• azan@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    What’s your definition of liberty here? Just the absence of constraints? As in to be free from sth., opposed to being free to do sth.?

    If it is, then sure you can have individual liberty. It’s just (almost) utterly useless. Or do I not get your point here?

    • realbadat@programming.dev
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      7 months ago

      I think you’re missing my point, yes.

      Equality in the law, freedom of association, civil liberties, etc., etc. while technically in the US we “have” these freedoms, in reality we do not - we are subject to capitalism with regulatory capture, fines that unfairly punish the poor, so on. I’m on a phone, so I’m not typing out a dissertation.

      Probably the best reference would be libertarian socialism or libertarian communism. The right wing Libertarian movement (which is dominant in the US) is really anarchi-capitalism, which is the complete opposite direction of left libertarianism (which is anti-capitalist).

      Anyway, yes, there are a variety of ways freedoms are limited by simply being unable to afford things, or even being put into a position where you don’t have the time to dedicate to those things. To me, that’s fundamentally wrong.

      • azan@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        That’s what I summarised, aside from the us-centric references. I still don’t quite understand the emphasis on “true individual liberty”, what that should entail and the meaning of it for the discussion. I agree with everything else you said, that part just isn’t clear to me.