There are some on the far far left who get their jollies by referring to everyone who isn’t an actual communist as a “liberal.” There’s a whole ecosystem of memes decrying shit that right-wingers are responsible for and blaming it on “liberals.”
My guess is that they’re making a distinction between communism and classical liberalism.
Liberalism is a political and moral philosophy based on the rights of the individual, liberty, consent of the governed, political equality, right to private property and equality before the law. Liberals espouse various views depending on their understanding of these principles but generally support private property, market economies, individual rights (including civil rights and human rights), liberal democracy, secularism, rule of law, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion, constitutional government and privacy rights.
Yes, the people who call themselves leftists or communists (on lemmy for instance) often use ‘liberal’ to mean Classic Liberal or Neoliberal, which basically means free-market capitalist. That’s the definition used in Europe. It’s confusing because it is not at all what we mean in the US. Though Democratic Party politicians are definitely mostly capitalist, we use Liberal to refer to being left on social issues in particular, and sometimes also economics.
Marx and Engels are very insistent that liberalism is a tool of the bourgeois.
Although, I think more often than not defining anything short of hardcore central control to achieve some notion of socialism, probably scientific because utopian is naive and fucking libs blah blah, is just used by crypto fascists to give their violent bigoted authoritarian tendencies an aire of legitimacy. Pretty much what the Bolsheviks did to turn the initial revolution into a fascist cesspit.
There are some on the far far left who get their jollies by referring to everyone who isn’t an actual communist as a “liberal.” There’s a whole ecosystem of memes decrying shit that right-wingers are responsible for and blaming it on “liberals.”
My guess is that they’re making a distinction between communism and classical liberalism.
Yes, the people who call themselves leftists or communists (on lemmy for instance) often use ‘liberal’ to mean Classic Liberal or Neoliberal, which basically means free-market capitalist. That’s the definition used in Europe. It’s confusing because it is not at all what we mean in the US. Though Democratic Party politicians are definitely mostly capitalist, we use Liberal to refer to being left on social issues in particular, and sometimes also economics.
Almost like the left and right have both simultaneously and unassisted have targeted them
Marx and Engels are very insistent that liberalism is a tool of the bourgeois.
Although, I think more often than not defining anything short of hardcore central control to achieve some notion of socialism, probably scientific because utopian is naive and fucking libs blah blah, is just used by crypto fascists to give their violent bigoted authoritarian tendencies an aire of legitimacy. Pretty much what the Bolsheviks did to turn the initial revolution into a fascist cesspit.
Lenin was. Marx was a bit more complex on the subject https://jacobin.com/2020/10/karl-marx-liberalism-rights-igor-shoikhedbrod-review
Thanks for the informative article.