I agree that's a challenge, but it also seems to me that if we lose the liberal, democratic systems we have, the debates within liberalism won't much matter, will they? We'll have lost the system with which to make those improvements to our society.
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Fighting Putin is scary, writing editorials about how campus protestors are The Real Threat is easy. I worry that our leaders - both politicians and social elites - lack the courage to rise to the moment.
I'm not sure Joe Biden has any deep thoughts in liberalism (he's a 'rules based order' guy, which is not the same), but I'd note that liberalism is about liberty and only incidentally about egalitarianism to the degree that it insists everyone ought to have liberty.
That's not to say liberalism is opposed to, say, economically egalitarian politics (although it is, I'd say, 'in tension' with extreme economic egalitarianism), but if your goal is, say, greater economic equality, I'd argue liberalism isn't your goal, but it is the only road that leads towards it.
It is not at all hard to argue that economic conditions damage liberty.
Most of us certainly don't interact with liberty in their day to day. Most jobs are autocratic. Do as you or told or be gone. And if you do not have the wealth to survive that, suddenly you lack liberty entirely.
I don't know where you live and what your personal history is, but it sounds like you actually interact with liberty all the time and simply don't know it.
You are interacting with liberty right now. You may notice all of the residents of the PRC on this platform ::gestures at empty space::
Have you moved within your country? Did you have to ask the government's permission? In the USSR, you had to. You still have to in China if you even want to use basic services.
Have you ever left a job you thought sucked? Protested an employer?
It can be quite hard to do either thing in the United Arab Emirates, though pressure from liberal governments has forced them to soften a little bit. But only a little.
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https://acoup.blog/2024/07/05/collections-the-philosophy-of-liberty-on-liberalism/
Instead, over the last 200 years, liberal governments with capitalist economic systems have delivered better economic outcomes for the lower classes.
Most of us certainly don't interact with liberty in their day to day. Most jobs are autocratic. Do as you or told or be gone. And if you do not have the wealth to survive that, suddenly you lack liberty entirely.
You are interacting with liberty right now. You may notice all of the residents of the PRC on this platform ::gestures at empty space::
It can be quite hard to do either thing in the United Arab Emirates, though pressure from liberal governments has forced them to soften a little bit. But only a little.
Liberty that exists in theory but not practice does not exist