New Leaning: Classical Liberal

[BulletWounD]

I think there should be a selection for "Classical Liberal" under "Leaning" in the user's profile in lieu of the fact that the terms "liberal" and "libertarian" can have very different meanings depending on where you live. When you say "classical liberal" everybody should know what you're talking about. 5 posts and my status as a libertarian has already been challenged...

 

[Agnapostate]

Don't worry, Wound, you'll have a lot more people on your side than I will, for instance. :lol:

If there was an anarchist label, I would take it right away though.

 

[Real Korimyr #9]

Meh. Your leaning will get challenged regardless of how you declare it.

 

[SWM]

Yeah, such is armchair politics. People who are out to get libertarians will be upset that you're not retarded enough to be their strawmen, people who consider themselves the same will seek to deny you your self-imposed label if you don't march in lockstep with their view of the doctrine.

 

[First Thought]

I'm in favor of this. I would also like to see party affiliation displayed under the "leaning" classification beneath the avatar.

 

[Agnapostate]

I'm in favor of that myself.

 

[Tucker Case]

I'm playing with my leaning and usergroup designations. :mrgreen:

 

[HelloDollyLlama]

I think the labels are outmoded, pointless, and just another way to foster division and conflict. Slapping a label on a person means we're attacking people rather than ideas.

"Classic Liberal" sounds like someone who is ashamed to be plain old "Liberal". Like "Classic Coke".

If you asked ten people to define the difference between Liberal and Classic Liberal, you'd get ten wrong answers. Terms are useless whe no one can agree on what they mean.

"Liberal" versus "Conservative" is a dichotomy that reflects Cold-War-era thinking, a bilateral, Manichean, us-versus-them mindset that was useless and counterproductive even during the Cold War. The world was always too complicated for such a simple blue-red construct. And people are more complicated than that too: nobody is all-red or all-blue.

 

[Agnapostate]

Uh...classical liberals and modern liberals are rather different in terms of their political ideology. Hence the doctrine of economic "neoliberalism" being a decidedly rightist trend.