I'm asking because these terms seem to have become so muddied as to be meaningless. Liberal and libertarian seem to be the same, while I've also seen folks using socialism and communism interchangeably. 'Fascist' is thrown around as an insult to anyone who doesn't agree, while neo-con seems to be drifting into obscurity and just seems to mean 'closet liberal'.[/QUOTE]
Left - Leaning towards bigger government, income/wealth distribution, secular, high taxes, authoritarianism, pro-abortion, pro-gay, anti-gun rights, pro-regulation (economic, social), nation building.
Right - Leaning towards strong central government, no income/wealth distribution, theocracy, low taxes, authoritarianism, anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-gun rights, anti-regulation (economic), pro-regulation (social), foreign adventurism.
Conservative - Similar to "right" Leaning towards smaller & less centralized government, no income/wealth distribution, theocracy, low taxes, authoritarianism, anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-gun rights, anti-regulation (economic), pro-regulation (social), isolationist.
Note: This is a N Americastanian based definition, not to be confused with the very different Eurostanian one.
Neo-con - Similar to "right", but with a big government, foreign adventurism, tax-&-spend tendency which GHW Bush called "kinder & gentler conservatism".
Liberal - Similar to "left" Leaning towards smaller & less centralized government, no income/wealth distribution, theocracy, low taxes, authoritarianism, anti-abortion, anti-gay, pro-gun rights, anti-regulation (economic), pro-regulation (social), isolationist.
Note: This is a N Americastanian based definition, not to be confused with the very different Eurostanian one.
Addition.....
Classical Liberal (aka Jeffersonian Liberal) - Similar to "libertarian"
RF definition calls it "conservative", but this is incorrect.
Libertarian (small "l") - Maximum liberty, both economic & social. One has sole dominion over one's body. All relationships should be voluntary. No theocracy, small government, low taxes, isolationist, pro-gay, pro-gun, pro-free speech.....as we are want to say, "pro-everything". See the wall-of-text note at the bottom of this post.
Libertarian (capital "L") - This is the Party where libertarians tend to flock. It involves compromises with the Big Two parties to influence public policy in a libertarian direction. We don't compromise enuf to actually become successful.
Socialist - Government controls the means of production.
Communism - Like socialism, but with people paid according to need (socialism on steroids).
Capitalism - Individuals & associations thereof own property & freely raise capital to conduct business, eg, farming, manufacturing, selling. And for some reason, dogs will run.
Facism - Extremely authoritarian government, typically intolerant of non-conforming ideas or conduct.
Revoltifarianism - Identical to "Libertarian", but with more interest in serving others.
As we say....
"If you prefer to be dispatched with a particular caliber, please give us a few days notice before trying to rob us."
Note about "libertarian".
There is some confusion about there being a libertarian "right" & "left".
The "libertarian left" would be social liberty with economic authoritarianism, which is makes the term oxymoronic. To be half libertarian is to not be libertarian at all. The "libertarian left" is really very similar to "liberal", but without military attacks on so many other countries.
The confusion seems to come from the erroneous belief that the term originates in the ancient French use of their corresponding word for "libertarian". But "libertarian" actually pre-dates that usage, & originates in England in the 1600s (The Levellers & John Locke), where it embodied both social & economic liberty. To be earlier & British is better than the French Johnny come lately.
