hey Armin, All,

If you allow, I'd expand on your list a bit, which is spot on.

...

Part of the conservative vs liberal confusion has to do with the
limitations we seem to place on dynamics in the USA. We can only have
two sides for most everything (eg Pepsi cola vs. Coca Cola, Mac vs Win,
Dem vs Rep, MacDonalds vs Burger King). It's VERY hard to get some
other non-binary dynamic at the macro scale. Two seems to be the
perfect number that gives you the illusion of choice.


> that's all true but in the USA 'liberals' is synonymous with
> leftists, socialists, etc.
>
> thus, it should be possible to differentiate between three main
> meanings, two of them widely shared


> - economic liberalism, neo-liberalism, fiscal conservativism (bad)

It took me many years to understand this. It's a bit of a contradiction
(perhaps double-speak) to call economic liberalism as fiscal
conservatism. "Neo-liberalism" is hardly used in the states and I often
find myself trying to explain how conservatives (ie republicans) are
neo-liberals.

> - cultural liberalism (i am proudly one of them)
> - liberal as in socialist (only used in the USA where for historic
> reasons words such as left or socialist are banned)

Like you said, these two are more or less blended in the US.
So, if you are "liberal" in the states, its automatically
assumed that you are a cultural liberal AND thus also some kind of
socialist. However, because the term "socialist" is not really
well-understood for the most part, many people equate "liberalism" with
authoritarianism and totalitarianism (ie big government).

There is one growing exception that is coming about through the
"cultural liberals". These are the libertarians. They say they are
"socially liberal, but fiscally conservative." Which really just means
they are liberal across the board. Strangely, I've found this mostly in
Los Angeles and San Francisco, and mostly among younger hipsters who are
into art and technology.


hey now -august.

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