I keep seeing posts from this instance referring to capitalists as liberals. Since when are capitalism and liberalism related? As far as I've always known, liberalism is a social ideology, while capitalism is an economic system.

Why do y'all refer to all capitalists as liberals when at least half (probably more, at least in my experience) are conservatives?

I, for example, consider myself a liberal, but I'm most certainly not a capitalist. I'm stuck in a capitalist society in which I have to play by the rules if I want to feed my family, but that's as far as my support for the system goes. I'm pretty sure a lot of Americans feel this way.

Looking it up, the definition of liberalism specifies a belief in maximum personal freedom, especially as guaranteed by a government. Considering that 90% of governments in the world are endlessly corrupt, capitalist or not, I'd much prefer one that guarantees its citizens rights as a matter of course rather than begrudgingly grants them privileges that can be taken away without public oversight.

Do y'all really trust your governments to look after your best interests? As a U.S. American, I know I wouldn't trust my government or politicians to do anything but enrich themselves at my expense, but I don't have to; my rights are guaranteed by our constitution.

Now if we could just get them to stop funding and committing genocide...

EDIT: So many incredibly well thought-out and researched responses! I have a lot of reading and thinking to do, so thank you all for your input. I'll likely be referring back to this post for a while as I learn more about the world outside my U.S.-centric bubble. My biggest takeaways from all this after a quick perusal of the replies are that liberalism has a very different meaning outside the U.S. and has a lot more to do with private property, especially land ownership, than I'd thought.

My time is limited and there are so many responses that I likely won't be replying to (m)any any time soon, but know that I appreciate all the knowledge bombs y'all have dropped.

  • CyborgMarx [any, any]
    ·
    6 months ago

    Liberalism is the ideology that justifies the continued existence of capitalism, there are many sub-species of liberalism but the core between all of them is the dogmatic worship of capitalist property relations

    Economics (in the colloquial sense) is the material means by which a specific social order reproduces itself, but the social order still needs a social ideology to justify the economic order, otherwise people who are destroyed by capitalism would revolt and smash the economic and social order, Liberalism is that social ideology

    Far from advancing the rights of individuals or championing liberty, it apes the rhetoric of socialists and their two-centuries long struggles to protect the "rights" of capitalists to exploit workers and the environment

    People who lack political education usually mistake reluctant liberal capitulation to socialist demands for social progress as an example of liberalism advancing said progressive policies, when in reality liberals are only making a tactical retreat to offset the possibility of revolution

    Tldr: Liberalism is the software to capitalism's hardware