Why conservatives call "liberal" everything to the left?

Question

But many real marxist leninists and anarchists would be laughing at this "lumping" together. "Liberal" [and I am not one but a cynic] tends to see social and human advances as "rossy". "Let's solve the problem and everybody will be happy forever". For me that's a quite silly political opinion. Tha's why I RESENT being called "liberal" by these conservatives. Leftists marxists and anarchists see the world in darker side. Almost in "apocalyptical" terms. And are quite authoritarian [a leftist reading this will disagree if he/she wishes] Also marxists think that the evil is "capitalism". [In my view, capitalism is the part of humans defects we can't and never be able to solve]. So "liberalism" and "leftism" are two different terms. What do you think?

Answer 1

Part of it is the silly belief that there are only two positions possible.

But most of it is because, having successfully turned "liberal" into a snarl word (like fascist or commie), they can then take the shortcut of simply labeling anyone that they don't like for any reason a "liberal".

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/

Answer 2

Why do people generalize and oversimplify?

You and your intellectual targets are both guilty of this.
So am I.

It would be wise to run a spell checker before posting. I'm not trying to get on your case, but it is bad form.

Answer 3

Because many of them see the world in a single black-and-white linear spectrum..... their way, or the other (single other) way.

Not only is the world much more complicated than all-or-nothing yes-or-no, it's also not a single linear spectrum from left to right.

Answer 4

For the exact same reason Liberal Democrats call everything to the right "Conservative".

Answer 5

I'm a Centerist.