The term ‘liberal’ is woefully misused as a political insult in American parlance. Classical liberals were people like John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith, believers in individual choices and markets. Modern conservatives were liberals in the strictest sense, until most of them just became absolute morons sometime around the turn of the century. The neoliberals were conservatives trying to get back to those original ideas.
Neoliberalism has completely controlled US policy since Reagan. Its main influence is on economic policy (low tax, deregulation etc), but, of course, that has effects on everything. Culturally it promotes individual freedom at the expense of collectivism and materialism over social conscience.
Neoconservatism grew out of Reaganism and the ‘end’ of the Cold War, when the US felt that its values had triumphed, and were therefore superior and should be exported around the world, if necessary by force. This zealous proselytizing policy lead to expensive foreign policy failures which have energised the large section of the Republican Party which is isolationist. They now have the upper hand as we can see in regard to Ukraine.
Yes. Liberalism was originally a belief in the free market and the liberty to do business unrestricted by regulations.
Thus the Liberal Party in Australia, for example, is a right wing party.
A lot of political language has become so skewed by misuse that it’s almost completely ceased to have meaning. Words like fascist, socialist, left, liberal etc are used completely differently in different parts of the world, often with little understanding of their origins.
You can believe that every individual should be left alone to do their own thing, unencumbered by laws and regulations with a weak, or non existent government, in which case you are a libertarian/ neoliberal, or you believe that we are all members of society and thus have responsibilities to work together to create a fair and equitable system for everyone, that means obeying laws and paying taxes. Then you are a social democrat.
Sorry everyone. Going off topic, but was replying to a specific question.
Modern politics is full of those contradictions.
For example , the official name of North Korea is Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Note that Biden has more or less been compelled to pull back from this statement due to domestic political blowback.
Looking increasingly like this is not really an option - US intel assessment suggests that well over half of the bombs the Israelis have used since October 7 are ‘iron bombs’, i.e. not guided or smart bombs. In practical terms, Israel is never going to run out of those. It also accounts for the generalized damage, they are characteristically rated for accuracy in +/- 10s of meters, where smart bombs have target accuracy of within 5 meters - and some considerably better.
Yeah right, that will teach them a lesson
He was on the Today programme on Radio 4 this morning (Jeremy Bowen) and I can honestly say , after listening to his reporting from the region for years , that I have never heard him sound so depressed and pessimistic.
Another thing that’s really beginning to bug me ; Biden is supposedly getting tough with the Israelis , going on about ‘indiscriminate bombing’ and protecting civilians blah blah fucking blah …then in the very next sentence he’s telling us that a two state solution is the only way out of this never-ending hell and that Netanyahu has to get rid of the far right elements in his government to bring it about.
Who the fuck does he think he is kidding ? Netanyahu is out there right now giving speeches about how he is the only person that can save the Israelis from having a Palestinian state on their doorstep , just like he has been doing for the last twenty years.
The US ceased being an honest broker (if in fact they ever were) in the conflict many moons ago but to now having to listen to them pretend that a two state solution is still viable in spite of everything is just taking the piss.
I’m done listening to all of them. Either a settlement is imposed upon them or we continue the cycle of violence , and I think we all know which of those options is the most likely.
Can’t even say the word “ceasefire”. No Politics. In a news show. Okay then
Especially the second article is horrifying. There is no medication left, and no help for these poor 2,3 million people without shelter, clean food and water, no medication, no fuel.
I have the growing feeling that we must now brace ourselves for one of the biggest mass dying in recent history. It won’t be bombs who will kill the biggest number of people, but diarrhea, fatigue, contaminated food and water, parasites and viruses.
And watching all this from afar, politicians from all countries answer with a big, deafening silence.
The great danger is that the sheer momentum of that sort of disease-driven disaster will reach a point where nothing can be done at scale. Where one or two people were dysentery casualties, just a few days later it becomes thousands, and even a full ceasefire won’t be enough to turn conditions around quickly enough.
Genocide by other means?
The particular concern I have here is genocide by negligence and incompetence - Netanyahu appears to think he largely controls the situation, as do his political backers. But the entire situation could slide out of anyone’s control in a matter of just a few days. Even drastic steps like Egypt throwing the border open wouldn’t be able to prevent a catastrophe that politically Netanyahu doesn’t actually want.
It’s a holocaust planned by jewish nazis.
They didnt die from the bombing. They died WITH the bombing.
This video is pretty informative. There are over 7000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli
prisons. Over 3000 of them prisoned after October 7.
As for the second article, WHO chief has been saying this for weeks now. In fact, his exact words are that more people are going to die from hunger and diseases than from bombs.