[ExI] Political Relativism (was very informative)

[Anton Sherwood]

On 2020-12-30 11:01, Stuart LaForge via extropy-chat wrote:
 > These days it ['liberal'] seems to be back to being a pejorative
 > again at least in America where it is used by conservatives to
 > describe progressives, socialists, communists, and other
 > left-wingers. I think in the rest of the world, it still has its
 > earlier meaning pertaining to freedom. At least it does when Putin
 > speaks ill of liberal democracy.

There was an amusing essay in (iirc) The Economist some years ago, 
beginning more or less: "In both Europe and America, there's a lot of 
talk that liberals are ruining everything; but in Europe and America the 
word has opposite meanings."

Let's not forget that "liberal" can also mean generous, i.e. giving 
freely.  I don't know if that has influenced its political meaning, on 
any continent.

-- 
*\\*  Anton Sherwood  *\\*  www.bendwavy.org