• InputZero@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Can’t believe I’m posting in a Palestine thread again but here we go. I think people aren’t using the same words in the same way in this thread. In the last decade there has been a shift in how the word liberal is used. Two decades ago there were the neo-liberals, which said they were not big C conservative but were.

    To separate themselves from the neo-liberals, liberals started calling themselves leftist. Which meant the neo-liberals as the only “liberals” remaining. So now the word liberal can mean a person on the left, or a person on the right, depending on the intent of the speaker.

    So saying that the liberals are turning a blind eye to genocide is true, the speaker probably just means neo-liberals but ommitted the neo. Language is fluid, and confusing

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Language is fluid, and confusing

      And sadly, it seems like a lot of people can’t get past this part and desperately need solid definitions before they can make any decisions or have any stances. Places like reddit and even this burgeoning platform have shown us all time and time again that people as individuals may have great capability and potential, but as a group, when viewed as a collection, have incredibly hard time understanding basic ideas like “nuance,” the ability to view multiple, competing ideas simultaneously, or “context,” viewing the larger picture and how it relates to the details.

      I’ve seen it really flare up with the trans issues and gender debates, where people with conservative-minded views act like words were discovered in a fucking meteor crater and there are only a limited number of words which have to have solid, rigid definitions.

      • InternetPerson@lemmings.world
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        1 month ago

        where people with conservative-minded views act like words were discovered in a fucking meteor crater

        Hahaha, I love that part. :D

    • geissi@feddit.de
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      1 month ago

      It should be said that Neo-liberalism is an economic classification.
      It has little to do with social liberalism.

      • cobra89@beehaw.org
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        1 month ago

        Yes it also doesn’t make a person “on the right” as this person is claiming (at least by American standards/definition), it makes them on the right side (almost the middle of the spectrum) of the left side of the spectrum.