Quote:
Originally Posted by rubecube
See and this is where I think you and Cliff are either being disingenuous or just have an ideological blindspot when it comes to liberalism because I could say the same for liberalism. Liberalism is more than just a collection of philosophical tenets regarding human rights. There's an economic component to it that could only inevitably lead to poverty, slavery, environmental degradation, expansionism, exploitation, colonialism, etc., and the fact that pretty much every single liberal state has encountered these issues appears to be proof of that, no?
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Every non-liberal state has also encountered those issues. After all, human history is little more than a register of the follies and misfortunes of mankind. Slavery, conquest, subjugation, ruthless exploitation of people and resources - all universal practices carried out since the dawn of our species in every corner of the planet.
Still, liberal democracy is also responsible for outlawing slavery. For the emancipation of women from the shackles of tradition. For universal suffrage. For the right to own property without some lord confiscating it whenever it pleased him. To make a speech or write a book that criticizes the powerful. Global free markets have lifted a billion people out of dire poverty in the last 20 years alone. Progressivism itself is a child of the Western Enlightenment. There's a reason Greenpeace, gay rights, and feminism started in the liberal West and not in China, Egypt, or India.
Western liberal democracy is the worst of all systems - except for all the rest.