Jorunn

I should maybe have been clearer and said the political science definition? What I described is at least what liberalism means in a more formal context. Other definitions are more informal and will vary based on region and context.

Slander implies it isn’t true!

I’m talking about the dictionary definition of liberalism. Real implementations of ideologies ofc will diverge from the definitions. Again, the part of my comment about how liberalism isn’t compatible with democracy and how liberalism is also defined by democracy should tell you a bit about why liberalism isn’t always as good as the ideal :P

Additionally liberalism is a broader definition and there are more specific versions of it as well. A liberal party might not specifically claim to be a specific kind of liberalism, but they are likely not the most general version

Also! Liberalism varies from country to country. I’m not american and liberalism here is different from your liberalism. That should also be noted. It’s a just as flawed ideology here mind you, but they aren’t putting people in camps (but they are perfectly willing to work with the populists ofc).

Liberalism is not synonymous with democracy and refers to a democratic government that isn’t too powerful, doesn’t decide too much what people may or may not do (religious freedom, socially liberal, free speech, etc), has open borders, and a very free capitalist market (only minimal involvement by the government to ensure no monopolies). It should be more or less something like this, it’s been a while since I last checked the definitions.

In a leftist context the criticisms against liberalism are usually aimed at the capitalist aspects of liberalism while conservatives are opposed to the socially liberal parts (and any part that is supposed to counteract corruption). Leftists in general dislike liberalism and feel it ultimately ends in fascism because of the incentives and structures in capitalist societies. The main goal in captitalism after all is greed; that the few should amass wealth and property via exploiting others. Monopolization and hierarchies is built into capitalism at its very core and we consider this to not be compatible with democracy (at the very least in the long run).

There are more criticisms and I’m sure others are better at explaining them, but the main thing is that we don’t believe liberalism is capable of implementing true lasting democracy, and that when it temporarily does it’s at the expense of people elsewhere.