• Doomsider
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    1 day ago

    I think you may be confusing authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

    As some other people have pointed out liberalism can be across the spectrum and does not really define political leaning.

    I think you perhaps hold liberalism to higher ideals when in reality it has always been the propaganda the wealthy use to obscure their actual goals.

    • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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      2 days ago

      Well. Yeah. All politics is the application of high-minded ideals to the real world. Communism is supposed to lead to the dissolution of the state, and it leads to a different group of wealthy people in charge. Capitalism is supposed to give the common man access to wealth, and it leads to a group of wealthy people in charge. Case in point:

      Authoritarianism is the ideal implementation of a hierarchical structure in society. Totalitarianism is what it looks like in practice.

      Liberalism is the idea that everyone should have the right to live how they see fit. Of course everyone is going to try and co-opt that.

      • Doomsider
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        1 day ago

        I can agree with a lot of that except for capitilism. A byproduct of small business capitalism is it does an okay job at distributing wealth. This is not the goal of capitalism, but a side effect of its initial stage.

        Liberalism is the propaganda the wealthy class use to maintain control.

        • Talcosis@lemmy.zip
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          1 day ago

          That’s kind of the point. Everything in the ideal sense helps the common man, and everything in reality is co-opted by the wealthy into propaganda used to maintain control. Some things work better than others.

          The concept that people have the right to self determination is, in my opinion, more resilient to co-optation by the wealthy, because even the most ardent modern bootlicker still fundamentally believes it is their choice.

          • Doomsider
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            1 day ago

            I agree, but with the caveat that the concept and reality are two different things.