What is a liberal?

[TheoK]

I have always wondered this. "Liber" is Latin and means "free". Thus "liberal" implicates that a person would be freedom-loving. However, I have never found this to be the case.

In the film "Der blaue Engel" from 1930, the colleagues of the Professor give the singer Lola a brief and cynical lesson in politics. One of the statements is "The Peoples' Party is against the people". The Peoples' Party in Gemany in 1930 was a so called liberal party, just like the Swedish "liberal" party, which actually calls itself "Peoples' Party the Liberals".

Even with the knowledge that European "liberal" parties claim to be socialliberal to a much greater extent than in the USA, I still see little or no freedom connected with the term.

Checklist; are the "liberals" for:

* liberal gunlaws? No. If they have an opinon about it, it is for harsher gun laws.

* liberal drug laws? Not in Europe at least and not to any greater extent in the USA either.

* lower taxes? Not considerably, except, maybe, for those who already have low taxes.

* war against dictatorships? No.

So what are the "liberals" for? Free immigration, that is, as long as they think that a majority wants that. When the Swedish "liberal" party to their surprise discovered that a majority of the people did not want every towelhead on the planet to move to Sweden, they demanded tests for immigrants on knowledge of the Swedish language.

They also voted for the so called FRA law on the 18th of june this year.

That's the "liberal" view on freedom.

[Frolic_Fun]

Freedom allows voting against guns and drugs too, you know. Freedom allows everything, even what you hate.

In essence: Freedom is bullshit.

[TheoK]

As far as I know most countries on Earth haven't let their citizens vote for or against guns or drugs; Brazil is an exception. The people voted against a gun ban and the government accepted the will of the people.

[Parts]

Would I be considered a liberal because I am a member of the ACLU ( http://www.aclu.org/ ) an organization usually associated with them?  I consider myself independent of these labels 

[Natalia Evans]

My whole family is liberal but my parents beleive in capital punishment. Sometimes my mother acts like she doesn't beleive in it.

They're not 100% liberal. It's impossible.

[TheoK]

Would I be considered a liberal because I am a member of the ACLU ( http://www.aclu.org/ ) an organization usually associated with them?  I consider myself independent of these labels 

They look a hell of a more liberal (for real) than the European liberals, except for the death penalty, of course. Though you can ask if decades in prison actually is more human than execution. I'd say "no" to that.

[Peter]

Liberal is a term that's been corrupted to the point where it's lost all resemblance to it's classical meaning.  Originally, the liberal ideal was a laissez faire economy with a night watchman government that served only to prevent a group from seizing power and depriving people of their freedoms, but the popular usage of 'liberal' has morphed into describing populist and socialist ideologies.

[TheoK]

J.S. Mill rotates in his grave. 

[Parts]

Would I be considered a liberal because I am a member of the ACLU ( http://www.aclu.org/ ) an organization usually associated with them?  I consider myself independent of these labels 

They look a hell of a more liberal (for real) than the European liberals, except for the death penalty, of course. Though you can ask if decades in prison actually is more human than execution. I'd say "no" to that.

That's one reason I didn't like the death penalty 

[Frolic_Fun]

How is being for the death penalty against being "liberal"? Hell, even becoming a bible bashing moron is liberal.

[Christopher McCandless]

J.S. Mill rotates in his grave. 

J.S Mill is now well out of his time - get your hands on the liberty reader if you want some good stuff to read. Even better - look up G.A. Cohen's stuff.

[Johnny]

whiny, unproductive,sniveling parasites who think they are enointed to tell everyone else in the country how to live their lives and spend their hard earned money.

pretty much sums up the modern version of a liberal

[Diesel]

A visual aid to help understand the contents of the liberal cranium.

[TheoK]

 

[nobodyshere]

You might be a liberal if.....

You think that consenting adults can engage freely in every activity except capitalism.
If you think the answer to ANY crime, infraction, or injustice is counseling.
If you use the words "right wing extremist" at least four times in any given day.
You live in constant fear that someone, somewhere, is making a profit.

Only the third is true of me, LOL, but I tend to call people Nazis and rednecks more often.

I used to consider myself a liberal, but the more my life began to suck, the more I'm becoming liberal-in-name-only. I mean, thinking logically here, if my mum kicks me out of the house, which is likely to happen at some point, I might end up living on the streets having to do some pretty unliberal stuff. Ergo, I might thank freer gun laws at some point, no matter how long I believed that guns should be banned altogether. So I guess it's true that a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged.

Also, the apocalypse could well by nigh (I don't mean the rock. The government KNOWS something is coming, and they ain't letting on), and in such a scenario, I want to be armed against whatever will be threatening the survivors. (I've seen too many movies, LOL.)