It's starting to look like it is

Submitted by Keith (United States), Jan 2, 2019 at 14:15

One has to draw lines in arbitrary places to separate liberalism from socialism, totalitarian socialism, and communism. In my comments above I refrain from doing that because the line, wherever it should be drawn, has seemingly already been crossed from liberalism toward a totalitarian ideology. I cite social media suppression of speech as one example. Weaponization of the IRS against conservatives is another. The violence of Antifa is another, along with increased threats of physical violence against conservatives. In Europe, free speech is under pressure from governments, and PC policing is in force to varying extents on both continents. Try refusing to make a certain kind of wedding cake, for example, in some states. The road toward totalitarian rule is a slow one in democracies, but we seemingly inexorably move in that direction.

I can't see a sharp line that lets me say today's liberalism is not a totalitarian ideology. Twenty or thirty years ago such talk would be wacky (although there were those ringing the bell even then.) Today, not so much.

Or maybe it's not that liberalism has changed, but many of those who claim its mantle are totalitarians. Either way, the trouble is brewing, and seems to me a greater threat than Islamism, as discussed above.

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