It gets used in a defamatory way because there are quite a few people with conservative BS agendas who use to the term to describe their BS. The conservatives crack me up when they attack liberals for being just like them.

You remind me of an old story about Harry Truman.

Harry Truman, when he was U.S President, once addressed the
Washington Garden Club and kept referring to 'good manure'
that must be used on flowers. Some society ladies complained
(later) to the First Lady Margaret Truman, "Bess, can't you
get the President to stop saying manure?" The First Lady replied,

"Heavens, it took me 25 years to get him to say 'manure'".


What the conservatives REALLY want to call us is "nigger lovers." "Liberals" like Harry's manure is an improvement.

I despise politics to the point where I do not even vote, but by definition I would be considered a liberal.

I'm a liberal in the classical sense.

(July 22, 2013 at 9:07 pm)Tiberius Wrote: I'm a liberal in the classical sense.

Wouldn't that be Libertarian?

I would say that I swing more towards libertarian, though there are definitely some liberal ideas that I share. On that political compass thing I end up as a "social libertarian." Though it's generally on social issues that I usually end up at odds with liberals. To put it as simply as possible, I agree with most of the end goals that liberals have but I believe in achieving them differently.

Not unless he's in america, which he isn't.
Libertarian over in Europe means something different as well.

(July 23, 2013 at 12:01 am)Stue Denim Wrote: Not unless he's in america, which he isn't.
Libertarian over in Europe means something different as well.

In political philosophy, libertarianism has a very clear definition. On both sides of the Atlantic.

http://archive.org/details/NoamChomskyOn...ibertarian

Noam Chomsky, a 'left-libertarian'

And as german's said, his 'liberals' are US libertarians [if a tad milquetoast].

(July 23, 2013 at 12:13 am)Stue Denim Wrote: http://archive.org/details/NoamChomskyOn...ibertarian

Noam Chomsky, a 'left-libertarian'

Word definitions change. The American version is the one that I covered in political philosophy, with Robert Nozick as one of the main texts.