• kaffiene@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I hear Americans use the term liberal all the time but the way they use it makes me think we’re talkibg about different things

    • ADTJ@feddit.uk
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      6 months ago

      It is very confusing. There’s socially liberal, which is what Americans are usually referring to which is generally progressive, more freedoms for people etc.

      The other liberal is Liberalism which is largely about being in favour of private property, private companies etc. and a free market, which tends to (but not always) correlate with being socially conservative.

      Here in the UK, one of the big parties is the Liberal Democrats, which is a pro-Liberalism centre-right wing party, but because of the name a lot of people confuse them for progressives.