Liberals versus Leftists

[Edwardo Piet]

The conservative talk-show host, Dennis Prager, wrote an article in which he compared and contrasted liberalism and leftism. HERE I would like to know if other people, particularly people who consider themselves liberal, progressive, or left-leaning consider his assessment accurate, if not particularly precise. Here is how I would summarize the comparisons made:

Liberal: skin color is irrelevant
Left: skin color is significant

Liberal: Capitalism is good with proper regulation.
Left: Capitalism is essentially exploitative.

Liberal: Love of country is a virtue.
Left: Nationalism is a vice.

Liberal: America is a beacon of freedom and land of opportunity.
Left: America is fundamentally oppressive.

Liberal: The solution to offensive speech is more speech.
Left: Offensive beliefs should be suppressed.

Liberal: The Western tradition has produced the most free, wealthiest, technologically advanced and culturally rich civilization.
Left: All cultures and civilizations are morally, aesthetically, and intellectually equal.

Liberal is left. "Leftist" is the made up bullshit. And all the examples here just seem like stereotypes.

---

I'll now give my own responses.

Liberal: skin color is irrelevant
Left: skin color is significant

Misleading. It's irrelevant in the sense that it doesn't matter what color your skin is. It's significant in the sense that racism is very real and to pretend that people with certain skin colors don't get it harder than others because of racism . . . is just denying reality.

Liberal: Capitalism is good with proper regulation.
Left: Capitalism is essentially exploitative.

False dichotomy.

I'd say a lot of capitalism is exploitative, but it's a necessary evil at worst and there are no better alternatives. Overall it's "good" with proper regulation if only in the sense that it's a system that actually works. Despite its flaws.

Money has its problems, but there's not exactly an alternative to money either.

Liberal: Love of country is a virtue.
Left: Nationalism is a vice.

Full blown nationalism is certainly a vice. Love of country is harmless at best. The idea of it being a virtue makes no sense at all.

Liberal: America is a beacon of freedom and land of opportunity.
Left: America is fundamentally oppressive.

False dichotomy again. The truth is somewhere in between. And yes, I am a liberal and I am left.

Liberal: The solution to offensive speech is more speech.
Left: Offensive beliefs should be suppressed.

You appear to be equating the "left" and "leftists" with SJWs who aren't actually liberal. If you're really liberal, you absolutely do support free speech. Identifying as liberal and then oppressing free speech and having very illiberal policies, doesn't make you a liberal. Just as claiming to be Christian but not believing in God or Jesus Christ, doesn't make you a Christian. What someone identifies as is wholly irrelevant with regards to what they actually are (unless their identity is what we're talking about).

Liberal: The Western tradition has produced the most free, wealthiest, technologically advanced and culturally rich civilization.
Left: All cultures and civilizations are morally, aesthetically, and intellectually equal.

False dichotomy. Again, the truth is somewhere in between. Not all civilizations and cultures are equal, but western civilization hasn't got everything necessarily right either. Some things, such as genital mutilation, is absolutely wrong and I don't care what the culture says, but this doesn't make eastern civilization worthless by any means.

And yes, I am left, and I am a liberal.