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NeoliberalismKills wrote

Today I learned Jacobin doesn't understand Liberalism has always been about no civil liberties for the ruled.

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Whom wrote

Maybe a bit of a nitpick: It hasn't provided enough civil liberties, but doing so is undoubtedly part of the ideological roots of liberalism. The problem isn't that it was never trying to improve them, it's that by ushering in capitalism, they introduced a powerful monster which resists any attempt at liberation.

It's not like liberalism was evil in its aims from the start, it's that it was wrong and its means of achieving them are now our wall keeping us from progress. It was an important step toward both modern anarchism and socialism.

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NeoliberalismKills wrote

Liberalism arose out of the desire of the property owning class to separate from feudalism AND keep the peasants from getting property. So, yes. It was evil in it's aim from the start. I don't think the negative side is unintended consequences but was baked in intentionally from the start.

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Whom wrote (edited )

You might want to separate out liberalism as an ideology and capitalism as an economic system. Early liberals were often very idealistic and argued that it would be a path toward general emancipation. In practice this meant empowering white landowners, but there was a time when idealism of that kind was commonly a big part of the conversation among liberal thinkers.

They failed, of course. If you want to frame it like a conspiracy, it's of capitalists as a class, not liberalism as an ideology. Not when it was considered radical, at least.

(Again, this is super nitpicky lol, fuck liberalism)

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