Leftist vs Liberal: Two Very Different Ideas

With the election only a few days away, we’re all feeling really political at the minute and identifying mostly by the Party that we’re going to elect on Thursday. However, we’ve heard many people getting mixed up as to whether they’re liberal or leftist. Many people confuse the two terms or think that they mean exactly the same thing when in fact they are worlds apart. So to try and help you understand the difference between the two, we made our own basic definitions.

Leftist:

A leftist is someone who identifies strongly with the political Left and the majority/all of its ideology, including communism and extreme socialism. Some modern issues leftists advocate for include abolishing the monarchy, a gender neutral society and white guilt. They are as extreme as the far right only on the other side of the spectrum. Many leftists are quite bigoted in their refusal to accept the beliefs of anyone else. In this general election, many leftists have called for left wing parties to include policies such as 100% taxes on the rich. More dedicated leftists may sympathise with terrorist groups such as the IRA or communist dictators like Mao and the DPRK and many don’t believe it ever possible to be racist to white people.

Liberals:

By definition, liberals are a lot more relaxed in their views. They are usually positioned about centre-left on the political spectrum and although they may share some beliefs with leftists such as gender neutral society, they aren’t as militant and can accept the views of other people. They are open to new ideas and don’t dismiss anything without evidence. Leftists sometimes accuse liberals of being inter-sectional feminist or micro aggressively racist.