Dr. Martin Hash Podcast

The modern Left has adopted their own definition of "liberty," insisting all Western nations have liberty. They even have rankings where America is lacking in liberty as defined and determined by them. Post-Modernist Marxists do espouse a kind of liberty that recognizes people should have control over their lives, but it differs from American Jeffersonian liberty because it has no component of personal responsibility. This vital lack manifests in a couple of ways: first, they do not believe people should reap the rewards nor suffer the consequences of their own actions. Second, their liberty is not bounded by the liberty of others: they want to be able to dictate how people to treat them, address them, or think about them. For example, they want to force people to use self-selected gender pronouns, they want to limit speech they consider offensive, and they even want to penalize people for their thoughts even when not acted upon.

It is unclear if Marxists intentionally confuse the definition of liberty, or if their ideology simply promotes self-absorption because their version conveniently allows them to control those around them. Personal liberty, on the other hand, requires self-awareness: the knowledge that other people have their own liberty, and that your actions, however central to your own well-being they might be, cannot infringe on others. Also, the idea that liberty requires responsibility is central to the American ideal. We assume that responsibility is part of the equation, so are caught unprepared when Marxists leave out that vital component. The war on liberty always seems to end up as a debate about definitions.