Whenever I hear someone use liberal to describe someone or something that is left leaning I just get the sense that their politics are too US-based and kind of roll my eyes because that’s not really what liberal means. Is this an appropriate reaction or should I get off my high horse?

  • wazowski
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    3 years ago

    i think that a word… can have different meanings? 🤷‍♀️

    liberal = non-orthodox is not specific to the us, in fact, non-orthodox is one of the official definitions of the word liberal, which is befitting of many leftist policies

    it just so happens that liberal is part of neoliberalism, which creates a perception of a contradiction in meaning, but in reality isn’t that 🤷‍♀️

    but important to note, all of this is in the realm of prescriptive linguistics