I don't know why the right is so terrified of/hateful towards liberals?
And before any of the MAGA crowd start their idiotic screeching about "liberals" being far left revolutionaries set on destroying "western culture" and so forth, at least read to the end of this first. This has been floating around in my brain for a while now, so hopefully writing it all down will get it out. Also note that this is based off my experiences and observations, so generalisations will be rife.
First of all, we need to understand the political meaning of the term liberal. Traditionally and in an ongoing economic sense, it refers to laissez-faire* economic practices, including limiting or outright abolishing regulations and anything else that prevents free trade; the "invisible hand of the market" colloquialises this concept, and is why policies most associated with Reagan and Thatcher are called 'Neo-Liberalism.' In more modern terms, it tends to mean a laissez-faire approach towards societal norms; this most commonly manifests as equal rights and opportunities at least in principle for women and minorities.
I've spoken to a lot of liberals, both left and right wing, and it's always bugged me that the right is so vitriolic against them when what they seem to dislike (at least according to their public statements) are leftists - this is most apparent when they use liberal and Marxist to refer to the same people. Liberals are effectively centrists, believing in social progress but ultimately upholding the underlying systems in place in society today. Such a person will vehemently support capitalism as a whole, and where any issues may become apparent will support incremental change at most to "solve" that one issue as opposed to overall systemic reform - this is the difference between a liberal and a leftist. Such people tend to be a majority or very large minority within liberal democracies historically, and only cease to be so when demagogues are involved or the system they live in becomes so horrifically broken as to be irreparable - an example of the latter would be places like the Russian Empire/Soviet Union at the beginning of the 20th century.
So why do the right, which appears at least online to consist of Trump supporters (henceforth referred to as MAGA for ease of typing), along with far right groups such as fascists and white supremacists, hate liberals so much? It may have something to do with right wingers slowly shifting further right over time; as a result, liberals and "Marxists"* start appearing to amalgamate - the best way to think about this is looking in a rear view mirror of a car as you drive away, those in the background getting less distinct over time. This isn't a new phenomenon by any means, as the Cold War saw the Western world shift further right as a reaction to the spread of communism (real or imagined, as in Joseph McCarthy's case).
But this raises the issue of why they dislike anyone who would push for even the most minor 'plaster over' change. This is due to the nature of MAGA as a fascist movement. I do not use the term fascist lightly, nor wish to unless truly necessary, and there will be those (almost guaranteed to be all MAGA) who proclaim it not to be fascist for myriad different reasons. But in the simplest terms, fascism is a nationalist ideology which believes in a mythic past and traditionalism tied to it, defines in- and out-groups based on race, religion, etc through the lens of a plot, and revolves around a strongman demagogue. For the most famous example of this, we look at the Nazis:
- Germany and the Germanic people are superior (nationalism)
- Germany was great before being forced into losing World War 1 (mythic past)
- believed that the Germans were being held down by the out-groups (plot)
- hated Jews, communists, and non-Germanic people in general (in-/out-groups)
- believed Hitler and the Nazi Party were the only one who could save Germany and restore it to greatness (demagogue)
Now let's compare this to MAGA:
- America is the best nation (nationalism)
- America was once great, but had since lost that greatness (mythic past)
- Mexicans, Muslims, and other outsiders hate America (in-/out-groups)
- Donald Trump and the GOP are the only one(s) who can restore and maintain America's greatness (demagogue)
*Marxists gets thrown around a lot by people on the right, but because of the First Red Scare in 1919/20 and the subsequent Cold War, America doesn't really have many Marxists at all any more. There are those who believe in communism, but it's most assuredly not the much maligned liberals. If anything they'd side with MAGA against communists.
This does not mean that those who follow Trump are necessarily fascist themselves, but by buying into this rhetoric they do give tacit approval through voting for Trump. And this is not meant to denigrate others either, so long as all are civil and don't just use buzzwords and insults.
Hopefully this makes sense, because it took 30 minutes to write and I'm going to be miffed to have to edit things for clarity. And sorry if it's a slog; it was a slog to type too.
First of all, we need to understand the political meaning of the term liberal. Traditionally and in an ongoing economic sense, it refers to laissez-faire* economic practices, including limiting or outright abolishing regulations and anything else that prevents free trade; the "invisible hand of the market" colloquialises this concept, and is why policies most associated with Reagan and Thatcher are called 'Neo-Liberalism.' In more modern terms, it tends to mean a laissez-faire approach towards societal norms; this most commonly manifests as equal rights and opportunities at least in principle for women and minorities.
I've spoken to a lot of liberals, both left and right wing, and it's always bugged me that the right is so vitriolic against them when what they seem to dislike (at least according to their public statements) are leftists - this is most apparent when they use liberal and Marxist to refer to the same people. Liberals are effectively centrists, believing in social progress but ultimately upholding the underlying systems in place in society today. Such a person will vehemently support capitalism as a whole, and where any issues may become apparent will support incremental change at most to "solve" that one issue as opposed to overall systemic reform - this is the difference between a liberal and a leftist. Such people tend to be a majority or very large minority within liberal democracies historically, and only cease to be so when demagogues are involved or the system they live in becomes so horrifically broken as to be irreparable - an example of the latter would be places like the Russian Empire/Soviet Union at the beginning of the 20th century.
So why do the right, which appears at least online to consist of Trump supporters (henceforth referred to as MAGA for ease of typing), along with far right groups such as fascists and white supremacists, hate liberals so much? It may have something to do with right wingers slowly shifting further right over time; as a result, liberals and "Marxists"* start appearing to amalgamate - the best way to think about this is looking in a rear view mirror of a car as you drive away, those in the background getting less distinct over time. This isn't a new phenomenon by any means, as the Cold War saw the Western world shift further right as a reaction to the spread of communism (real or imagined, as in Joseph McCarthy's case).
But this raises the issue of why they dislike anyone who would push for even the most minor 'plaster over' change. This is due to the nature of MAGA as a fascist movement. I do not use the term fascist lightly, nor wish to unless truly necessary, and there will be those (almost guaranteed to be all MAGA) who proclaim it not to be fascist for myriad different reasons. But in the simplest terms, fascism is a nationalist ideology which believes in a mythic past and traditionalism tied to it, defines in- and out-groups based on race, religion, etc through the lens of a plot, and revolves around a strongman demagogue. For the most famous example of this, we look at the Nazis:
- Germany and the Germanic people are superior (nationalism)
- Germany was great before being forced into losing World War 1 (mythic past)
- believed that the Germans were being held down by the out-groups (plot)
- hated Jews, communists, and non-Germanic people in general (in-/out-groups)
- believed Hitler and the Nazi Party were the only one who could save Germany and restore it to greatness (demagogue)
Now let's compare this to MAGA:
- America is the best nation (nationalism)
- America was once great, but had since lost that greatness (mythic past)
- Mexicans, Muslims, and other outsiders hate America (in-/out-groups)
- Donald Trump and the GOP are the only one(s) who can restore and maintain America's greatness (demagogue)
*Marxists gets thrown around a lot by people on the right, but because of the First Red Scare in 1919/20 and the subsequent Cold War, America doesn't really have many Marxists at all any more. There are those who believe in communism, but it's most assuredly not the much maligned liberals. If anything they'd side with MAGA against communists.
This does not mean that those who follow Trump are necessarily fascist themselves, but by buying into this rhetoric they do give tacit approval through voting for Trump. And this is not meant to denigrate others either, so long as all are civil and don't just use buzzwords and insults.
Hopefully this makes sense, because it took 30 minutes to write and I'm going to be miffed to have to edit things for clarity. And sorry if it's a slog; it was a slog to type too.
