It's really confusing that in America liberal signifies left-wing, in Denmark the liberal party is right-wing, and ideologically it belongs to the ideology entitled "liberalism" (not in reality but at least historically…) which I assume worldwide (incl. USA) corresponds to approximately the same thing, namely that the individual is solely responsible for his (or hers) own fortune and success, no collective responsibility what so ever. Liberalists also have full faith in the free market. This is clearly opposed to the collective ideologies as for instance socialism/communism whose supporters (generally considered left-wingers) believe that it’s a collective responsibility to assure the well-being of people and to support those less-fortuned, they don’t believe in a strict free market etc… This is of course super superficially presented, there are of course many more facets to be taken into account, and it merely serves no other purpose than to express my slight annoyance concerning the term liberal used to denote “left-wing.”
But I must say that I believe all this talk of ideology and “left- vs. right-wing” is slightly dated, and today rather pointless… I myself isn’t that interested in practical politics, I don’t have a strong opinion about many things, but I must say that I sympathize a great deal with the general views of socialism, and I always vote for the Danish left-wing/socialist/red party.
Edited by ummagumma08