The Threat from the Illiberal Left

&gt;The attack from the left is harder to grasp, partly because in America “liberal” has come to include an illiberal left.<p>I had been one of the illiberal progressive in the past. I feel the illiberalness comes from a sense of danger. It had felt like the world was turning upside down, and I was morally obligated to fight for happiness and safety. A very Hobbesian &quot;a war of all against all&quot; feeling.<p>I got out of the hole only when I realized that sustainable happiness can be attained without sacrificing others. It was really a big, life changing recognition.

The problem with identity politics is that no progress is made. You are never going to convince another identity that yours should get special treatment. Only when a group demands equal rights do we make progress, because there is never any good arguments why one group shouldn&#x27;t have the same rights as others. Equality remains self evident.

Here is more evidence in that direction. NPR is now taking a position against freedom of speech and individual rights.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;taibbi.substack.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;npr-trashes-free-speech-a-brief-response" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;taibbi.substack.com&#x2F;p&#x2F;npr-trashes-free-speech-a-brie...</a>

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;ERXHx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.is&#x2F;ERXHx</a>

&gt;&gt; The best way to navigate disruptive change in a divided world is through a universal commitment to individual dignity, open markets and limited government.<p>Woa, hold horses! &quot;Open markets and limited government&quot;? That&#x27;s <i>libertarianism</i> not <i>liberalism</i>.<p>As sooome kind of liberal, I parse &quot;open markets&quot; as &quot;no rights for workers, no-holds-barred environmental destruction by industry&quot;; and whenever I read &quot;limited government&quot; I hear &quot;less power to voters&quot;. That is not liberalism.<p>I don&#x27;t know what liberalism is, though I know it when I see it, but I&#x27;m sure that the highest ideals associated with liberalism should be humanitarian ideals, not economic ideals. Human rights legislation, free education and healthcare, policies driven by quality of life indicators, that sounds like liberalism. Free market economics and industry deregulation? Not so much.

The fundamental problem of Liberalism is that it thinks the world is far more stateless than it actually is. I guess the idea was knocking down feudalism would make everything liquid and fast converging? Orthodox economics = equilibrium theory only bakes in the problem by definition.<p>We now know empiricly that this stuff is not true. This pulls out the rug from under so many of Liberalism&#x27;s precepts, and yet Liberalism hasn&#x27;t adjusted.

Neither the left or the right tries to be liberal as Milton intended, they both are not and unfortunately real classical liberals are long gone in politics. Milton and Hayek warned us about the government power grab that we’re seeing more and more today around the world.