Liberals vs The Left

There’s been this false conception for the longest time that liberals and leftists are the same. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Before we look at the similarities and differences between the 2, we first have to define the terms, which would be problematic on it’s own since both ideologies can be used to refer to a wide range of people, so instead we’ll have to list each main subset.
In regards to liberalism, there’s 3 main ideologies to look at:
Classical liberalism is a right-libertarian ideology that seeks to maximize both social and economic freedoms while having a limited government solely to protect those freedoms. Prominent examples include Jon Stossel, Jacob Hornberger, Penn Jillette, Jo Jorgensen, and Seamus Coughlin.
Social liberalism is similar to classical liberalism but prioritizes social freedoms over economic ones and believes that taxation is a necessary evil needed to fund public goods like police, military, healthcare, and a social safety net while still favoring free market capitalism. Prominent examples include Gary Johnson, Joe Rogan, Elon Musk, Carl Benjamin, and Hunter Avallone.
Neoliberalism is a right-corporatist ideology that seeks to maximize one’s profit and uses classical liberalism as a base to do so. Prominent examples include Ronald Reagan, Nancy Pelosi, George Bush, Hillary Clinton, and Ben Shapiro.
As for the left, they represent a wide array of ideologies that are united by their distaste for capitalism.
On the center left, they don’t want to completely abolish it but they want tight regulations on the free market and believe that the government should use taxation to pay for anything that’s in the public’s best interest, even unecessary things like college and elective procedures.
However, the far left supports the complete abolishment of capitalism and seeks to replace it with a system where wealth equality is forced and everything is equally spread among the people.
But for this video, we’re only going to be looking at classical liberals and social democrats, as the former is the only true form of liberalism and the latter is the most popular form of leftism.
With that out of the way, let’s look at some issues to see where liberals and the left agree and differ:
Abortion:
Both liberals and the left tend to agree that abortion is morally wrong but should remain legal. However, liberals believe that it’s up to the mother to fund her own abortion while the left tends to believe that abortions should be funded with tax dollars.
Bailouts:
Both liberals and the left oppose corporate bailouts. However, some liberals oppose ALL bailouts, whether it be for Bill Gates or the guy struggling to pay rent whereas other liberals side with the left, who argue that individual bailouts are compensation for the period of time where the government prevented you from working.
Death Penalty:
Both liberals and the left oppose the death penalty because they believe that the government shouldn’t have the right to take away another person’s life, although some on the left instead argue that the death penalty’s only wrong because it leaves the potential for innocent people to be executed.
Drugs:
Both liberals and the left support ending the war on drugs. However, while liberals want to legalize drugs entirely, the left’s divided between that or legalizing marijuana and decriminalizing the rest.
Environmentalism:
While liberals are divided on the science behind climate change, they all agree that corporations do a better job at taking care of the environment when there are no environmental regulations in place. Meanwhile, the left takes the exact opposite position and argues that we need to do everything we can to protect the environment, even if it inconveniences individuals.
Free Speech:
Liberals LOVE free speech. To them, free speech is the basis of a healthy democracy and if it’s taken away, will create a totalitarian dictatorship. However, some on the left believe the exact opposite and support “hate speech” laws that they believe will prevent the rise of a totalitarian dictatorship.
Gun Control:
Liberals are opposed to any regulation on firearms because they believe that even the most basic of gun laws can lead us down a slippery slope to fascism. However, the left’s divided, with some going in the exact opposite direction and supporting a total gun ban but most just wanting to ban assault rifles and fix all the loopholes that would help a criminal legally obtain a weapon.
Healthcare:
Liberals believe that all taxation is theft and therefore believe that healthcare should be left to private charity and the free market. However, the left believes that healthcare is a human right and should therefore be funded with tax dollars.
Identity Politics:
Liberals despise identity politics, as they believe that all people should be treated equally. However, some on the left believe that women and minorities are so oppressed that they should get special treatment to make up for it.
War:
Both liberals and the left agree that war should only be used when absolutely necessary as a last resort.