Comments on: Liberal is not Left

By: Ozgur Zeren

Ozgur Zeren — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 02:30:41 +0000

Baruch is unfortunately right.

Especially in the US, liberal / progressive / left are lumped together as one term, and there is little of any actual left in the resulting mix.

This mainly stems from the right wing (especially far right) segments, and it is used to vilify the entire package – by railing against things that are liberal or progressive, left is also smeared. Guilt by association.

The ‘left’ in US does not help this at all either – a notable segment of them actually do define themselves as ‘left’ and what that ‘left’ amounts to, roughly ends up what you see as the Democratic Party mainstream. It is actually center-right in regard to anything in left ideology. Deregulation or absence of regulation, accommodating the power of corporations to the point of letting them stage corporate coups like TTP/TTIP, privatization – anything goes.

This problem is propagating through anglo-sphere – the same problem can be seen in UK, where the center left party had become a center right party long time ago. Recent change of leadership and the light of hope in Labour may change this course, however the lumping of left with many things undesirable, neoliberal and irrelevant is something that can be seen in British public discourse as well.

By: PermReader

PermReader — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 16:47:26 +0000

Young man ,from the free society writings about the socialism are so sad (not to say ridiculouse) for the old socialism` bruised sceptic. Let you, deer never feel socialism on your skin. Don`t dream,please.

By: Baruch Gottlieb

Baruch Gottlieb — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 17:05:39 +0000

This article was written to address the conflation especially in the US “progressive” media about the terms liberal and left. It was particularly intended to encourage those who see themselves as advocating “progressivism”, where progress means progress towards a social-economy where the wealth and capacities are more evenly distributed among the citizenry, to acknowledge that they rather Left than liberal, and to embrace the appropriate identification to their position. If you have a more nuanced distinction to make please publish one.

By: Freya Jakobsen

Freya Jakobsen — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 15:19:34 +0000

This is so reductive. Words are not so simple. Neither is the history of modern philosophy or political, social, and economic theory. I found this embarrassing to read. There’s more history to the word, and more meaning to it in our current context, than either classical or neo-liberalism. The meaning of “liberal” is complex, its history is inextricable from leftist politics, and a simplistic blog does a disservice to nuanced conversation.

Organizations like TYT are not deemed credible by most people – across class and ideological landscapes – because they adopt propaganda techniques (hearsay reporting, ad hominem attacks, sensationalism) while spurning key liberal values like open discourse and evidence based reporting.