Liberal, conservative or moderate

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liberal:

****1.**favorable to progress or reform, as in political or religiousaffairs.

2.( *often initial capital letter *) noting or pertaining to a politicalparty advocating measures of progressive political reform.

**3.**of, pertaining to, based on, or advocating liberalism.

**4.**favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximumindividual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by lawand secured by governmental protection of civil liberties.

**5.**favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially withrespect to matters of personal belief or expression: a liberalpolicy toward dissident artists and writers.

]conservative:

**1.**disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., orto restore traditional ones, and to limit change.

**2.**cautiously moderate or purposefully low: a conservativeestimate.

**3.**traditional in style or manner; avoiding novelty or showiness:conservative suit.

4.( *often initial capital letter *) of or pertaining to theConservative party.

5.( *initial capital letter *) of, pertaining to, or characteristic of Conservative Jews or Conservative Judaism.

So these words have over time become an overly used cliche. And many a times, people actually take offence if they are called so. In the light of all the definitions of these words, how would you describe yourself or your views? In terms of religious views is their a a concept of liberal or conservative Muslim (or a person of any other faith?

Also how do most of us determine how liberal, **conservative **or **moderate **somebody is?

and again let’s keep the discussion nice :chai:

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

I consider myself a fairly moderate person because I carefully pick and choose from old school of thought as well as modern school of thought .. I dont go blindly after niether. Both from religious and general perspective .

In my opinion, people who are too swayed by the modern day happenings/values are liberals .. for example, religiously as well as morally we know that Gays are wrong. A moderate like me will never attend a gay wedding or be friends with a gay however that doesnt mean I will tolerate any infringement on their basic human rights .Where as a liberal will definitely attend a gay wedding and ignore any religious or moral teachings because they form their opinions based on modern values where Gays have their own set of rights and they are considered right in what they do.

Conservatives are those who are still trapped in the old school of thought and shun any kind of modern change . For example, a conservative shuns the use of computer to listen to Quran .. they are way too used to holding the Quran and reading it .. all new methods dont make any sense to them. No matter what argument you put forward to these kind of people, they shun it and only believe in what they have seen their elders do in previous times. They cant disassociate themselves from that mindset.

A moderate will use their mind to determine right from wrong , be it from the old or new school of thought. They do not get swayed easily by modern values nor values of the past .. they tread on the cusp of both the era's. For example, they will be more then happy to use technology to further educate themselves or listen to Quran and might even advocate it to future generations .. similarly they will not break old school religiously important value that Gays are morally wrong and no acceptability should be given to them since religiously they are inviting Allah's azaab .. no matter how much acceptance modern times show for them, the moderates will continue to dessert and discourage gayism.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

I also consider myself moderate with elements of both liberalism and conservatism. However, if we were to go by prevailing notions of these terms, I'd classify myself as a liberal.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

you will got 80% moderate responses and 20% liberal.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

I think the interesting part of her question is : how do most of us determine how liberal, **conservative **or **moderate **somebody is?

This is where everyone is different ...

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

At pakistanimard ok maybe for themselves, but how does everyone label somebody they meet into these categories?

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I am fiercely independent and have views that cut across these buckets.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

relatively speaking. their own definition.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Moderate as used in the US today represent those with no opinion on any issue. The so called Independents are low information voters. But not nearly as low as the wing nuts to the right.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Conservative is someone who resists change even if it's for something good, whereas liberals weigh the merits of a particular option and favor it if it's for the greater good.

Moderates are people who sympathize with the conservative point of view, understanding that change is hard to accept, however they do believe in doing what's right. They act as mediators between the liberals and conservatives as they understand both their perspectives, how hard it is to accept change and how change is necessary. They help set a pace of change that is neither too fast, for the conservatives, nor is too slow, for the liberals.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

so basically they swing both ways?

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:rotfl:

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Consider myself liberal.. am open to most things.. and I can imagine my (future) kids pushing those boundaries further..

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Is there an instance in last 250 years when liberals acted too fast and needed mods ( no pun intended) to slow the pace of progress.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Southie what I meant was, too fast for the conservatives to come to terms with it. If the Liberals propose something too radical for the conservatives, they will never let anyone implement it. Moderates make sure new ideas get bipartisan support, by taming those liberal ideas a bit.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Conservatives go out of their way to prenent minorities from voting. Threatening them with ads in their neighbirhood misdirecting them to wrong polling stations requiring voter ID.

Moderates are twiddling their thumb. Time they spoke up.

As for the theory Moderates are fiercely independent - liberals are the true independents. They vote and act per society's best interest even at the expense of their own best interest.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

The lead up.to the Iraq war was an example of how dysgunctional conservatives and moderates were. 10% of the country - all progressives saw the futility of war. Howard Dean Dennis Kucinovich Howard Dean Probably Noam Chomsky Howard Zinn Bernie Sanders spoke out against the war. The conservatives were cheerladrrs. The moderates - a majotlrity of Democrats including Hillary Joe Bidden John Kerry John Edwards voted for the war. The " moderates" in the mediaxTim Russert Probably Koppel and even Keith Olbermann were in favor of war.

The myth of moderates being the reasonable ones was busted. Now history may repeat itself with Iran.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

now mr. southie, i would urge you to expand your horizon a bit, and not limit the definition of liberal and conservative to only the domestic US political landscape. i think, this discussion is aimed at a wider definition of the words.

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Re: Liberal, conservative or moderate

Mr. Mard I can only speak abt my circle of competence - however small. Maybe others can bring their experiences to bear. Look forward to your take on this topic.

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^ I just found out that you guys don't get a day off on elections day.
That's either extremely stupid, or an extremely smart way of making sure voter turn out stays low.