this post was submitted on 22 Oct 2023
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So... right wing
What?
The left want to abolish capitalism. Liberalism invented capitalism.
No, that's just what the political right tells you they are all about. Inspect their actual actions over the last several centuries and they tell a very different story.
Make no mistake, conservatives desire an oppressive government. They want the state to be able to tell you you can't be gay or Muslim. They yearn for the boot on their neck, so long as it steps harder on their neighbors than it does on them personally.
Remember that for a capitalist, free market and lack of government intervention means:
Etc.
They absolutely do say what they're going to when they suggest improvements. Just remember - they only apply to the capitalist class. They're not talking about you. Everything they say lines up when you remember, if they say "I'm going to improve X", just add "for billionaires" at the end. If they say "I'm going to stop Y programs", just add "but only for the poor".
It all makes sense viewed as the class warfare that it is.
And it's like trying to hold back the ocean with a toothpick, telling people they can't be gay or Muslim or anything else. As with most right-wing oppression, it's an aspiration that is abusive, unrealistic and asinine in every way.
Republicans ended slavery while democrats fought to preserve it in the south. While technically true I imagine you can drop your partisan blinders to acknowledge that 1) this is so simplistic to the point of turning an accurate statement inaccurate, 2) it ignores party realignment, and 3) instances like good ol boy Strom switching to the republicans during integration because he hated black people so much, which immediately complicates the implied narrative.
All of this is to say that you, me, and everybody reading this conversation know that “liberal” does not mean what you are saying. It is just an annoying thing conservatives say to get under the skin of liberals. It is not productive, highly reductionist, and in bad faith.
Not talking about parties, here
My political party examples are expressions of conservative and liberal politics. My final paragraph very clearly states conservative and liberal. I feel like you’re being intentionally difficult here but I’d like to be wrong.
This is not a conversation about party politics, but about liberalism.
Only if you think the line between left and right is somewhere around Lenin
Yes, right-wing, if you compare them to a fucking tankie.