Socialism

2846 readers

85 users here now

Beehaw's community for socialists, communists, anarchists, and non-authoritarian leftists (this means anti-capitalists) of all stripes. A place for all leftist and labor news and discussion, as long as you're nice about it.

Non-socialists are welcome to come to learn, though it's hard to get to in-depth discussions if the community is constantly fighting over the basics. We ask that non-socialists please be respectful and try not to turn this into a "left vs right" debate forum by asking leading questions or by trying to draw others into a fight.

This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

alyaza@beehaw.org

OneRedFox@beehaw.org

What are your thoughts on liberal anti-capitalism and reclaiming liberalism for the radical left? (mastodon.social)

submitted 3 months ago by jlou@mastodon.social to c/socialism@beehaw.org

3 comments fedilink hide all child comments

What are your thoughts on liberal anti-capitalism and reclaiming liberalism for the radical left?

Liberal anti-capitalists typically show that capitalism is illiberal through demonstrating how it violates liberal principles. An example would be David Ellerman in:

https://www.ellerman.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Article-from-ReclaimingLiberalismEbook.pdf

He argues that capitalist employment violates liberal principles of justice such as the norm that legal and de facto responsibility should match implying a theory of inalienable rights

@socialism

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] t3rmit3@beehaw.org 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I don't have any issue with someone wanting to reassert the liberal basis for Leftist philosophies, but I think that this is one of those things that only makes sense to do in Leftist spaces.

There are too many misperceptions and bastardized meanings that have layered onto Liberalism as a concept in the minds of most people living under capitalism, such that before you can begin reasserting the Leftist agreement with actual liberalism, you are going to have to completely undo the years of capitalist propaganda that has reworked liberalism into being the same as (modern) Libertarianism or Neo liberalism, both of which the average person just calls Liberalism.

And that's not even getting into the de-Capitalism-ization of Libertarianism, which was originally a leftist, anti-capitalist and anti-government movement, but was completely corrupted/co-opted by the Right in US politics in the 50s, into the current AnCap shitshow.

tl;Dr the amount of work and influence that would be required to correct the definitions around liberalism in the minds of the genpop, as a prerequisite for reclaiming the term for Leftists, is beyond our capabilities, outside of Leftist spaces.