Liberals are authoritarians, we all pretty much agree on that here but what's the best way to communicate this to a well meaning baby leftist?
Anything worth linking to or specific phrasings you like using? How do you go about justifying that liberals are the "real" authoritarians and not the communists?
I don't use "authoritarian". If it ever had a useful meaning it's long gone. Now it's just an empty pejorative. I can't say "well x is authoritarian but y is not" because the term has no fixed meaning. It just means "bad evil country I don't like"
Yeah the word itself even when used in good faith or in a technical way means something like "when there's undue violence used to coerce obedience." It has negative connotations built right into the definition. It might as well mean tyrannical or unjust.
'undue' carrying a whole lot of weight even when used in good faith
Asking someone to define authoritarian is kind of useful when you can point out how it applies way more to our current system than any straw man they're imagining. But it tends to lead to people digging their heels in so idk