At what point in recent history did 'liberal' become an insult, and why?

Question

liberal (POLITICS)

adjective

(of a political party or a country) believing in or allowing more personal freedom and a development towards a fairer sharing of wealth and power within society

Buy WHY, my fellow muppet, WHY? What's wrong with a fairer society?

Shademaster, try once, just once, to answer the question. Please?

PS You've got a nerve saying I'm easily insulted when you got one of my answers removed. Crybaby.

Answer 1

Society is far from fair, but so is life anyway. the real problem i have with "radical" liberals is when they go so far, that they want to take apart the morals and values of society, and turn everything that is wrong, and make it right.

I also find that while liberals scream "tolerance" they are hypocritical in that they tear apart any others who disagree with them, with out a logical argument. (Not all, but many)

another thing i learned about liberals, is that, yes, they want a fair chance for every one. but if you look at the welfare system, and how it really works, you will find that it, in itself, represses people and keeps them poor. It exist on purpose. so that the working class will have jobs. (and they still struggle)The welfare system doesn't take kids away from rich people, just the poor. A recipient of the welfare system gets 10 cents, while the welfare institution gets 90 cents out of every dollar. the more people they keep poor, the more money they get. society is set up for the haves and have nots.

Liberalism is just a new name for socialism. The rich will never give up their riches and share. They live off the lower classes and force the middle classes to take up the slack in taxes. Then the poor are used as scapegoats, so that the rich can blame the poor for the ills of society, while in reality, all the institutions in society are set up so that "the rich stay rich" and the poor stay poor" no matter how hard you work. There are few exceptions.

There is no eason for poverty in our country, and if you were to put every single able working body to work, you wouldn't have enough jobs to go around anyway, and many jobs are with out any benefits, and pay too little. so the rich can get richer.

Alot of things about this country need reform, but to go with liberalism will eventually lead to totalitarian control, which would then, take away the freedoms we cherish.

Basically you can trace many of societies problems to greed. When you see the values and morals of society coming undone, you know someone has been working hard to keep their positions of power.

Answer 2

The conservatives have made a conscious effort to try and associate "liberal" with a lifestyle, as a opposed to a set of ideas. They want liberal to mean "gay college professor", instead of "crusader for the poor".

And to answer Fozzie - you're way off base. Take a large corporation. Over the last 6 years, that company has probably reneged on it's pension obligations, and foisted all of it's healthcare costs back onto its employees. Meanwhile, the CEO has taken home a $500 million dollar paycheck. Liberals would say, hey, wait a minute, why not take $400 million of that and fund the pension plan and cover your employees healthcare costs for the next 10 years. The CEO would still make $100 million, but the employees would benefit as well. Or are you claiming that the only person who does any work at a company is the CEO? Your lame "giving money to people who do nothing" argument is a total distortion of liberal goals. Nice try, though.

Answer 3

If you have access to Harper's Magazine try to find the September 2004 issue. There is an article titled "Tentacles of Rage: The Republican Propaganda Mill, A brief History" by Lewis H. Lapham. It provides a good history of the change in the political landscape from the mid 60's to present day and how the Republicans accomplished it through slander and Billions of dollars.

Answer 4

I would guess that it became the mantra of the Far Right Conservative group during the Nixon years. Neo-con republicans saw an opportunity to lump together all the "bad" elements and schools of thought that publicly questioned their goals and actions.

Liberals wore flowers in their hair and got high and had sex paid for by welfare checks. They also wanted to stop military aggression and buildup, which just happened to be a huge employer in republican states, and a big part of the "run the country on fear" strategy. When they started to get elected to office, and use the public forum that comes with it, the only, and quickest way to demonize it was to paint a picture of them picking the pockets of the average hardworking family.

Personally, I think most right wing republicans are just pissed off because they believe those damn liberals get laid more often than they do...

Answer 5

finding back on the historic past of the GOP and the Democratic events, that's straightforward to ascertain that traditionally, the democratic occasion became against civil rights, for slavery, and against nationalism. whilst the GOP, on the different hand, became began on a platform that would desire to ultimately rid the rustic of slavery and would embark the rustic on an incredibly much century of civil rights circulation law. The GOP pushed individual freedom and states rights and unfavourable social welfare courses till ultimately, for the duration of Barry Goldwater's bid for the Presidency, many human beings mistakenly theory that the GOP became forsaking the persons. The democrats took great factor approximately that place and embraced, for a short era, a time of civil rights circulation in an attempt to defraud the voters into thinking the democrats have the persons's perfect pastimes in innovations. regrettably, democrats have never had the perfect pastimes of somebody in innovations, yet have extremely made stable strides in shifting our us of a in the direction of a socialist state. many human beings now are commencing up to understand that having each and every American on welfare isn't this type of great theory. Many individuals are bored with being taxed to dying and a rather good variety of people are bored with seeing there Liberal Politicians vote repeatedly to advance taxes. besides to the above, i think of all human beings is bored with the consistent lies and deceipt promugated by utilising the Democratic (Socialist) occasion and its leaders. Wasn't frightening Kerry sufficient? on the different hand, the GOP does falter now and then. that's in all threat time for a sparkling civil rights circulation. we would desire to continuously embark on a circulation that would desire to hold equality in training to each American. (Bush's debunked "No toddler Left at the back of" became authored by utilising Sen. Kennedy) we would desire to continuously pass this us of a any from socialist ideals and we would desire to continuously teach our little ones the necessities that would desire to enable them to be effective contributors of our society. i do no longer think of this is a liberal suited. it can not be a well-known conservitive suited the two, yet i think of it would artwork.

Answer 6

So, tell me how you can have more personal freedom when the government is busy taking your wealth and power from you. Economic and political freedom are just as important as whether you can get high and do the rump rhumba.

And egalitarianism has always led to brutal totalitarianism. This is because it is contrary to human nature, and the zealots have always come to the conclusion that 'enemies' of the egalitarian order must be eliminated.

It ends up either a Reign of Terror, or like the Eloi in "The Time Machine".

Answer 7

Because those that used the name did not stand for what the word meant.They stood for a large powerful central government where the citizens serve it instead of the other way around.It became a dirty word in the mid to late '80's.

Answer 8

Words can always be twisted to suit the power hungry desires of the elite.

Most of America is fairly liberal. Unfortunately, only half of America votes. Most of those who vote for the Neo-Cons, don't realize what they really stand for.

Ignorance is bliss.

Answer 9

When conservatives took the power of the media

Answer 10

Your definition answers the question.

What is "fairer sharing of wealth and power"? It means taking from people who have worked hard and earned something and giving to those who choose not to.

If you wish to give your hard-earned money to a charity, that's great. Lots of us do. However, when the government comes and takes my money without my consent to give to able-bodied people who choose to do nothing with their lives, that's a huge problem for me. If I don't like it, I get to go to jail.

Do you see why "liberal" is a dirty word?

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