What is liberalism?

[Maximum Marxist]

I see alot of people on these forums saying liberalism is bad, but I have no clue what it is. From wikipedia:

Libertarianism is a political philosophy that upholds individual liberty, especially freedom of expression and action. Libertarianism includes diverse beliefs and organizations, all advocating minimization of the state, and sharing the goal of maximizing individual liberty and freedom.

Liberalism sounds a bit like communism with no state, and individual liberty and freedom, but its attacked here. Could someone explain what it is and why leftists don't like it?

[Bronco]

I'm not sure if your serious or not, but first of all that's Libertarianism not Liberalism and secondly why not read more about it than wikipedia's 2 sentence introduction.

Most Libertarians basically support the current capitalist system without so much regulation and with no welfare state under the pretense of a "free market". It would be even more exploitative than it is now, where business is effectively in control and caring only for the "rights" and "liberty" of the wealthy. I'd elaborate but I'm not sure whether or not you're just trolling

[a rebel]

It's Anarchy for rich people, and I didn't know you could have a negative reputation. What do you have to do to get that?

[Garret]

Many libertarians have been leftists, communists and anarchists. 'Till recently "Right-Libertarianism" (Which may be the correct term to group all of its bastardizations) came along. It's mostly a American phenomenon that praises free markets and free-from-government individualism. Of course, its hypocrisy has not been tried or tested in reality, for Capitalism has always featured to have a state-monopoly of violence to repress the working class in its struggles.

[hatzel]

I didn't know you could have a negative reputation. What do you have to do to get that?

Spout a load of shit...

MM, are you asking what liberalism is, or libertarianism? Please answer this question, so that we can answer yours :)

[GPDP]

Liberalism is the ideology of the bourgeoisie, in a nutshell. It comes in many variants and tendencies, from reformist left-liberalism to propertarian libertarianism and imo modern conservatism as well.

Though these tendencies are often at each others throats, they actually have more in common than they publicly let on. They all uphold private property, and at the end of the day, their policies are primarily aimed at upholding the interests of the ruling class. They just go about it in different away.

[wunderbar]

I'm confused by the question, are you asking about libertarianism or liberalism? And if you're asking about liberalism, do you mean classical liberalism or liberalism in the US sense?

[Maximum Marxist]

actually both would be good to be explained, I must have typed liberalism in wrong on google and gotten libertarianism. Wikipedia is kind of hard to read and bad at explaining in simple terms. And why are both hated so much here?




I'd elaborate but I'm not sure whether or not you're just trolling

You may want to have your chronic troll syndrome checked out. :laugh:. Not everyone who asks something is a troll.