BLOG: It's all in a word
One of the misused words in the English language must surely be the word “liberal”.
To many, it means a virtual fetish for supporting every passing trendy international or social cause – very much the meaning applied to it by the Americans in particular and increasingly the meaning applied in countries like New Zealand, and by those opposed to any form of social change. To the religious right, for example, to be a liberal is to be “pro” all the things they are against. The “liberals” are godless, anti family, anti society radicals to be scorned in very much the same way the “pinkos” or “commies” were a generation ago.
Others see word in terms of the neo-liberal economic approach of the New Right and its disciples, and consequently dismiss liberals as no more than blind adherents of the type of selfish, scorched earth policies associated with the Regan and Thatcher eras. ... Read the full text of this blog post.
