#Liberalism is a right-wing philosophy that defends capital accumulation. This has always made it a poor tool for challenging structural hierarchies and social inequalities. It is past time to abandon it in favour of a genuine left alternative that can address core problems.
My take: In the medium term, capital will begin to shift away from the US and flow to other countries such as China, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and some larger European countries such as France and Germany. In the 21st century, no sufficiently advanced and complex market society can survive on its own. Even Russia itself depends heavily on India and China.
"It may be surprising when capital constrains the designs of right-wing governments but only when we lose sight of the limits placed on capital itself. Capitalist firms operate and produce materially under definite limits and conditions independent of their will. For capital, barriers to accumulating value realized as profit appear as existential threats. Competition with other firms puts capitalists and firms at constant risk, exerting immense pressure to expand market share and realize ever greater amounts of profit in whatever place in the world market it can. Whether it is protectionist trade measures or the crippling of state capacity to service debt and maintain social order, capital will take measures to defend against policies that cut into its ability to accumulate.
The liberal democratic state’s role as a facilitator of capital accumulation has been essential to the march of capitalism around the globe. Not only does the state serve a legitimating ideological function of market processes, but it also coordinates and mediates between different factions of capital in the expansion of international trade and investments. In times of crisis, where competition between capital and state intensifies, the state takes on an even more prominent role. For instance, to whatever extent the retaliatory tariffs and other measures taken by the Canadian state impacted the Trump Administration’s decision to delay the tariffs, they were effective because they unified and amplified a response from the capitalist class ..."
https://socialistproject.ca/2025/03/trump-tariff-challenge-rule-of-capital/
It is so weird to watch how #Trump has more similar views to #Russian president than to #European leaders. #America has left the liberal server and joined the #authoritarian lobby, using a videogame metaphor. All of this happened in less than 100 days of #DonaldTrump ’s ruling. What will the next years bring, then?
#Trumpism #Putin #Ukraine #Future #BuycottUSA #BoycottAmerica #BuyFromEU #BuyFromEurope #totalitarian #liberalism #liberal #West #Freedom #democracy
To this I will add that #liberalism is a failed ideology. “Liberal democracy” is actually bourgeois democracy, which isn’t really democracy at all.
Under none of our presidents has "Government of the people, by the people, for the people" been true.
Can Trump and Musk Convince More Conservatives to Buy Teslas? - President Trump rallied support for Elon Musk’s car company, but there may not be enough ... - https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/16/business/elon-musk-trump-tesla-conservatives.html #governmentefficiencydepartment(us) #unitedstatespoliticsandgovernment #demonstrationsprotestsandriots #presidentialelectionof2024 #electricandhybridvehicles #oil(petroleum)andgasoline #conservatism(uspolitics) #liberalism(uspolitics)
The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself.
-- Daniel Patrick Moynihan
#Wisdom #Quotes #DanielPatrickMoynihan #Culture #Conservatism #Liberalism #Politics #Society
#Photography #Panorama #CoyoteButtesNorth #TheWave #VermilionCliffs #Utah
"Deception of the People by the Liberals" (1908) by Vladimir Lenin. Audiobook.
#socialism #communism #capitalism #anarchism #liberalism
#JeffBezos, the #Amazon monopolist, took over the @washingtonpost in order to enforce #marketLibertarism. He calls it #liberalism, but it is basically nothing else than #Trump's and #ElonMusk's arrogant financial autocracy.
It's time now to leave the Amazon market platform as a customer that I was since more than 25 years.
I will never buy something via this #TrumpSupporter.
#LeaveAmazon #AmazonBoycott
https://www.n-tv.de/politik/Bezos-diktiert-Zeitung-neue-Regeln-fuer-Meinungsseiten-article25592727.html
#Libs will be the first to sell out the #revolution whenever it finally comes to the usa.
Scratch a lib and a #fascist bleeds.
Liberals hate socialists because socialists expose their hypocrisy and cognitive dissonance. Socialists critique liberals' political agendas and values in ways liberals know to be true, causing discomfort.
Unlike socialists, liberals refuse to accept the fact that capitalism is the root problem. They cling to the idea that the system can be saved, and that we can somehow live equitably and sustainably under it.
@Daojoan As a liberal collecting as much money as possible for myself, why should I bother #savingMaga 
#liberalism #doomed #twoPartySystem
This podcast episode is on the connection between Buddhist philosophy and liberalism, helping to understand why liberalism is the best political system to make the world better.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/reimagining-liberty/id1614436300?i=1000692279062 #Buddhism #Liberalism #Politics #Ethics #Liberals #Religion
I can't believe how defensively German politicians are reacting to #Vance 's infamous speech. What is needed is a clear and unambiguous unmasking of the rhetorical strategy being pursued. It cannot be said clearly enough: Never again is now!
A fascinating and deeply problematic figure whose antebellum militant abolitionism was coupled with his postbellum support for a pro-business social darwinism.
The links and tensions between these two currents in Beecher's life are of continuing relevance to US progressives today.
“For nearly a thousand years, communities on the Indian subcontinent had coexisted in a cultural melting where religious identity was less salient than ethnic or linguistic identity. “A hybrid Indo-Islamic civilization emerged,” according to the historian of India William Dalrymple. “In the nineteenth century, India was still a place where traditions, languages, and cultures cut across religious groupings, and where people did not define themselves primarily through their religious faith.” Much as communities had negotiated means of coexistence in pre-Mandate Palestine only to see them unravel during British rule, the subcontinent’s communal arrangements corroded when the full weight of Britain’s colonial state bore down on them. The Raj’s divide and rule policies produced a chemical-like reaction, shattering long-standing traditions of coexistence and interacting with local personalities who had their own ambitions, passions, and allegiances. It was another liberal experiment in empire gone horribly wrong, and on a scale so epic that once history’s chain of contingent events combusted, no one could contain it.”
Excerpt from Caroline Elkins' #book, "Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire"
@bookstodon hat-tip @markvonwahlde
I'm seeing many people ask questions like "where are the people who are supposed to stop this?" and "what can *I* do about this?" I believe this sentiment is a symptom of the way our institutions are structured to deny us the lived experience of direct action.
The structures of liberal and capitalist institutions have so deeply taken over that most people in the US never even interact with a directly democratic institution, let alone become accustomed to making decisions that way.
I think there's a psychological consequence to never making decisions together in an assembly. We only ever experience taking and giving orders, buying products, and casting votes. We never learn the skills needed to act for ourselves, together. We never feel what it's like to build power together. We don't even know how to begin because we don't have an institutional toe-hold in our neighborhoods or workplaces. Our institutions have left us atomized and disempowered and we feel that helplessness in times like this.
Oligarchy Expert Answers Our Questions About Wealth and Empowerment
https://inequality.org/article/an-oligarchy-expert-answers-our-questions
* cadre of billionaires in top cabinet positions in Trump2 administration clear embrace of gov't by/for wealthy
* Northwestern prof. Jeffrey Winters knows how to get billionaires to jump off Forbes list of richest Americans
#oligarchy #billionaires #meritocracy #plutocracy #liberalism #libertarianism
#WealthTax #TAXtheRich #WealthInequality #capitalism
#Trump2 #fascism #HeritageFoundation #Project2025
What I think happened in the 1990’s was good people got sloppy, dropped their guard. They got drunk with Fukuyamaism “end of history”, choosing comfort in the apparent victory of #liberalism instead of being vigilant that the evil ideas we are seeing coming to fruition were still alive. What they especially didn’t recognise they were still supported by A LOT of people.
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[caption id="attachment_14827" align="aligncenter" width="720"] J.R.R. Tolkien is often portrayed as a very conservative thinker. But the views he expressed in his letters were far more liberal than many people given him credit for. And he was very much aware of the social and political issues of his lifetime – as well as thoughtful about them. Here is what we know.[/caption]
Q: Was J.R.R. […]
Growing out of liberalism, the logic of fascism retains and depends on the legitimacy of the prior liberal state while undermining the independence of its institutions and re-purposing them for new ends. Fascists need to make a thousand tiny changes, each time following the rules of the liberal institutions until they Ship of Theseus our society out from under us. And all the while, they need everyone to go along with it because they're the legitimate power and, after all, they're only following the rules.
This is not a groundbreaking analysis. We learn this in High School.
So it's real fucking annoying when I ask in pre-shift "What are we gonna do when la migra comes for the kitchen?" and the Clinton-Democrat bartender replies: "We comply. That's the only option."
Edit to add hashtags: #liberalism #fascism
