You see and hear it all the time. "The Liberals want this","The Conservatives hate this", "YOU ARE A SOCIALIST BECAUSE X". I don't know if it happens increasingly, but I seem come across people using political labels incorrectly very frequently.

My major complaints are the twisting of four specific terms

• Fascist

• Conservative

• Socialist/Communist

• Liberal

The Label "Fascist" has come to mean any authoritarian who is right wing. Not only is Fascism a specific ideology, it is inherently anti-capitalist. Something that many leftwingers really do not understand.

The use of Conservative has morphed over the years. You have neo-conservatism, and old school conservatism(sometimes called Toryism, High Toryism, and Red Toryism in other anglophone countries). This has come to mean any member of the Republican party, or anyone who is even remotely right-wing. Now conservatism is as 'elegant' in it's basis as Fascism, so I guess one could claim that it is so vague one could define any rightwinger as a 'conservative'. I would disagree with this because Conservatism generally regards that we should shrink market intervention, and stand up for family values, and encourage so called 'conservative values'. Many members, whom are labeled Conservative resemble this very little.

Socialist/Communist. EVERY TIME ANYONE USES EITHER OF THESE TERMS IN /r/Conservative I cringe. Now one could argue that these terms became "any government intervention in anything". Not only is this wrong, it is hilariously wrong when you take the actual definition of Socialism.

[Sidenote: I will be talking about neoliberalism, as that is what is generally called "liberal"]

Similar to 'Socialist' the term 'Liberal' is often thrown around willynilly. True liberals wish to decrease government intervention in order to strengthen the private sector, increase free-trade both internationally and locally, stand up for people's freedoms and liberties. Wait what? If you asked many Americans for the definition of Conservative, you would get almost the textbook definition of a neo-liberal. Now you must see my frustration when american insist that the term "liberal" is a blanket term for leftwingers.

/rant

Someone explain to me why this happens, and why its ok.

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