• YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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    3 hours ago

    Sorry if this is a bad question, but can some explain “liberals” to me? Being from the US,I understand it as the opposite of republicans. But I see the word get a tons of hate here and really just want to understand.

    • electric_nan@lemmy.ml
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      1 hour ago

      Liberals fundamentally believe in the capitalist system. They would just like to reform it, or regulate it just the right amount. Within the US political spectrum, liberals are cast as “left wing”. Here on Lemmy, many people will encounter (perhaps for the first time) political perspectives that disdain liberals as the moderate wing of fascism. To these perspectives, liberalism is so wedded to capitalism, that it will sooner capitulate to naked fascism than make common cause with any anticapitalist revolutionaries.

    • Alcoholicorn@mander.xyz
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      3 hours ago

      Liberalism is the philosophy of capitalism. The people attacking liberals are either socialists who read literally any book in the last two centuries or confused conservatives.

      The people who get angry about this are liberals who want to maintain the system of capitalism by buttressing it with welfare and technocratic tweaks as opposed to socialists who want to replace the system with one that serves the workers instead of capital.

    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      I believe it tends to mean Neo-liberal, which is basically the modern corporate-friendly Democrat party, as opposed to the descriptor for ‘not conservative’. So basically, there’s liberals, and there’s Liberals.

    • Credibly_Human@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      People here (just lemmy generally) tend to be completely irrational and anal about terms and just want to dunk on the establishment while having no actual plans to achieve their goals.

      Basically, most people here (myself included) are progressives, in favour of many socialist elements in the short term and even more in the longer term, and there are some lunatics who somehow want soviet union style socialism (not realizing that that would obviously and inherently immediately lead to the type of corruption we saw there).

      They are quite displeased with the democrats in the US who they view as (and I agree) center right neoliberals, which just basically means they’re mostly fine with things continuing as is, sans the most obvious horrific things.

      They frequently fail to realize that because there is a 2 party system (as its winner takes all/first past the post) that the literal only way to get any progressive momentum is through continued strong support of said democrats (or whatever major party is closest to their views) whilst using primaries, local and state politics (or equivalents for other countries) to shift them towards being progressive, and so they love to make edgy memes about revolutions they will never carry out (because that’s easy, fun, and doesn’t require real work) rather than the boring, unfun, actionable plans that do work.

      Just to be clear, of course my criticisms apply for the people being impractical, and not the practical progressives, protesting, still voting, etc etc.

      This is more or less similar in any western nation with winner takes all/first past the post. These systems suck because they make change very difficult and severely shorten the levers people have on the political processes of their countries, but we live in the world we have, not the world we wish we had.

      • PolarKraken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        57 minutes ago

        Not down voting you, in case it matters to ya, but largely disagree.

        People here (just lemmy generally) tend to be completely irrational and anal about terms and just want to dunk on the establishment while having no actual plans to achieve their goals.

        That’s what I have always found almost anywhere, and Lemmy is the first place online where I’ve run into the opposite - sincere, informed, motivated individuals who not only have a plan, but actively work towards it IRL. Sure, there’s plenty of do-nothing know-it-all types, I’ve almost certainly been one myself here more than once - but if you’re seeing that as the primary Lemmy thing, sounds like you just need to curate your Lemmy feed. Get away from the folks wanting to recreate Reddit, ya know? Pretty sure that’s where a lotta the “I know everything, but have done and will do nothing” personalities came from anyway.

        • Credibly_Human@lemmy.world
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          8 minutes ago

          That’s what I have always found almost anywhere

          I don’t find this to be true. There are real activist groups that meet and have actual plans to support parties, policies etc with door to door campaigning and more. You have none of that on Lemmy. Just people making guillotine memes.

          and Lemmy is the first place online where I’ve run into the opposite - sincere, informed, motivated individuals who not only have a plan, but actively work towards it IRL.

          I have not seen a singular person who that description fits my entire time being on Lemmy.

          but if you’re seeing that as the primary Lemmy thing, sounds like you just need to curate your Lemmy feed.

          This seems really dismissive without any actionable examples.

          Get away from the folks wanting to recreate Reddit, ya know? Pretty sure that’s where a lotta the “I know everything, but have done and will do nothing” personalities came from anyway.

          I actually disagree tremendously, because something that has actually bothered me was seeing that reddit has more communities with people who actually plan protests, campaigns, user action, etc.

          I imagine part of that is due to the much smaller lemmy user numbers, but I haven’t seen any actual events result from lemmy.

      • YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today
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        3 hours ago

        Thank you for the explanation. Sorry it means you’re catching strays. But I do appreciate the well thought out response.

        • Credibly_Human@lemmy.world
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          3 hours ago

          Thanks, and no worries. I’m used to that here. I just wish there was more sane and productive conversation about how to actually get the goals people who in theory agree with me politically accomplished.

    • unfnknblvbl@beehaw.org
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      3 hours ago

      It’s a weird wedge that is appearing in the US political scene. Certain segments of the scene are intent on never seeing a government left-of-Trump ever again, so they are accusing “liberals” of being just as bad as conservatives.

    • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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      3 hours ago

      I liked Dilbert and the animated series myself. Considering the theme it’s truly a disappointment hearing about the creator. I like old ones for how I interpret them (back when I didn’t know his ideals) but when you know a creator’s ideals then it’s hard to enjoy them outside of that.

      Like Dilbert was mostly anti corporate (or least their way of things) then the creator went hat in hands on knees to fucking Trump cause he needed help. Fuck that dude like offering Satan a blowjob. I haven’t watched recent South Park so if that’s a plot point I’d prefer not to read half of it.

  • Cyborganism@lemmy.ca
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    14 hours ago

    At least the janitor keeps my workspace clean and enjoyable and picks up my trash.

    • 🍉 Albert 🍉@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      There’s a Douglas Adams subplot about a civilisation run by “executives” who determined janitors as useless. they got rid of them only to quickly die from diseases.

      rule of thumb, if a job has to be done it is as dignified as every other job. it is BS propaganda that some jobs deserve to live in abject poverty without any respect.

      • AxExRx@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        They sent them all to crash land into earth, iirc, saying theyd be ‘right behind them.’ There are supposedly 3 ships: one with all the elites, executives, politicians, and another one with all the actual laborers. The middle ship (the one we actually see, and presumably rhe only one actually built) is full of middle managers, insurance salesmen, HR, and PR people, and telephone sanitizers. People labeled as a ‘bunch of useless idiots’ the rest of their society is then wiped out by a disease spread telephone handsets.

        The ship crashes into earth, and the inhabitants become our progenitors.

    • P1k1e@lemmy.world
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      12 hours ago

      My friend, you provide a valued and necessary service. Not only do you prevent pests (and therefore disease) from ever being a problem, but you maintain the morale of every person who uses the space you clean. You generate motivation but eliminating the negative debuff of a nasty environment. YOU make a difference

  • yucandu@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Why do you guys use liberal as an insult? It makes you sound like Trump supporters.

    • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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      8 hours ago

      Because that’s a self-applied label of the group we’re talking about? What else would you prefer? I’ll call them whatever they want.

      This nitpicking is just a hair away from saying “you’re not allowed to criticize liberals or else you get to be dismissed as Trump supporters.”

        • _cryptagion [he/him]@anarchist.nexus
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          6 hours ago

          that’s what we’re doing when we make fun of liberals. in every other country on earth, you would be appropriately called conservatives and labeled a right-wing party. you were never leftists.

        • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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          8 hours ago

          How strange indeed that lefties who have been demonized and attacked by a group of people who demand loyalty without an ounce of reciprocation might want a space to vent about that bullying group.

          Not really a need to denigrate the right here, we can and do that alongside centrists.

          • masquenox@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            8 hours ago

            we can and do that alongside centrists.

            Liberalism has never been “centrist” - it’s about as right-wing as it gets. The only real difference between liberals and fascists is that fascists don’t lie to themselves and everybody alse about it.

            • doctordevice@lemmy.ca
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              4 hours ago

              I agree. I’m just living what I’m preaching, they can call themselves the Enlightened for all I care, I’ll use their terms and lobby criticism at them regardless.

    • untorquer@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      Because liberal policy in centered on capital/economic interest, not socialism.

  • wildncrazyguy138@fedia.io
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    12 hours ago

    Everyone is looking to cut off the head of the snake…until you are the snake. If it ain’t venomous or threatening, I say, perhaps then let it go touch grass?