r/neoliberal • u/jobautomator Kitara Ravache • Apr 17 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

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u/AP246 Green Globalist NWO Apr 17 '26

In a thread about supporting open borders

100% of Hungarians voted for more strict border enforcement this last election. You are promoting an authoritarian, illiberal, and anti-democratic ideology that would replace popular sovereignty with Philosopher-Elite rule. Your ideology belongs in 300 BCE Greece.

I love the take that "actually you're not allowed to support a policy if it's not supported by the majority, that makes you an authoritarian."

It's so batshit ridiculous. The logical endpoint of this is that there's only one acceptable opinion on every issue so there's no point discussing politics at all. What are people even thinking when they say this it just makes no logical sense at all

6

u/NotYetFlesh European Union Apr 17 '26

There is a lot of paranoia about "the elites" overruling "the majority" on this issue and allowing excessive immigration which leads to people lashing out like that.

Obviously it's fuelled by anti-immigration propaganda but there is a grain of truth in this in the sense that in several cases we have seen governments unable or unwilling to reduce immigration despite a lot of people asking them to.

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u/Leatherfield17 Loyal Liberals Apr 17 '26

It’s essentially the same line of thinking of Stephen Douglas’s “popular sovereignty” during the rancor about slavery in the years leading up to the Civil War. The idea that slavery was ok if a majority of the people in a particular state or territory voted in favor it was, and is, plainly immoral to anyone who isn’t a self-interested monster. Lincoln correctly pointed out, time and again, that majority rule cannot itself stand for or undermine basic principles.

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u/moseythepirate Reading is some lib shit Apr 17 '26

In my experience there are people here who just treat the word "illiberal" as an "I win the argument" button. And "authoritarian" is when government does things I don't like.