• Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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      1 year ago

      That’s because it makes no sense as an insult.

      Essentially just boils down to: “You care about other people you evil scumbag. Not like me, I’m a patriot, I’ve got mine, screw everyone else.”

      And then they claim you’ve been “owned”, which they have to tell you, because otherwise it isn’t apparent.

      • 31337@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        Leftists sometimes use it as an insult because liberals are still capitalists or because liberals in the U.S. have an ineffective "reach across the aisle, " “civility politics” reputation. I’ve mostly heard it from tankies (who are not leftists, IMO) or from leftist using it in more of a tounge-in-cheek manner though.

      • Trainguyrom@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        Essentially just boils down to: “You care about other people you evil scumbag. Not like me, I’m a patriot, I’ve got mine, screw everyone else.”

        I’ve learned that liberal has a very different meaning if it comes from tankies, communists or non-americans than it does if if it comes from a Republican, and my knowledge of world politics is honestly too limited to fully understand why that is and if it’s for different reasons for each of the above groups

        But I agree with the person you’re replying to, everyone I’ve encountered who uses “liberals” as an insult has not been a terribly pleasant person to interact with.

        • chuckleslord@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not a tankie but a leftist. Liberalism enshrines private property rights and free markets as tenets of freedom. From a leftist perspective, it’s equivalent to stating that the only way to end gun violence is more guns. It’s not just wrong to state, it’s antithetical to the goal.

          It’s not being used like conservatives use it (any one left of me politically) but in its more traditional sense, the foundation of the US and countries who followed that model (most “developed” countries)

          • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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            1 year ago

            Yeah you nailed it, leftists use the term “liberal” in its classic context, as you have described. Tankies tend to use it as a pejorative while other leftists usually use it descriptively, and are more likely to use “neoliberal” pejoratively instead. This does depend on which community you’re browsing though.

            From a leftist perspective, it’s equivalent to stating that the only way to end gun violence is more guns

            Just want to note that Marx said the working class must be armed, and there are many leftists who agree. Gun control is not a left position, it is an authoritarian one. Important distinction imo.

        • Jax@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          To a U.S. conservative: librul = commy = bad.

          To a tankie: librul = conservative with extra steps = bad.

          That’s the short and sweet of it.

    • propaganja@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I mean, it might be because you’re a liberal—one who believes that liberals are beyond reproach.

      • Roundcat@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Or I never see communists here talk about fascists and the far right the same way they talk about liberals or anyone else on or near the left who doesn’t quite meet their purity test. Almost as if they prefer the company of nazis.

        • CancerMancer@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Go to any place gamers chat and you will see people hating each other over specific games or genres far more than talking about the politics hovering over gaming. Internal fighting is always going to be loudest when there is not any major external work to be done.