Am I correct in saying Liberal = Socialist?

Question

It seems that everyone I know that considers him or herself a liberal are really just socialists.

I am not trying to be insulting just making an observation

Answer 1

Absolutely! If It's not true than tell me the difference.

Answer 2

Read Chapter 2 and 3 in Acts of the Apostles. This is a biblical description of Socialism as practiced by the early Christians. There have been Socialist Christians throughout history. Today the extremists on the right throw those people in with Liberals. That's because extremists on both sides see only in black and white and like to stereotype the opposition.

Answer 3

Some Americans who call themselves liberals would qualify as social democrats to me.
But I have to deny that a social democrat is the same as a socialist and certainly a communist.
A social democrat does believe in a free market society and the benefits of capitalism and recognize it is the only sustainable economic system for it gives people an incentive to preform.We just believe in socially correcting the rough edges and history has proved us right.
In the beginning of the previous century capitalist were very hard against the abolishing of child labor for example,that makes no sense economically but now there's a wide consensus that children should be not forced to work.
Same with work hours.In the beginning of the previous century factories forced their laborers to work twelve hours a day and more.We want everyone,also the none skilled worker to have a chance to have a happy family life and the oportunity to follow current events and the news.That's essential to have educated and informled citizens and we believe that's crucial in a democracy.
We want a free market but not wild capitalism.We want to protect the weak and vulnerable and give everyone an equal oportunity.
Social democrats were amongst the bigest critiques of the former soviet union and its satelite states.Some social democrats were good secretary generals of NATO.Tony Blair is a social democrat and I hope you see he's not a communist at all.
I think a lot of Americans are hessitant to call themselves social democrats because they also falsy believe this is just another word for socialism or even communism.

Answer 4

I would love all the members who answered no to this question to explain how a liberal is NOT a socialist. Liberals love BIG GOVERNMENT, liberals love taxes for social programs, liberals think they, the select few, know what's best for all. Damn'it! If that doesn't sound like socialism, I don't know what does. Socialism is big government, socialism needs high taxes (example: western Europe) to pay for the asinine social programs they set up and "convince" others that they are needed for the welfare of "the people". In a socialist state, the rights of the government outweigh the rights of the individual. By the way, the majority of liberals I know can all be classified as middle class socialist brats who never really had to work hard.

Answer 5

Let me put it this way, Communism, Anarchists, a command economy, a market economy, and even Social Democrats (Duh!) are all considered in one way or another, to be, or to be representative, of socialism...

I think that either you hang out with women with berets and hairy legs, hang out with guys in black turtle necks that wish they were French and hang out in clubs where quasi-beat poets read Ginsberg-esque poetry, or you throw your terms out there a little too loosely...

There was a time in this country, when Socialist, for the most part, meant communist. Then, for awhile, there was some sort of Netherland-Switzerland kind of thing going on, especially when the health care arguement came up. But now, I'm not exacty sure what the current definition of Socialist is.

And with that, for me, my definition of Liberal is that there is a hell of a lot more going on in this country and the rest of this world than to even waste your time with Gay Marriage as an issue... I am branded a liberal simply because I do not respect the "Bible Thumper's thought process... I am certainly not a communist or anarchist!

Now that you know my definition of terms, I would answer your question by telling you that you are partly correct. Yes, in the grand scale, there is a very narrowly defined group that think of themselves as liberals that look upon themselves as an equally narrowly defined socialist. But beyond that there are myriad ways to define liberal.

Answer 6

It is confusing...these terms change over time. Originally a Liberal was for less government, and was more like what we call a modern Libertarian, but over time these things get blurry.
So, as an Independent who has voted for nothing but losing presidential canditates, I say hell no ~ truth is Socialists are the radical infiltrators of a once sensible Liberal center, just as Fascists are to Conservatives.
Why all losing presidential candidates? What can I say, I always vote for experience/ideas over personality/politics.

Answer 7

Maybe in your conservative viewpoint (right wing), a liberal seems like a socialist. However, there are few socialists in this country. Liberals tend to distrust corporations and put their stock in the individual, while the conservatives believe the opposite.

And if you were serious with your liberal = socialist, I could say conservative = fascist. Sounds ugly, doesn't it, and that's what your question is.

In the political spectrum, (an arc), US political thought is not very far right nor far left from the middle.

Answer 8

well... it really depends on how you define them...

people are quite liberal (hehe) with their definitions of liberal on here...

if you're talking about the ACTUAL liberals... it wouldn't be a hard and fast rule... but more socialist tendencies would certainly be present... but maybe not to a full blown "socialist" degree

but if you think all Dems are liberals, which I've heard many, many, many times on here... then I wouldn't consider that quite correct... I know many dems that aren't big on many socialist ideas....

but of course everyone is different...

Answer 9

I agree. What do liberals stand for?

1. higher taxes based on income
2. redistribution of wealth
3. more and more government control over our lives.
4. punting our national defense to the UN

The best cure for a liberal is a large income.

Answer 10

The UN is planning a world-wide govt. talk about socialist taking our firearms, all religion, have a police state & Patriots to go to FEMA camps. They want $.01/100 e-mail, about 70 bil/yr.

Answer 11

The real common point is that they are both from left wing.

In Europe it is said that socialists are those who are looking for social justice and who fight individualism.
3 groups : social-democrats, marxists, anarchists.

So I think that socialism is larger.