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What Happened To The Word "liberal" In The Us?


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#1 Barack_Obama

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 05:25 AM

Do people even know what liberalism_is_any more? Please read:

Liberalism is an ideology, philosophical view, and political tradition which holds that liberty is the primary political value.Liberalism has its roots in the Western Age of Enlightenment, but the term has taken on different meanings in different time periods; Today in America you compare it to new liberalism, while in the entire world in general, we refer to classical liberalism.
Broadly speaking, liberalism emphasizes individual rights. It seeks a society characterized by freedom of thought for individuals, limitations on power (especially of government and religion), the rule of law, the free exchange of ideas, a market economy that supports free private enterprise, and a transparent system of government in which the rights of all citizens are protected. In modern society, liberals favor a liberal democracy with open and fair elections, where all citizens have equal rights by law and an equal opportunity to succeed.

Many new liberals advocate a greater degree of government interference in the free market, often in the form of anti-discrimination laws, universal education, and progressive taxation. This philosophy frequently extends to a belief that the government should provide for a degree of general welfare, including benefits for the unemployed, housing for the homeless, and medical care for the sick. Such publicly-funded initiatives and interferences in the market are rejected by modern advocates of classical liberalism, which emphasizes free private enterprise, individual property rights and freedom of contract; classical liberals hold that economic inequality, as arising naturally from competition in the free market, does not justify the violation of private property rights.

Liberalism rejected many foundational assumptions which dominated most earlier theories of government, such as the Divine Right of Kings, hereditary status, and established religion. Fundamental human rights that all liberals support include the right to life, liberty, and property.

A broader use of the term liberalism is in the context of liberal democracy, in this sense of the word, it refers to a democracy in which the powers of government are limited and the rights of citizens are legally defined; this applies to nearly all Western democracies, and therefore is not solely associated with liberal parties.

So you can see that your country is founded, built and reached the peak that its at because of liberalism, yet, the word has become smeared ever since Reagen and the GOP control of congress in the nineties.

#2 Barack_Obama

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:23 PM

No comments?

#3 chrozzo

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:29 PM

i just burnt my tongue
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#4 Balloon guy

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:30 PM

The reason the title liberal now has a bad connontation is because the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.

So they ruined the word, not the conservatives.


Look up the word conservative and tell me you think that is the same as how it is used today in the media.
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"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterson 1900

View Posttimwakefield, on 18 April 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

Things are only rights because the government decides they should be rights.

#5 Mr. DNA

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:44 PM

QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 10:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The reason the title liberal now has a bad connontation is because the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.


Is there no end to your complete and utter idiocy? I consider myself liberal. I am not a communist, nor a socialist. Daniel Negreanu, the guy whose web-site we are members of and whose blog we read, would consider himself to be a liberal. I suggest you go and post at the KKK web-site, or join the National Front. That would be much more to your tastes than mild-mannered, liberal-minded Daniel Negreanu.

#6 Zealous Donkey

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:47 PM

QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 4:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The reason the title liberal now has a bad connontation is because the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.

So they ruined the word, not the conservatives.
Look up the word conservative and tell me you think that is the same as how it is used today in the media.


Absolutely correct. I actually respect real liberals, Chris Hitchens, Nat Hentoff, LongLiveYorke, ect.
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#7 LongLiveYorke

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:49 PM

QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 5:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The reason the title liberal now has a bad connontation is because the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.



Yeah, come on man! I'm a liberal, and I'm only partially a socialist, and not that much of a communist at all!

tongue.gif

#8 Livaso

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:50 PM

QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 2:30 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The reason the title liberal now has a bad connontation is because the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.

So they ruined the word, not the conservatives.
Look up the word conservative and tell me you think that is the same as how it is used today in the media.


This was for the most part my reply but I was planning on being a jerk and saying "College freshmen"

People that call themselves liberals talk in a way that induces eye rolling in a very large percentage of the population. It becomes synonymous in people's minds with naive teenagers.
Just like conservatives have their apparent image which doesn't apply to actual conservatism.

#9 Balloon guy

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:55 PM

QUOTE (Mr. DNA @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 2:44 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Is there no end to your complete and utter idiocy? I consider myself liberal. I am not a communist, nor a socialist. Daniel Negreanu, the guy whose web-site we are members of and whose blog we read, would consider himself to be a liberal. I suggest you go and post at the KKK web-site, or join the National Front. That would be much more to your tastes than mild-mannered, liberal-minded Daniel Negreanu.



No end in sight.


But I can totaly see why you would think that since I accuse liberals of being socialist I am full of idiocy.

But you saying I am a racist because I am a conservative, that's just good common sense.




Good luck with 3rd grade, the questions get much harder.
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"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterson 1900

View Posttimwakefield, on 18 April 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

Things are only rights because the government decides they should be rights.

#10 Balloon guy

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:57 PM

QUOTE (LongLiveYorke @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 2:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah, come on man! I'm a liberal, and I'm only partially a socialist, and not that much of a communist at all!

tongue.gif



Thanks for the honesty,

Now be honest, you believe the reason communism has failed everytime it's been tried is because they didn't do it right.
I use my cigar smoke as idiot repellent


"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G.K. Chesterson 1900

View Posttimwakefield, on 18 April 2012 - 10:38 AM, said:

Things are only rights because the government decides they should be rights.

#11 Zealous Donkey

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:58 PM

QUOTE (LongLiveYorke @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 4:49 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Yeah, come on man! I'm a liberal, and I'm only partially a socialist, and not that much of a communist at all!

tongue.gif


Not talking about you or Daniel, but left wing of democratic party, 95% or more of college professors. Can you really dispute that? Scroll up Yorke, I edited my previous post.
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#12 LongLiveYorke

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 02:59 PM

QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 5:57 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Thanks for the honesty,

Now be honest, you believe the reason communism has failed everytime it's been tried is because they didn't do it right.



Nah, communism only works in a world with infinite resources and money. But I guess Mao and Stalin didn't really help its image all that much, did they?

#13 Livaso

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:02 PM

QUOTE (LongLiveYorke @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 2:59 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Nah, communism only works in a world with infinite resources and money. But I guess Mao and Stalin didn't really help it's image all that much, did they?


I don't think Marx helped that image much. tongue.gif

#14 LongLiveYorke

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:06 PM

QUOTE (Zealous Donkey @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 5:47 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Absolutely correct. I actually respect real liberals, Chris Hitchens, Nat Hentoff, LongLiveYorke, ect.



Thanks for the shout out.

#15 Mr. DNA

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:12 PM

balloon man, I think that you are in need of a little sociological/political crash-course. You stated:

QUOTE
the people who call themselves liberals are really socialist/communist.
This is absurd. You speak as if socialism and communism are interchangeable; indistinguishable from one another. This is not the case. I won't bother looking up dictionaries because you are more than capable of doing this yourself. For brevity, communism is a system whereby the government or state owns all the land in the country and is in charge of distributing the land as it sees fit, as well as managing its people in accordance to it's own whims. The doctrine of socialism, on the other hand , states that the wealth of a nation should be fairly distributed, but it in no way goes as far as the absurdity that is communism. For you to assert that people who call themselves liberal are communists shows you to be dangerously misinformed and more than a little bit silly.


QUOTE (Balloon guy @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 10:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
But you saying I am a racist because I am a conservative, that's just good common sense.
Good luck with 3rd grade, the questions get much harder.


I did not say that you were a racist. I made a snap-statement based on my prejudices towards imbeciles such as yourself who make snap decisions about 'liberals' as if they were some commie scum that has to be eradicated. You're not racist. Homophobic?

#16 Livaso

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:16 PM

"Mother of God," I thought "Here it comes."

#17 Mr. DNA

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:17 PM

QUOTE (Livaso @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 11:16 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
"Mother of God," I thought "Here it comes."


I'm still waiting.

#18 LongLiveYorke

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:20 PM

QUOTE (Mr. DNA @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 6:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm still waiting.



Uh, you posted your first one 5 minutes ago.

#19 Livaso

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:26 PM

QUOTE (Mr. DNA @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 3:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I'm still waiting.


I meant that your reply signified the beginning of the end of this going anywhere. I can almost smell the 50th page already.

QUOTE
The doctrine of socialism, on the other hand , states that the wealth of a nation should be fairly distributed


by making people give up their wealth through some sort of government system which is still the polar opposite of conservatism.

You're defending one system over the other when his statement said very clearly that "People that call themselves liberals tend to be Socialists/Communists" and like I said, a vast majority of the population roll their eyes to the kind of statements people that call themselves liberals make.
Like calling people that are pro-states-rights racist homophobes.

#20 Mr. DNA

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Posted 11 February 2007 - 03:38 PM

QUOTE (Livaso @ Sunday, February 11th, 2007, 11:26 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
I meant that your reply signified the beginning of the end of this going anywhere. I can almost smell the 50th page already.


Don't worry, I have a lot more important things to be doing with my time than waxing lyrical over 50 pages with lost causes like balloon man. He disappeared rather sharpish did he not?


QUOTE
by making people give up their wealth through some sort of government system which is still the polar opposite of conservatism.
Regardless of what your distaste may be for socialism, it is far from the doctrine of communism. That is what I was asserting, nothing more.

QUOTE
Like calling people that are pro-states-rights racist homophobes.


Please explain what you mean by pro-states-rights.

Also, please forgive my tendency to paint Conservatives who don't understand the meaning of the term 'liberal' as racist homophobes. Clearly, there are a lot of racist homophobes in America who are Conservatives. There are even more who are not racist but who are homophobic. Living in Britain, my eyes tend to "roll" whenever I hear a Southern United States accent, such is the level of fundamentalist Christianity in that part of the world who treat gay people like second-class citizens. But the tendency in America to demonise those who would call themselves 'liberal' is rather shocking to British ears, as even the Conservatives here are a fairly liberal bunch.

I admit that I posted rather quickly and imparted some of my own prejudices in this post when they were unwarranted. However, as I have stated, to British ears, hearing someone call liberals 'communists' is pretty shocking and that is what I was reacting to.




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