• Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    That’s because it makes no sense as an insult.

    Essentially just boils down to: “You care about other people you evil scumbag. Not like me, I’m a patriot, I’ve got mine, screw everyone else.”

    And then they claim you’ve been “owned”, which they have to tell you, because otherwise it isn’t apparent.

    • 31337
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      1 year ago

      Leftists sometimes use it as an insult because liberals are still capitalists or because liberals in the U.S. have an ineffective "reach across the aisle, " “civility politics” reputation. I’ve mostly heard it from tankies (who are not leftists, IMO) or from leftist using it in more of a tounge-in-cheek manner though.

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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      1 year ago

      Essentially just boils down to: “You care about other people you evil scumbag. Not like me, I’m a patriot, I’ve got mine, screw everyone else.”

      I’ve learned that liberal has a very different meaning if it comes from tankies, communists or non-americans than it does if if it comes from a Republican, and my knowledge of world politics is honestly too limited to fully understand why that is and if it’s for different reasons for each of the above groups

      But I agree with the person you’re replying to, everyone I’ve encountered who uses “liberals” as an insult has not been a terribly pleasant person to interact with.

      • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Not a tankie but a leftist. Liberalism enshrines private property rights and free markets as tenets of freedom. From a leftist perspective, it’s equivalent to stating that the only way to end gun violence is more guns. It’s not just wrong to state, it’s antithetical to the goal.

        It’s not being used like conservatives use it (any one left of me politically) but in its more traditional sense, the foundation of the US and countries who followed that model (most “developed” countries)

        • CancerMancer
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          1 year ago

          Yeah you nailed it, leftists use the term “liberal” in its classic context, as you have described. Tankies tend to use it as a pejorative while other leftists usually use it descriptively, and are more likely to use “neoliberal” pejoratively instead. This does depend on which community you’re browsing though.

          From a leftist perspective, it’s equivalent to stating that the only way to end gun violence is more guns

          Just want to note that Marx said the working class must be armed, and there are many leftists who agree. Gun control is not a left position, it is an authoritarian one. Important distinction imo.

      • Jax
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        1 year ago

        To a U.S. conservative: librul = commy = bad.

        To a tankie: librul = conservative with extra steps = bad.

        That’s the short and sweet of it.