Dogmaphobe
Diamond Member
One of the defining characteristics of either ideology has to do with attitudes towards social justice and social order. In the etymology of the term "conservative", what is being conserved is social order and all the mores, institutions, and customs thus involved. Liberalism, on the other hand, involves a greater emphasis on social justice as it regards group dynamics in such a way as to safeguard the rights of the individual against the tyranny of the majority.
What has thrown a monkey wrench into our perception of these terms is the dogmatic construct called "multiculturalism". While embraced by the non liberal portion of the left, multiculturalism is actually profoundly conservative in its actual function as it is in the business of preserving social order, institutions and mores -- and this at the expense of the individual. The only catch here is that what multiculturalists seek to conserve are the ingrained social institutions of OTHER cultures living within the midst and often times at the expense of their own culture.
The most prominent example of the difference between a liberal and a multiculturalist is in the approach to Islam. Islam is the most archly conservative ideology on the planet as it seeks to conserve a social order 1400 years in the past. Despite this, the illiberal multiculturalists have elevated the protection of Islam to their veritable cause celebre as they seek to protect Islam's extremely conservative attitudes from any criticism. A liberal, on the other hand, is quick to note the extreme misogyny of Islam, its disregard for the separation of religion and state, its lack of regard for individual rights, its opposition to humanist values, and the incontrovertible fact that it opposes every liberal principle imaginable.
People too often confuse authoritarian leftist for liberal, especially as so many lock-step leftists try to posit themselves as such. Bill Maher is a liberal. Christopher Hitchens was a liberal. Those whose habit it is to defend Islam at every turn are not. They are simply ultra-conformist practitioners of a form of group think that does not use liberal values as its basis because they have adopted a rigidly doctrinaire new ideology called multiculturalism.
What has thrown a monkey wrench into our perception of these terms is the dogmatic construct called "multiculturalism". While embraced by the non liberal portion of the left, multiculturalism is actually profoundly conservative in its actual function as it is in the business of preserving social order, institutions and mores -- and this at the expense of the individual. The only catch here is that what multiculturalists seek to conserve are the ingrained social institutions of OTHER cultures living within the midst and often times at the expense of their own culture.
The most prominent example of the difference between a liberal and a multiculturalist is in the approach to Islam. Islam is the most archly conservative ideology on the planet as it seeks to conserve a social order 1400 years in the past. Despite this, the illiberal multiculturalists have elevated the protection of Islam to their veritable cause celebre as they seek to protect Islam's extremely conservative attitudes from any criticism. A liberal, on the other hand, is quick to note the extreme misogyny of Islam, its disregard for the separation of religion and state, its lack of regard for individual rights, its opposition to humanist values, and the incontrovertible fact that it opposes every liberal principle imaginable.
People too often confuse authoritarian leftist for liberal, especially as so many lock-step leftists try to posit themselves as such. Bill Maher is a liberal. Christopher Hitchens was a liberal. Those whose habit it is to defend Islam at every turn are not. They are simply ultra-conformist practitioners of a form of group think that does not use liberal values as its basis because they have adopted a rigidly doctrinaire new ideology called multiculturalism.