liberal.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think leftists currently refer to all pro-capitalists as "liberals."

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Liberals are certainly pro-capitalist, but a modern leftist wouldnt refer to a fascist or conservative as a liberal. The term is pretty much used to describe people who claim to be left leaning while still advocating for incremental (rather than radical) change, such as the modern American democratic party. It is used as a derogatory because liberals generally speaking don't have any intention of dismantling the corporate capitalist oligarchy, or implementing true socialist policies.

Even if some self-identified liberals do desire these changes - to a leftist their methods are seen as ineffectual by design, therefore further contributing to the longevity of the broken capitalist system.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Well said. The whole mainstream media is this way. It's all economically right, and it goes on a spectrum socially. So, when you look at diagrams like this, it gives you a false sense that there are ideas to consider from centrists to communists. Because from this diagram, CNN is a socialist/communist media platform, but that isn't true at all.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

Jesus, what a mind job.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I'm a European leftist and I would say that conservatives and liberals have a big overlap. In Germany, the conservative party likes to work with the liberal party best and the social Democrats with the Green party. None of these is really left from my perspective and all of them call themselves Center and are more or less liberal, but the green and obviously the liberals more than the others.

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

Okay, good. That's a much more useful term than if liberal was used to describe all pro-capitalists.

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

Maybe they meant libertarian. Right wing people against government intervention on people's lives, just in favor of little to no regulation on anything. Or liberal left, as opposed to radical left (which usually means Marxist), or maybe centrists, which usually are more liberal. In general it means being more in favor of a less powerful government.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That is not what they mean. They mean American liberal in its newest incarnation.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Hm, yeah idk what that is exactly, I'm not from the US so whatever