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Ehgadsman t1_j6m2bgg wrote

Reply to comment by callanrocks in 'Shut this story down': Government released Robodebt victims' personal details to deter them from speaking out by Returnofthejedinak

To clarify further for idiot Americans (like me 😁)

Wikipedia: "The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party in Australia, one of the two major parties in Australian politics, along with the centre-left Australian Labor Party."

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Christopher135MPS t1_j6mdcd3 wrote

Centre-right?

Fuck me I wish they were centre right. Fuckers have got antivaxxer and climate denier members in parliament. There’s nothing centre about the liberals or nationals.

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WouldBangAnF35 t1_j6mqlfo wrote

They started center right, hit solidly right in the mid-2000's and then followed the GOP into far right crazy territory after 2016.

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UnicornLock t1_j6mdhnr wrote

Liberalism is right-wing ideology. It is so in the US too. The US doesn't have a real left.

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dissentrix t1_j6mmx1x wrote

That's not exactly true - liberalism is basically focused around promoting individual liberties (as the name indicates). In and of itself, it's not really "left-wing" or "right-wing" (in the same way that authoritarianism is usually not considered "naturally" left-wing or right-wing, although there is admittedly debate on that, since some would argue infringing upon the rights of people to determine their own governance is inherently anti-leftist) - but depending on what aspect of society it is actually defending, liberalism can be left-wing or right-wing.

Specifically, economic liberalism is generally right-wing, since it implies deregulation and less government intervention (and thus, weaker public services and disadvantages for the disenfranchised). However, cultural liberalism (and in the US, this would be called "social" liberalism, which confusingly enough tends to be a different thing in the rest of the world) is more associated with left-wing ideas, as it usually opposes conservative social structures.

The US' Democratic Party is (not entirely, but mostly) liberal from both a social, as well as an economic, point of view. In practice, this means that they're generally more to the left compared to the ultra-conservative social positions of the GOP, but they remain right-wing in terms of how they want to organize society, especially economically speaking.

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EnemyBattleCrab t1_j6mh7ub wrote

Liberalism is neither left or right (left / right being oversimplified description of complicated ideas)

You can be liberal wanting small government and free market but conservative with your views on gender and sexuality.

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UnicornLock t1_j6mpn7b wrote

It's not complicated, just easily misapplied. In the rest of the world, left/right is about economic policy. Notice how "The Liberal Party of Australia is a centre-right political party" doesn't actually explain why they'd be the scum party. That's just more US bias.

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Torino1O t1_j6n5w87 wrote

As an American I ask Australia for a right wing nutter exchange program, because yours will always vote Liberal and ours will never vote liberal.

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