• Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    That still doesn’t tell me what a liberal is. How do you define liberal? At best, what I’m getting from that is “a liberal is someone who supports capitalism,” but that makes Donald Trump a liberal.

    • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      in America, “liberal” also usually implies “left-wing on cultural issues,” which excludes Trump — but like I said American liberals are a large group and aren’t always consistent on cultural issues. I’m also necessarily being kinda reductionist because political labels are pretty messy and hard to pin down. I chose to reduce it in a way that highlights the main disagreement between leftists and American liberals because I think that’s the most clarifying.

      • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I don’t think highlighting the disagreement between “leftists” and “liberals” is very clarifying here. That kind of clarification tells me “liberals are leftists except for the differences highlighted,” but the differences highlighted seem to be everything that makes a leftist a leftist.

        Google tells me that liberal means socially progressive (i.e. culturally left) and promoting social welfare.

        How does your definition differ?

        Please don’t tell me it’s just “they’re not always progressive and don’t always promote welfare.” : )

            • mycorrhiza they/them@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Most American conservative voters also support some form of social welfare. Something like 70% of Americans support singlepayer healthcare.

                  • Sotuanduso@lemm.ee
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                    1 year ago

                    Alright, this is probably gonna go in an endless cycle of “Are they this?” “Well, not necessarily…” that isn’t going to go anywhere. Thanks for trying, have a nice day.