The rise of such a challenge to liberalism has highlighted how the liberal status quo has failed to deliver, particularly in the wealthy West. Across the OECD , the top 10 percent makes over nine times per year as much as the bottom 10 percent. Metrics of trust in a range of governmental institutions — legislatures, courts, civil service — are falling across advanced democracies. In the United States specifically, deaths from alcohol abuse, drug overdose, and suicide have reached all-time highs.
If life under liberalism is getting worse for a lot of people, is it possible that the idea really has outlasted its usefulness? Modern anti-liberals, both on the right and the left, take the notion that the status quo is broken as their starting point. Liberal capitalism was supposed to foster a universal middle class and encourage bourgeois values of sobriety and prudence and democratic virtues of accountability.
It achieved the opposite: the creation of a precariat with no clear long-term prospects, dangerously vulnerable to demagogues promising them the moon. Uncontrolled liberalism, in other words, prepares the grounds for its own demise.
The current crisis of liberalism, according to this narrative, dates to roughly the s. Around then, governments across the Western world began deregulating their economies, selling off state-owned industries, and privatizing core government services.
Neoliberalism, in this line of thinking, became dominant on both sides of the political aisle. The critique of neoliberalism is not new, but it has gained currency in the last decade or so. The Great Recession can be blamed on neoliberal financial deregulation , the Eurozone crisis on neoliberal austerity , and the rise of Trump and right-wing extremists as a backlash to neoliberal free trade agreements and neoliberal indifference to rising inequality.
The Brexit campaign spoke to that pain. So do all of the rising far-right parties in Europe. Liberals support democracy as a matter of principle, believing that individuals have a right to shape decisions that affect their lives in deep and important ways. But liberals curiously excludes parts of economic life from this zone of collective self-determination, seeing the market as a place where people have individual but not collective rights.
Liberalism sees nothing wrong with the heads of Amazon and Facebook making decisions that have implications for the entire economy. So long as capitalists are free from democratic constraint, leftists argue, liberal democracy is on dangerous footing. The super-rich use the power their accumulated wealth provides to influence political life, rearranging policy to protect and expand their fortunes.
They believe in liberal rights like freedom of expression, and pursue their revolutionary agenda through social organizing and democratic elections. They champion Sen. Many of the sharpest left-wing critics of liberalism do not frame themselves as opponents of liberal democratic ideals. Conservative anti-liberals question not only freedom in the economic sphere, but the value of pluralistic democracy itself — arguing that core liberal ideals about tolerance and equality actually produce an insidious form of tyranny that destroys communities and deadens the human spirit.
They have a small presence in the academy — Notre Dame political theorist Patrick Deneen and Harvard legal scholar Adrian Vermeule, for example — but are much less visible in the professoriate than socialists. The right-leaning anti-liberals are more often found in the punditry, conservative think tanks, and even in the ranks of actual political parties particularly in Europe.
The Christian publication First Things is a particular hub of media activity for these anti-liberals, as is the American Conservative magazine. The economic split has produced more than a little infighting in conservative ranks. But conservative anti-liberals are not content with rubbishing libertarianism and other liberal economic doctrines. The study complied data on thousands of people in 16 different countries around the world over four decades, and found that conservatives, overall, reported feeling greater meaning and purpose in life.
The study also found greater satisfaction in life was related more closely to social conservatism, rather than economically conservative views. For example, Trump supporters may share more in common with the president's personal and professional values than his policies.
A survey of 1, people conducted on the internet in March revealed that Trump supporters were more likely to connect with his overall personality and outlook on money than they were to support his politics.
The survey respondents tended to agree with statements like "people who are poor just need to work harder" and "vacations are for weaklings," while disagreeing with statements like "I try to stay out of the spotlight" and "I don't like to gamble. The study authors said these kinds of personal values were better predictors of support for then-candidate Trump than party affiliations or political ideologies. The researchers think these perceptions of shared values between candidates and constituents probably play into everyone's voting behavior, not just that of Trump's supporters.
A longitudinal study of more than 16, people in the UK found that those who were more aggressive as youngsters when they were years old became more economically liberal and mistrusting of the government as adults in their early 30s.
A study by researchers at Stanford University found liberals and conservatives both think they judge people of all political backgrounds equally for their actions, based on their moral codes. However, the findings suggested that while liberals and conversations may both think they are applying their judgment equally, they each tend to judge members of their own ideology more favorably than others. Jan Voelkel and Dr. Mark Brandt told PsyPost. Update: This story was originally published in It has been updated with new research.
For you. World globe An icon of the world globe, indicating different international options. Get the Insider App. Click here to learn more. A leading-edge research firm focused on digital transformation. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Liberals and conservatives don't just differ politically.
According to scientific research, people on different ends of the political spectrum differ psychologically too. Both offline and on, if we stop fanning hate and instead practice connection-speech, that little ray of hope for a better way of interacting and even disagreeing with one another could spread. Reprinted by permission of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. All rights reserved. Contact us at letters time. By Sally Kohn.
Algonquin Books. TIME Ideas hosts the world's leading voices, providing commentary on events in news, society, and culture.
We welcome outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors. Related Stories. Already a print subscriber? Go here to link your subscription. For decades, with few exceptions, a liberal sensibility dominated American humor. But over the last few years, a new kind of cutting-edge humor has emerged whose primary target is the Left. It's a sign of how much ground liberalism has lost in our cultural life.
The No. Now in its ninth season, South Park, with nearly 3 million viewers per episode one recent half hour garnered 4. Some conservatives have blasted South Park for its mind-boggling vulgarity, even calling it a "threat to our youth. As the show's co-creator Matt Stone sums it up, "I hate conservatives, but I really expletive hate liberals.
South Park has a sharp anti-PC edge. One episode mocks multicultural sentimentality about the supposed wisdom of native cultures. Stan tries to get his friend sent to a hospital, but runs into fierce resistance. Kyle's mom reassures him: "Everything is going to be fine, Stan; we're bringing in Kyle tomorrow to see the Native Americans personally. Stan's mom interjects: "You watch your mouth, Stanley. The Native Americans were raped of their land and resources by white people like us.
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