• BiteSizedZeitGeist@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Nonconfrontationally, of course, I imagine 😉

    I’m not talking about an actual dictionary definition. I’m talking about how I’ve seen different groups use the term. English is descriptive, not presecriptive.

    Since you have a lemmy.ml handle, please correct me if I’m wrong. I think Marxist-Leninists use the term to describe adherents to political philosophies that emphasize personal liberty over communalism - which lays the groundwork for a social order heavily influenced by market economies and thus capitalism. That aligns strongly with American conservative ideals of free-market economics and small government and deregulation.

    Why conservatives align capitalism with Christian fundamentalism is a whole other discussion that we can have.

    Also, I think American conservatives use “liberal” in the small-L sense, as in someone who adheres and promotes a broad view of social norms, including LGBTQ lifestyles, looser definitions of gender roles and family structures, and non-Christian faiths and creeds. (And a boogeyman that conservative news outlets paint as a threat to American ideals.)