Alright here’s a lil thread for y’all on the word “liberal”
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Liberal is one of the most hotly contested words in
#TheDiscourse today. Conservatives say it means God-hating socialist, socialists say it means worker-hating capitalist, liberals say it means being fair to everybody even “bad guys”, and Paul Ryan says it means fuck poor people.pic.twitter.com/IuZ51MPwS1Show this thread
Liberalism is an ideology that is closely tied to the Enlightenment. As a set of ideas, liberalism is summed up in the popular imagination by a few famous lines from the Declaration of Independence:
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We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.pic.twitter.com/PQYGRly0Yg
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That last bit is an adaptation of John Locke, who originally said “life, liberty, and property.”
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Liberalism is an ethical argument: it says that individuals (not collective groups, which is important) have rights that can never be given away, which no other human gave to them, and which should be abridged a) only by consent, and b) as little as possible.
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Our modern uses of the word all derive in various ways from this baseline ethical argument.
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Your standard-issue American liberal says: “everybody should have the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. No matter who you are, oppressor or oppressed, strong or weak, we will protect your human rights!”pic.twitter.com/kfetv7BBjF
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Leftists say: “ehhhh, but one of those rights you’re guaranteeing to individuals—property—basically ensures that you’ll never get life or liberty or happiness for most people, as long as rich individuals have infinite ability to hoard resources as private property.”pic.twitter.com/isvGXeLi6Z
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Conservatives say: “Who’s gonna guarantee all those rights for you? The government? You want the government to control everything!”pic.twitter.com/DPQQ06RjE0
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Paul Ryan (or movement conservatism broadly) says. “I’m a classical liberal, and that means you should constrain my rights as little as possible, and taxes constrain my rights. Ayn Rand forever! Fuck poor people!pic.twitter.com/RcamcLnCbA
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Ultimately, liberalism is still the dominant ideology that undergirds virtually all ethical arguments made by all parts of the political spectrum. Almost no one argues against human rights. The argument is about how human rights are to be protected, and from whom.
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Right-of-center politics primarily focus on protecting the human rights of citizens from their governments and/or people who are delegitimized as citizens (ie brown people). These rights include jobs, property, money and, idk, not being called racist I think?pic.twitter.com/uJL12mxy3z
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Left-of-center politics primarily focus on protecting the human rights of workers/normal people from capitalists/capitalism (sometimes via a “social safety net”). These rights include healthcare, food, and other things you actually need to live.pic.twitter.com/hh1M6DIHEc
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Lately, left-of-center politics have also focused on protecting the human rights of minority groups and women from majority groups and men. Here rights include equal access to government facilities and public accommodations, voting rights, reproductive rights, etc.pic.twitter.com/CWbejAfiDi
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Both parties, both historically and today, have held positions that could reasonably be called liberal. I mock Paul Ryan, but the truth is that laissez-faire capitalism and to an extent Ayn Randism are totally justified under a plausible interpretation of liberal ideas.
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At the end of the day, almost all of us are liberals, unless we don’t believe that human right exist and should generally be respected, which like... what?pic.twitter.com/hUiCvkSJyU
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The difference lies in what aspect of the liberal project you emphasize, and what aspects you’re willing to ignore—and what you’re willing to do to make the parts you care about actually happen.
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A final addendum: both the “social justice” left and the alt-right consciously or unconsciously pose a challenge to liberalism insofar as they focus on the rights of groups or collectives rather than individuals.
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Neither camp TOTALLY disregards human rights, but both camps argue that individual rights exist within a larger context of the rights of certain groups of individuals.
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Of course, the “identity politics” that focuses on the rights of groups has existed forever, and in America has primarily benefitted whites, especially rich cishet white men. But today it’s becoming more conscious and explicit again.
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Far from believing this challenge to liberalism represents a Grave Threat To All We Hold Dear, however, I think this is a potential area of growth for liberal ideology to develop into something that better suits our times:
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A post-liberal ideology that recognizes the rights and legitimate interests that we inherit from our differences rather than from our common humanity.
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End of conversation
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