Quote:
Originally Posted by 12thMan
I'm curious, 70...how do you define Liberal?
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In the modern sense of the word. Perhaps radical and radicalism would be a better term. IMO, the modern right has as much claim to the word liberal as the modern left does, but I use the term as it has been defined since around the 1970s. I mean the Radical Left. Generally they see capitalism as inherently unfair and opressive. They view religion as reactionary and repressive. They view the state and state power as a means and not an end (so long as they run it). Their worldview is largely informed by Marx and his approach to history (dialectical materialism) even if they don't realize it. In addition, any number of liberation ideologies have attached themselves to the modern left, taking in the areas of human sexuality, race relations, and the sovreignty of individual nation states.
I think the glue that holds these disparate phenomenon together, though, is their rejection of a compassionate, personal God. This is their most common refrain.