https://zirk.us/@ShaulaEvans/115773818039339000
this is what really sets leftists apart from liberals imo.
liberals like to decorate themselves with the nimbus of morality but when it comes to stepping up to fascism and protesting even if it’s not like a fun parade but serious and uncomfortable. Or just if the weather is bad.
Or when it comes to being self critical about your own learned patterns of behavior and thinking… they are nowhere to be seen, not to be relied on and it does real damage, as we can see.
Cool strawman. Liberalism was the original leftism (see the French revolutionary National Assembly), and modern liberalism is leftist.
The many varieties of liberalism share a core liberal philosophy of morally absolute concepts:
To reject general liberalism, you’d have to reject that morally all individuals are categorically equal with the same universal individual rights & liberties, or that they should have political & legal equality, or that authority ought to protect those universal individual liberties & that people ought to be able to change & replace their government. It’s difficult to imagine any sensible person disagreeing with these humble ideas. If you do, then please call out your specific objection.
So, what does it mean you set “leftists apart from liberals”? You’re claiming leftists are illiberal. An illiberal leftist by definition must reject general liberalism: they think people are fundamentally unequal, or they aren’t entitled to political & legal equality, or authority ought to be able to abuse universal individual liberties, or people shouldn’t be able to change & replace their government. This is flat out immoral & contradictory: instead of eliminating social hierarchies, it asserts a hierarchy of uncontrolled government power/authority to abuse individual liberties ought to be permitted. Such uncontrolled authority is necessary for left-wing authoritarianism.
So, no, by claiming authority should have limits to prohibit the abuse of universal rights & liberties that individuals inherently have, liberalism sets a firm moral boundary that illiberals willingly violate. Only adherents to a deluded philosophy would convince themselves that authorizing government abuses is somehow morally superior. Leftists don’t claim morality by rejecting it, only by building on it, and that means accepting general liberalism: leftists can & should be liberal.
Having values to stand for despite inconvenience requires at least knowing them. If they’re not consistent & coherent, then you haven’t figured them out. By rejecting the entire philosophy of liberalism & the humanism & Enlightenment ideals that underpin it yet still claiming morality, I doubt you’ve figured anything out.