Fictional book? does “The Gulag Archipelago” count?
Yes, but it’s more fascist than liberal.
Fascism is liberalism. It’s liberalism in decline. The politics are different but the economic system is the same.
Fascism is liberalism, but given the level of reactionary-thought, I’d consider them to be distinct in certain circumstances.
They’re only different in terms of their politics, it’s the politics we’re describing but the underlying economic system which not only necessitates it but is serviced by it’s actions is what determines it’s rules, it’s purpose, and it’s livelihood which is why it’s important to discuss in terms of economics not only politics.
More like Tsarist, fash sympathetic, a little less like liberalism
All those are overlapping tbh, depending on conditions. I meant more like theory - which is kinda hard in case of liberalism because liberal theory lies all the time.
I mean, historically liberals have been against monarchy, but when have libs been consistent?
That’s exactly what i mean, liberal theory lies all the time, if they were consistent there would be no monarchy in Europe for at least 100 years.
Came here to say this and Animal Farm. I haven’t read the originating doctrine works of liberalism but as far as books I’ve read (parts of in the process of online debate), those 2.
Do you mean, like, Bentham, Mill, Locke, Hume, and later Rawls, etc? They’re all worth reading. They’re not liberal in the popular sense of the term, but they clearly reveal what Marxists say about liberalism being the ideology of capitalism and about the relationship between fascism and liberalism. If only liberals (a) read them, (b) paid attention, © accepted that what liberal theorists say they mean by liberalism is exactly what they actually mean, and (d) didn’t apologise for all the racist, sexist, and classist shit that clearly underpins liberalism.
I wasn’t referencing them but yes you understood my point.
Animal Farm
The End of History and the Last Man
Harry Potter
A TERF book made by a TERF person in TERF island
Terfception
Tr-Tr-Tr-Triple TERF
I haven’t read any of these, but for the ppl who have, is there a specific one in the series that is more liberal than the others?
I’m trying to remember, I read all of the books when I was 10 or 11 I think. Order of the Phoenix springs to mind, as it’s where we’re fully introduced to the concept of Aurors and the titular Order, basically the FBI of the wizarding world. It’s where Harry figures out he wants to be a deep state wizarding agent lol. The Order exists because of the incompetence of the wizarding bureaucracy, of course, and it’s up to our libertarian heroes to cut through the red tape and mete out true justice.
It may not be the worst offender but it absolutely sets up a lot of liberal nonsense, although there exists liberal nonsense in every book. I remember it being one of the most “political” in the series, though I can’t recall the actual contents of the books very well outside of the more controversial/obviously shitty moments.
Animal Farm imo. It even gets featured in Dutch official history classes as an example of Communism. It’s a fictional book ffs.
Same with the US, it’s almost always required reading in Middle School or HS, same w Loteraly 1987 lol. Years later I skimmed through it and ripped out the pages and burnt those abominations, RIP the trees wasted to make that shitty book
Something’s suspicious when the ‘left’ and the right turn to the same book for the same message.
Literally 1984
“Rich dad, poor dad” by Robert Kyosaky or however his name is spelled.
Lol that was my first thought, time to move to Second Thought
Please tell me you haven’t read any of these books.
Harry Potter
Im not sure if it can top the other ones on here, but Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
How bad is it? My sister gifted it to me some time ago, but I’m yet to actually read the bloody thing
Some parts are half decent, but what I can remember of the bad stuff is:
-He argues that corporations be treated as humans
-he argues against religion and then suggests that communism is a religion
-He argues all ideologies are fundamentally humanist even if he doesn’t think communism or fascism is right about the nature of humanity or what’s best for it, ignoring that malthusians and eco fash view humanity as essential negative
-the book ends arguing that it doesn’t matter what what economic system were under or whatever, what humanity mostly needs to think about is how we will mold our own species (cyborgs/conscious AI/GMO humans)
Some of the stuff about early humanity and religion is interesting, but the majority is neoliberal junk.
I didn’t read after the “corporations can be treated like humans” part. It looked like a case of terminal idealism because he said that this is the case because people collectively have come to give corporations some privileges that humans have. Completely ignores the fact that the main benefactors of corporations are the ones writing the laws which call for this which are then enforced via the judicial system and the police. “Bestselling” books are rife with this kind of garbage.
Hooooo booy. Well that explains the popularity of the book. Thanks!
For the Australians here: “Mao’s Last Dancer” or “The Happiest Refugee by Anh Do”
“El filibusterismo” by Jose Rizal, I find it incredibly ironic that the book that inspired our revolution against Spain essentially ends with don’t assassinate the colonial elite with a lamp IED, revolution is bad and it will fail. Although with hindsight, the book was right. After prodding our founding fathers to continue the revolution against Spain, the US betrayed us starting the Philippine-American war. The result is a lot dead Filipinos and a disrupted economy just to swap colonizers.
Is there any other country whose founding father didn’t actually want independence? Jose Rizal originally wanted the Philippines to become a province of Spain. Most of his ideology is classed as liberal. In spite of the fact, he studied in Europe in the 1880s but never stated he read anything by Marx or met Engels even though he at one point lived in the vicinity.
