Post
by Forty Two » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:16 pm
Unfortunately, labels like Conservative and Liberal, at least in the US, have become almost meaningless. The Conservative label applies to religious conservatives and the "religious right" -- but, the label is also used to apply to libertarian leaning folks, who often disagree with almost everything the traditional conservatives belief. The libertarian conservatives are very liberal, but they call themselves "classically liberal" to distinguish themselves from modern Liberals. The Liberals, of course, were traditionally all about liberty and the rights of the individual, traditionally, but there has been such an overflow of "Leftist" concepts spilling into liberalism, that many people call themselves Liberal, when they are in fact not traditionally liberal but are more Leftist or informed by Marxist concepts. These are often referred to now as "Progressives." It's all very muddled.
I don't know if it's that way in Australia.
Here in the US it gets even more complicated when the major parties are factored in.
“When I was in college, I took a terrorism class. ... The thing that was interesting in the class was every time the professor said ‘Al Qaeda’ his shoulders went up, But you know, it is that you don’t say ‘America’ with an intensity, you don’t say ‘England’ with the intensity. You don’t say ‘the army’ with the intensity,” she continued. “... But you say these names [Al Qaeda] because you want that word to carry weight. You want it to be something.” - Ilhan Omar
Conservatives as a general rule aren't interested in free speech. They are only interested in free speech that they deem valuable. Conservatism isn't really based on any principled thinking at all, other than conservative (i.e. religiously inspired) morals.
