The historical shortcomings of liberalism don’t mean that socialists should throw liberalism out wholesale. On the contrary: socialism needs liberalism.
Many liberals would agree with Ludwig von Mises that the core commitment of liberalism is to private property, and obviously socialists can have no truck with that. My response is that if liberalism really can be boiled down to little more than a fetish for property, it isn’t an inspiring credo worth allying with.
but it can be boiled down to it, brother.
The goal of socialists should be to hold a mirror up to liberals and say that they cannot achieve their goals unless they’re willing to extend liberal principles about equality and freedom from domination to the economy.
I like holding mirrors, we can hold them for another 100 years at least
The liberals that drop the private property bit are 99% of the time anarchists, which is still, at least this strain (i.e. Chomskyites, etc.), an underdeveloped political ideology.
Many liberals would agree with Ludwig von Mises that the core commitment of liberalism is to private property, and obviously socialists can have no truck with that. My response is that if liberalism really can be boiled down to little more than a fetish for property, it isn’t an inspiring credo worth allying with.
But I don’t think that’s true of many liberals. For plenty of people who identify with the label today, liberalism is about securing something like a dignified life for everyone, regardless of their circumstances. The goal of socialists should be to hold a mirror up to liberals and say that they cannot achieve their goals unless they’re willing to extend liberal principles about equality and freedom from domination to the economy.
That may be a bit of a mask drop: not knowing anything else by the one that wrote it, maybe they're a "peaked in the 90s" gen-X asshole that is still chasing that "end of history" dragon.
"Liberals are really cool and good guys just don't scratch them, ever ever ever. And don't get in the way of their treats. And don't exist in a way that makes them uncomfortable. Skill issue."