#liberalism — Public Fediverse posts

I wish Mill had been aware of and engaged with the arguments of his London contemporary Karl Marx.

In fact, I wish they had met over a series of evenings to debate the foundations of political economy.

Wouldn't that dialogue, had it ever taken place, still be a continuing feast for all of us on the left?

#JohnStuartMill #KarlMarx #PoliticalThought #Economics #PoliticlEconomy #Marxism #Liberalism #Socialism #Philosphy #History #Counterfactual

Richard Reeves -- John Stuart Mill: Victorian Firebrand

Although the author was not an academic philosopher or historian but a journalist, his 2007 biography of Mill will not only serve as an excellent introduction to Mill and his work for those unfamiliar with this seminal liberal thinker but will also illuminate the philosopher's historical context for those mainly accustomed to examining his philosophical arguments.

Reeves stresses the importance of seeing Mill as a passionately engaged public intellectual and is concerned to dispel the myth of Mill as a dessicated humourless, purely cerebral intellectual.

In addition to providing a more accurate representation of Mill's character, the demythologization that Reeves offers can also add to rebuttals of those continual conservative claims that reformers and radicals are bloodless "sophisters, economists, and calculators".*

In fact, as Reeves points out, conservative thinkers such as Carlyle and Coleridge exercised a significant influence on Mill's thought. Operating in conjunction with his Wordworth catalyzed opening to the poetic sensibility, these thinkers helped Mill escape the narrow confines of Benthamite thought. Yet Mill never became a conservative himself, even if some of his beliefs regarding capital punishment, the secret ballot, or universal suffrage might strike today's reader as such.

Mill's continuing commitment to progressive reform might best be seen in his commitment to feminism, a commitment unusual for his time, which deepened over the course of his life, and which will still grate with many conservatives today, not merely the incels and inmates of the manosphere. Reeves argues that his thinking on these matters was much his own as that of his beloved wife, Harriet. To what extent this is true must be debateable.

The most enduring part of Mill's intellectual legacy must be , as Reeves puts it, a " clearly and repeatedly articulated vision of a flourishing human
life―self-improving, passionate, truth-seeking, engaged and colourful―which it
was the job of individuals to cultivate, and the duty of society to promote". This characterization of Mill's core commitments should remind us, as his biographer points out, that "On Liberty" is as much concerned with the threats to autonomy posed by conformity and dogma as those from the excesses of government.

"On Liberty" still provides much to argue with and argue about. In spite of Mill's own reservations about democracy, it's a text that can play a valauble role in discussions about the ethos of democracy, or democracy as a way of life.

Although Reeves does mention Mill's work for the East India company, this aspect of his life deserves deeper research and more attention, even though Mill himself dismissed this work as being of no significance in his intellectual development.

Th biography reads easily without being simplistic, even if many of Mill's arguments are not analyzed with the thoroughness of professional philosophers. All the same, one might wish that many of those scholars would try harder to match their analytical rigor with a Reevesian readability!

* "But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded, and the glory of Europe is extinguished forever." Edmund Burke, "Reflections on the Revolution in France".

#Books #JohnStuartMill #RichardReeves #Biography #History #Philosophy #Liberalism

https://www.parapraxismagazine.com/articles/all-you-fascist-liberals

I enjoyed this article about #fascism and #liberalism - fleshes out the old problems of liberals being handmaidens of fascism in a contemporary context. I don't always agree with #zizek BUT I do think he's one of the better diagnosticians for liberalism.

About liberalism and fascism

In the early 19xxs, many countries in Europe still were monarchies. The Austro-Hungarian Monarchy ended only in 1918 with the end of World War I. The reason for WWI was because the heir of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated.

In the early 19xxs also, Europeans were sick of monarchies and proposed liberalism as an ideology to implement (political) democracy instead. But liberalism struggled to be born. American Robber Barons and the European capitalist class supported European fascists such as Hitler, Mussolini, and Franco. It took another World War and a period of fascism with unspeakable horros to transisition from monarchies to politicial democracy.

Some people (those who had read Karl Marx, the socialists) realized early on though that liberalism is not enough, that *politicial* democracy is not enough, that democracy must be both politicial and *economical*. Otherwise, if some people (the billionaires) can "out-buy" all the other people and subvert their politicial power, you'll end up with fascism again.

> Fascism begins the moment a ruling class, fearing the people may use their political democracy to gain economic democracy, begins to destroy political democracy in order to retain its power of exploitation and special privilege.

—Tommy Douglas, Canadian politician

- Liberals: No kings, fuck monarchies, we want a politicial democracy. Power to the people.
- Socialists: Agreed, but don't forget economical democracy. Nobody should be significantly better off than the rest. We're against injustice from inequality.

Now what does this say today about all the "apoliticial" people who are "neither right nor left"? About the Democrats in the USA and the Greens in Europe? They fail to understand any of this and constantly attack The Left rather than The Right.

All these Progressives/Liberals … they aren't leftists. They are right-wing. They are privileged and would rather have fascism again than give up their privilege. It requires what the socialists are asking for—*economical* democracy, not just political democracy—otherwise we'll end up with fascism again. This is exactly what we're seeing nowadays. Be a socialist.

#fascism #capitalism #liberalism #socialism #Democrats #Habeck

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇺🇸 📖

The Character of Freedom: The Scottish Enlightenment and American Slavery

"An original and deeply researched look at how Scottish Enlightenment ideals interacted with religious philosophy to inform and inspire abolitionists and enslavers alike in the founding of the American republic."

🔗 https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700642281/

#History #Histodons #Scotland #USA #US #UnitedStates #America #Slavery #Liberalism #Politics #Philosophy #Race #Ethnicity #UniversityPress #Academia #Reading #Book #Books #Bookstodon #Booksky

Shared Article — Yuval Noah Harari: The Myth of Freedom

https://freewillisabadjoke.wordpress.com/2026/07/22/shared-article-yuval-noah-harari-the-myth-of-freedom/

"In the final video (for now) in the Fascism series, I bring what we've learned about the Fascist period then to now, asking whether MAGA is Fascist and theorising a future that could lead to a 'Liberal-Fascism'."

https://youtu.be/ncpvlpc63ow?si=bxkvscdKjkxUurcg

#MAGA #USfascism #USpol #liberalism #LiberalFascism #neoliberalism #fascism

"Fundamentally: Klein is a leftist, Wolf was a liberal. The classic leftist distinction goes: leftists want to abolish a system where 150 white men run the world; liberals want to replace half of those 150 with women, queers and people of color."

#CoryDoctorow, 2026

https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine

This is not to say that leftists don't agree with liberals on anything (we do) and can't work politically with them on single issues (we can). But we have fundamentally different goals.

#liberalism

Liberals relearning they directly caused fascism

https://quokk.au/c/mop/p/1041999/liberals-relearning-they-directly-caused-fascism

The Retreat of Western Liberalism

"An insightful and harrowing analysis of the state of Western-style democracy"

Sale: $20 to $1.99

by Edward Luce
Rating: 4.3/5 (1604 Reviews)

#booksky #liberalism #democracy #economics #history #politics #books

The Retreat of Western Liberal...

“In her magisterial book The Great Partition, Yasmin Khan offers a sobering conclusion: The Partition of 1947 is also a loud reminder, should we care to listen, of the dangers of colonial interventions and the profound difficulties that dog regime change. It stands testament to the follies of empire, which ruptures community evolution, distorts historical trajectories and forces violent state formation from societies that would otherwise have taken different—and unknowable—paths. Partition is a lasting lesson of both the dangers of imperial hubris and the reactions of extreme nationalism. For better or worse, two nations continue to live alongside each other in South Asia and continue to live with these legacies.”
―Caroline Elkins, "Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire"

#liberalism #raceMaking #hinduism #violence #brutalization #ethnic #religion #IndianSubcontinent #India #Pakistan #Bangladesh #colonialism #British #BritishEmpire #BritishRule #CarolineElkins #Elkins #book #quotes #regimeChange

On the Fediverse, it is common to come across discourse on the critical importance of “privacy” for “democracy” and for “human rights”. How the liberal notion of privacy arose is rarely, if ever, interrogated. The liberal advocates of privacy do not even register the dialectic of privacy and surveillance in a capitalist system.

Given this context, I think the following passages from the second edition of Christian Fuchs’s book, “Social Media: A Critical Introduction”, are worth sharing.

From page 187:

The problem of secret bank accounts/transactions and the intransparency of richness and company profits is not only that financial privacy can support tax evasion, black money and money laundering, but also that it hides wealth gaps. Financial privacy reflects the classical liberal account of privacy. So, for example, John Stuart Mill formulated a right of the propertied class to economic privacy as “the owner’s privacy against invasion” (Mill 1965, 232). Economic privacy (the right to keep information about income, profits or bank transactions secret) protects the rich, companies and the wealthy. The anonymity of wealth, high incomes and profits makes income and wealth gaps between the rich and the poor invisible and thereby ideologically helps legitimizing and upholding these gaps. It can therefore be considered an ideological mechanism that helps to reproduce and deepen inequality.

From page 189:

Capitalism is grounded in the idea that the private sphere should be separated from the public sphere and should not be accessible by the public, and that therefore autonomy and anonymity of the individual are needed in the private sphere. The rise of the idea of privacy in modern society is connected to the rise of the central ideal of the freedom of private ownership. Private ownership is the idea that humans have the right to as much wealth as they want, as long as it is inherited or acquired through individual achievements. There is an antagonism between private ownership and social equity in modern society. Many contemporary societies treat how much and what exactly a person owns as an aspect of privacy. Keeping ownership structures secret is a precautionary measure against the public questioning of or the political and individual attack against private ownership.

Capitalism requires anonymity and privacy in order to function. But full privacy is also not possible in modern society because strangers enter social relations that require trust or enable exchange. Building trust requires knowing certain data about other persons, especially in capitalist market relations. It is therefore checked with the help of surveillance procedures whether or not a stranger can be trusted. This means that companies try to find out as much as possible about job applicants, workers, consumers and competitors and that various forms of monitoring and espionage are common means for doing so. Corporations have the aim of accumulating ever more capital. That is why they have an interest in knowing as much as possible about their workers (in order to control them) and the interests, tastes and behaviours of their customers. This results in the surveillance of workers/employees and consumers.

The ideals of modernity (such as the freedom of ownership) also produce phenomena such as income and wealth inequality, poverty, unemployment, precarious living and working conditions, crime and so on. The establishment of trust, socio-economic differences and corporate interests are three qualities of modernity that necessitate surveillance. Therefore, on the one hand modernity advances the ideal of a right to privacy, but on the other hand it must continuously advance surveillance that threatens to undermine privacy rights. An antagonism between privacy ideals and surveillance is therefore constitutive of capitalism.

Por fin una #noticia refrescante. Si te vas a trabajar a la mina al culo del mundo, ganas más dinero que con el SMI... #cryptobros news. #junknews #liberalism

2/

"sovereign wealth funds globally manage a record high of approximately $15 trillion in assets, up from less than $1 trillion in 2000. "

#capitalism #democracy #liberalism #neoliberalism #inequality #elections

phenomenalworld.org/analysis/tru... 1/ "As of early 2026, state-owned enterprises control even more: $54 trillion in assets, the equivalent of almost half of global GDP, which is up from about $13 trillion in 2000." #capitalism #democracy #liberalism #neoliberalism #inequality #elections

Trumpian State Capitalism | Il...

https://phenomenalworld.org/analysis/trumpian-state-capitalism/

"As of early 2026, sovereign wealth funds globally manage a record high of approximately $15 trillion in assets, up from less than $1 trillion in 2000. State-owned enterprises control even more: $54 trillion in assets, the equivalent of almost half of global GDP, which is up from about $13 trillion in 2000."

#capitalism #democracy #liberalism #neoliberalism #inequality #elections

This was clearly written by a liberal or it would not display such naiveness regarding the discretionary power of a State governed by the rule of law. Even though the article seems superficially very erudite, it exhibits a clear lack of knowledge of not only economic history but also of economic sociology. First of all, because it's written from the assumption that everything that preceded the Modern Era is useless from the point of view of human knowledge, which is very typical of bourgeois thinking.

"An economic histo­rian might say that a polit­ical takeover by Big AI is unlikely, citing successful worker-led polit­ical move­ments in the US and Europe. If the US reaches 30% AI-induced unem­ploy­ment, the thinking goes, workers will rise up and demand change through polit­ical mech­a­nisms of our liberal democ­racy. There’s reason to doubt these paral­lels. These events occurred earlier in the tech­no­log­ical era, when industry and workers were adver­sarial yet remained inter­de­pen­dent. Citi­zens retained irre­ducible leverage with both industry (as laborers) and govern­ment (as voters). In the decades after the US Gilded Age, this combi­na­tion of economic and elec­toral power was crit­ical to the rising status of workers. But in a future post-AI economy, workers could lose their jobs because of Big AI while remaining depen­dent on Big AI for basic needs.
(...)
Legally, shifting the social safety net from govern­ment to Big AI also means that citizen enti­tle­ment to these goodies will shift from public statu­tory and consti­tu­tional law to private-contract law. Private compa­nies can with­hold goodies for many reasons the govern­ment cannot. For instance: if you talk shit about the govern­ment, you will still get your unem­ploy­ment check, because the First Amend­ment says so. But no such restric­tion on Big AI: if you talk shit about them, they will be free to revoke your goodies."

https://matthewbutterick.com/extinction-level-capitalism.html

#Liberalism #AI #Automation #MassUnemployment

Neoliberalism is the re-entrenchment of feudalism wearing the coat of democracy.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=oJ0G4hAUsVE

#neoliberalism #liberalism #history #colonialism #imperialism #gaming #thatcherism #reaganomics #friedrichhayek #miltonfriedman #jpmorgan #citybank #billclinton #tonyblair

NOW ON VERDANT SQUARE RADIO ==

NOW PLAYING == The Eclectic Radical with Chris Richards 6/7/26: Classical Roots of #Liberalismhttps://www.youtube.com/live/NUplLXSObmQ?si=x7e82NnsPJS7TPBt#news #uspol #geopolitics #commentary #progressive #housing #rent #actiphilovism #left #ChrisRichards #anticapitalist #leftist #revolutionary #vsn #radio #DiverseSpectrumOfTheLeft #SupportIndependentMedia #Resist

https://mastodon.social/@VerdantSquareRadio/116709405860409436

#news #arts #left

#AntiAI #technology people's whole stance is reminiscent of the problem with #Liberals and #Liberalism.

They are usually like, "Don't ever do anything with #AI".

The stance is to entirely abdicate any and all responsibility for the #tech to #billionaires #oligarchs and #techbros.

It is the reason why #evil is allowed to take foothold. It is the reason why #fascism rises. The people who are compassionate, ethical, and righteous are weak and feckless.

#Liberalism is when no #boobs.

10,000 year Mandate of Heaven to Mark Carney, Protector of Liberalism

Voter Intention:
LPC 50
CPC 34
NDP 6
BQ 6

Liberal Government - 54 Approve
Carney - 56 Approve 37 Disapprove
Carney in QC - 63 Approve

#canada #canpoli #canpol #liberalism

https://leger360.com/in-the-news-liberals-reach-highest-level-support/

The paradox of multiculturalism

https://amkent.co.uk/2026/06/03/the-paradox-of-multiculturalism/

https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/politics/2026/05/27/ip-28-oregon-hunting-ban/90278534007/

lmao peak liberalism. restrict indigenous practices, completely abandon the idea of population control, hold back biomedical research by years, eliminate all animal products regardless of necessity or sustainability, alienate rural voters, permanently destroy the economy, and spike the cost of living all so we can have a vague sense of feeling good about ourselves. like what an incredibly, remarkably awful idea. you might as well have just poured all that money into the RNC campaign fund. this is what no material or structural analysis gets you