Liberalism is an ideology with two main parts. First is political liberalism which focuses on individual freedoms, democracy, and human rights. Second is economic liberalism which centers around free markets, private property, and wealth accumulation. These two aspects form a contradiction. Political liberalism purports to support everyone’s freedom, while economic liberalism enshrines private property rights as sacred in laws and constitutions, effectively removing them from political debate.
Liberalism justifies the use of state violence to safeguard property rights, over supporting ordinary people, which contradicts the promises of fairness and equality. Private property is seen as a key part of individual freedom under liberalism, and this provides the foundational justification for the rich to keep their wealth while ignoring the needs of everyone else. The talks of promoting freedom and democracy is just a fig leaf to provide cover for justifying capitalist relations.
In America, everything is right wing and there are no liberals. The Overton window in the U.S. is so far to the right that even basic civil rights, democracy, and freedoms that exist elsewhere are seen as radical.
Right-wingers and capitalists have rebranded their system as “neoliberalism,” pretending it is about freedom. But real freedom: civil rights and human rights, democracy, secularism, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion… they cannot exist under capitalism, where a small class rules over the majority. True democracy means workers control society, not just picking which capitalist will exploit them.
I don’t know how centrist translates since I’m an American and American liberalism is Western European center-right.
Fwiw: it seems so or at least a LOT of overlap.
Liberalism is an ideology with two main parts. First is political liberalism which focuses on individual freedoms, democracy, and human rights. Second is economic liberalism which centers around free markets, private property, and wealth accumulation. These two aspects form a contradiction. Political liberalism purports to support everyone’s freedom, while economic liberalism enshrines private property rights as sacred in laws and constitutions, effectively removing them from political debate.
Liberalism justifies the use of state violence to safeguard property rights, over supporting ordinary people, which contradicts the promises of fairness and equality. Private property is seen as a key part of individual freedom under liberalism, and this provides the foundational justification for the rich to keep their wealth while ignoring the needs of everyone else. The talks of promoting freedom and democracy is just a fig leaf to provide cover for justifying capitalist relations.
This is an excellent primer on the subject https://orgrad.wordpress.com/articles/liberalism-the-two-faced-tyranny-of-wealth/
In America, everything is right wing and there are no liberals. The Overton window in the U.S. is so far to the right that even basic civil rights, democracy, and freedoms that exist elsewhere are seen as radical.
Right-wingers and capitalists have rebranded their system as “neoliberalism,” pretending it is about freedom. But real freedom: civil rights and human rights, democracy, secularism, economic and political freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion… they cannot exist under capitalism, where a small class rules over the majority. True democracy means workers control society, not just picking which capitalist will exploit them.