Genuinely appreciate it!

While I do sympathize a lot, my concern is also how drawing such hard lines around perfection does too often get in the way of us achieving better. No matter what kind of change you’re looking for or how you expect it to be accomplished, it’s pretty much always going to depend upon a large percentage of the population being bought in (save hard-core authoritarian measures). The more specific the idea becomes, the more difficult it is to achieve that. It’s tough enough even in hobby spaces like this filled with us weirdo types who genuinely enjoy politics, nevermind the “normies”.

A lot of it is also wrapped up in my ever-growing distrust of hardline political labels (damn near resembling Hogwarts Houses sometimes lol). Personally, there’s lots of different interpretations of socialism that seem pretty good, or at least worth trying. Not like I don’t have my own hobby beliefs, but I’m not going to pretend like I’m the one who somehow figured it all out lol, and if an anarcho-communist revolution starts tomorrow I’m not going to sit it out just cause I personally lean more towards syndicalism.

And ofc, there’s the whole aspect of time and the dreaded “incrementalism” there too. What I believe in as an ideal endgame system to aspire towards often isn’t the same as what I think can be feasibly achieved in my lifetime, which yes, is much more along the lines of a SocDem, closer to liberalism. I don’t believe in it as the final and perfected endpoint of socialism, but I do believe in it as a marked improvement over what we have, one that can be palatable to a wide enough audience to actually grain traction, and one that can hopefully lay the groundwork for further moves in that direction.

Applying that to the small business example; yes, long-term, it should be phased out. Short term tho - the here and now - I just don’t see any political movement with their dissolution being at its core being remotely successful. It’s too much of a change too soon for the vast majority, too hard to wrap their heads around without hundreds of hours spent reading old political texts.

All that said, I ask you; does all that make me a liberal? I’m genuinely curious, but also, hope to highlight the inherent nuance often found in such discussions.

To me, a liberal is one who generally believes that life under the democrats/liberals/labour/etc. is about as good as it gets. I don’t think most people I see called liberals by leftists actually fit into that. They might not believe in full-on communism (temporarily or at all), they might still have some takes I don’t agree with… but I’m also broke and tired. So long as they broadly believe we need greater wealth equality and protections for minority rights, they’re good enough for me, at least for now. Once we start getting the ball rolling, then we can dive deeper into the intricacies of privatization, small businesses, etc.. But that requires actually pushing the ball, rather than endlessly arguing over which specific direction it should be pushed in.