Yeah okay well, person from not the US, here’s the thing - “liberal” here, doesn’t mean what it apparently does there. So if you’ve convinced someone that it means something else there, then great - but here - if you go around shouting “Liberal!” at people you come off as a MAGAt fuckwit despite your no doubt bona fides lefty certifications. Because language is like that.
And it’s really, really, annoying. Because liberal is a good thing. For us. For our entire lives, liberals were the progressives, the people who made the world better.
Now a shit ton of people who don’t live here are screaming at us about being liberals. It’s a PITA. If you have to have a disclaimer for your bon mots it’s pretty self-defeating. Which is actually not a bad metaphor, really.
Look, as someone who also grew up in the USA with the terms liberal and leftist being used synonymously, it’s us who use it the wrong way. I also have a tinge of offense when liberal is used as an insult or with negative connotations, at least at first. Then I remember what liberal actually means, what the people using it are probably saying based on context, and carry on. We can’t expect the whole world to use a word the way we’re used to it when the entire rest of the world uses that word in a different, agreed upon way.
Dunno what to tell you, but I do know when someone starts saying I’m a “libtard” it doesn’t really matter - they sound like a MAGAt and their support is unwarranted.
Yeah okay well, person from not the US, here’s the thing - “liberal” here, doesn’t mean what it apparently does there. So if you’ve convinced someone that it means something else there, then great - but here - if you go around shouting “Liberal!” at people you come off as a MAGAt fuckwit despite your no doubt bona fides lefty certifications. Because language is like that.
And it’s really, really, annoying. Because liberal is a good thing. For us. For our entire lives, liberals were the progressives, the people who made the world better.
Now a shit ton of people who don’t live here are screaming at us about being liberals. It’s a PITA. If you have to have a disclaimer for your bon mots it’s pretty self-defeating. Which is actually not a bad metaphor, really.
The American right seem to use ‘liberal’ and ‘leftist’ interchangeably, because they don’t know how words work.
Look, as someone who also grew up in the USA with the terms liberal and leftist being used synonymously, it’s us who use it the wrong way. I also have a tinge of offense when liberal is used as an insult or with negative connotations, at least at first. Then I remember what liberal actually means, what the people using it are probably saying based on context, and carry on. We can’t expect the whole world to use a word the way we’re used to it when the entire rest of the world uses that word in a different, agreed upon way.
Dunno what to tell you, but I do know when someone starts saying I’m a “libtard” it doesn’t really matter - they sound like a MAGAt and their support is unwarranted.