For the longest time, “liberal” seemed like it basically just meant “Democrat” the same way “conservative” has/had been used to mean “Republican.” Now, it seems like it means “bad Democrat” and is even worse than being MAGA the way many seem to use it. Where did its use as an insult within the [relative] political left come from, and what does it specifically accuse/identify someone of/as?
I’m not really into this stuff, but from what I can tell, liberal became an insult purely because conservatives wanted to label liberals as inferior. That’s about it. Some leftists also use liberal as an insult, though to a lesser extreme.
How conservatives use it, liberal means someone that is too sensitive, accommodating, weak, and evil (especially in Christian terms).
How leftists use it, liberal means uneducated, hypocritical, insufficient, and turncoat/traitor.
So when self-proclaimed leftists use as a slur it’s not even in relation to support for private property rights?
I guess, if you’re a proper communist, you could use liberal as a category of leftists who don’t want to abolish property rights. As for the far right crowd, it could be a slur for anyone who doesn’t want to abolish all other rights.
They use bougie for that