Categories
Hyperliberalism – politicalbetting.com
Hyperliberalism – politicalbetting.com
“The New Leviathans” is a book by John Gray. It is not an easy read. It is overwritten and despite its short length it is too long, taking frequent digressions: so much so in fact it may be two books mashed into one or repurposed. But it does introduce the concept of “hyperliberalism”:
1
Comments
Personally I think there is a high amount of “shy Labour” out there. This won’t be relevant now but will be in 2029 I think.
Whereas the liberalism of Locke, who believed in liberty and limited government and basic rights and freedoms was also based on support for private property and experience and reason via empiricism (Locke buried near us in High Laver).
Whilst I'm no scholar, I have read a certain amount of theology in my time. One consistent thing that stood out for me was that theologians tend to have very poor grammar and in my view, it's often the poor grammar rather than the complex thought that makes them hard to read/understand. Possibly relevant to this book.
Good afternoon, everyone.
I really think wokeism has reached its end. The UK to me seems to have come to a place in terms of the trans issue that 99% of people can live with.
The bemused won’t have seen anything like that before. Not knowing what to do leaves us uncertain of how to behave. I’m not sure judging people by their unconsidered actions under exceptional circumstances is entirely fair.
I’m just glad I’m not there too.
Back to the header.
Andy Burnham has chimed in on trans. What a helmet he is.
Just for a change.
Honestly the threat to Labour from the Greens is completely zero. They are just completely out to lunch. Not a chance they take a significant amount of Labour votes in a campaign.
New CNN Poll: Trump's 41% approval rating is the lowest for any newly elected president at 100 days dating back at least to Eisenhower
https://bsky.app/profile/cnn.com/post/3lnsa6pxbi22e
I liked the description of Classical Liberalism as "agreeing to disagree". It is born from the idea that everyone should have the liberty to their own belief, even if I disagree. Apply Voltare's maxim on free speech to liberty, then contrast with Woke ideology. 'I may disagree profoundly with what you believe, but I will defend your liberty to believe it, act on it, and express it' vs 'You can't believe that, you can only believe this, or we'll call you a hater, a bigot and a phobe'. If Woke is genuinely an expression of Hyperliberalism, then Hyperliberalism just isn't Liberal.
Can somebody explain the appeal of Andy Burnham? He just seems like an even worse Keir Starmer in every way.
Also, what @Chris doesn't realise - and I seriously doubt ever will - is how framing any opposition to it in that way actually helps make it happen.
It's how Trump and his brethren have come about.
"Woke" means being aware of structural inequalities in society, particularly in relation to characteristics such as ethnicity.
I think "Hyperliberalism" is an equally useless term as it also is made up as a straw man. So I don't think it a useful concept.
Hyperliberalism is a problem. The more self-reflective liberals understand this, but many do not.
Or is it only not "Identity Politics" when it is about your narrow conception of national identity?
having said that his approval rating will also be the lowest for any 're-elected after a gap president at 100 days' since 1892
but what about 'presidents 100 days into their second term'?
https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2025/04/is-globalisation-over-and-who-will-gain-in-the-local-elections/
To illustrate the changing use of words, the term 'slut' was originally someone, usually a young woman, who did a job where you would get grubby. A parlour maid or scullery made perhaps. Use broadened to mean a dirty girl, and then to mean a "dirty" girl. After the new use was coined, you could no longer call someone a slut in the original sense because of the new connotation. 'Gay' is much the same. In that sense, while Woke used to mean someone opposed to discrimination, it now means someone with a rigid and intolerant stance on identity politics and other "new" political ideas.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/25/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-ross-douthat.html
Though it starts off with how Trump is seen as a 'man of destiny', and ends up with why it is (or isn't) a good idea to sign up to one of the organised religions that has 'stood the test of time'.
I think you might find it interesting.
This approach fosters injustice and resentment, fuels crude attacks on the roots of our culture, and deepens polarisation within society. It is fundamentally illiberal. In rejecting any collective identities as structural obstacles — while at the same time promoting a hyperindividualism where anyone can self-define their identity — it gives rise to hyperliberalism.
That is what is eroding the shared sense of belonging, the demos, which is vital for the survival of our democracy and a thriving and successful society in future.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRESxcAMkXY
50p on it?
Tell you what, if I outperform labour I’ll donate double to the food bank. I normally give a fiver. It’s one of those bets I cannot lose.
Merz declined the invitation to attend the Pope's funeral. I think it was because as he doesn't (yet) have much of an official position he would have been nowhere near the front at the ceremony itself, and he didn't want the photos of him on the back row. I think this reflects badly on him, as it was a missed opportunity to exchange words with other world leaders. Especially as he is the (Catholic) leader of the "Christian Democratic Union"
One vital point that's almost never discussed is the role of stable, hard-working nuclear families in creating strong outcomes — probably because this truth cuts against core liberal assumptions and risks sounding "judgmental." Yet it explains why Chinese and Indian families, who often emphasise these values, consistently outperform not just minority groups but even White families — while WWC, travellers, and Black families - the ones most likely to have split or broken family - often struggle most. This uncomfortable fact doesn't fit the cultural marxist narrative currently in vogue where structural racism must explain everything, and 'White Privilege' accounts for the lot.
Today’s hyperliberals have unknowingly aligned themselves with cultural marxists — are uninterested in the evidence, and seem oblivious to the consequences.
Or you can compare him to other presidents 100 days into their second term. In which case his approval rating probably isn't?
Who are these imaginary creatures that inhabit your brain?
Does anyone describe themselves as HyperLiberal or Woke (using your definitions)? I know of no one like that.
It becomes just as pointless as much discussion of Theology or Philosophy, when everyone uses terms differently. We might as well descend to the student politics of Rik in the Young Ones and just call each other Facist.
https://youtu.be/YeJHuzLQb3g?si=vr_-yrGo6-wXJMtg
Much like Boris's appeal in 2019, a combination of name recognition and being a blank sheet we can project on.
I hope you will be making the effort to see the world from the perspective of Renault owners.
I don't think it's pointless. A simple level of recognition of the problem by you would be all it would take for me to move this discussion on.
You got that in you?
Origins of woke from Wikipedia:
"Woke is an adjective derived from African-American English used since the 1930s or earlier to refer to awareness of racial prejudice and discrimination, often in the construction stay woke. The term acquired political connotations by the 1970s and gained further popularity in the 2010s with the hashtag #staywoke."
Suggesting that taking the knee in support of BLM warranted Trump Naziism is gaslighting in the extreme.
“Wokeism ”is also not just the trans issue. There are plenty of other faultlines, though the trans issue has been the most visible in recent times.
We are all responsible for choices offered to us in the society in which we live.
Just this past Friday, a senior member of our railway company told me that south-west London is highly racially diverse, and that if we want to attract people from that community to our railway then we needed to ensure our railway reflects that diversity. And then they would come. They added that if, in doing so, we happen to alienate some of our current visitors, that's a trade-off worth making — because they're dinosaurs and we'd gain a broader, more diverse mix of visitors, which would ultimately be a positive outcome.
Sound familiar?
The actions of hyperliberals are creating resentment which is absolutely creating a ready constituency for Trump. The resistance to this plain and simple fact I find fascinating: you are helping create the very monster you despise. Probably because you don't want to fact up to it.
If you listened to people more and dropped the dogmatic policy his ravings would have no currency.
I'm confident you'll get there.
The question of what the hell the American Right were thinking is an important one, but I'm unconvinced as to how much the woke left is the answer.
This stuff isn't hard. Some of what the woke left tried to do in America was insane.
https://bsky.app/profile/cjzero.bsky.social/post/3lnoykav2dk2u
All the comments are just everyone agreeing with each other.
Problem is that instead of “let’s stop saying stupid” the right give the impression that they want to go back to the good old days of being a twat to people for their crime of not being white male christian rich enough for them.
I started Grey's book a few months ago but decided after while since I had never read Locke or Hobbes I was struggling.
May give it another go after reading your header.
"Keir Starmer's Ex Girlfriend Is Pro Trans Judge!"
What does it even mean!
Is the Sunday Mail really a newspaper?
On the other hand I accept I have benefitted from white priviledge, simply for being left alone by the police whilst walking or driving on the highways and byways of Britain. I don't belive history should be rewritten in either direction, should Trump be removing all traces of Colin Powell from the Pentagon because he was black? On a visit to English Harbour I asked an Antiguan guide why she never mentioned slavery, she responded by saying "why would I generate an argument with my American customers who believe slaves were merely indentured servants, I need the tips".
So the stuff you don't like ( and neither do I) about unfair positive discrimination, and rewriting history to make "white British" (or white Americans) look guilty also works in the other direction. Roll all the playing fields flat and I am cool with that. But my liberalism didn't make Trump beatup on black and coloured people. He does that because he's a racist like his father and probably always was.
Not everyone pushing back against woke hyperliberalism is a disgruntled baby boomer who hasn't taken a back seat ever in their life and resents being expected to now...
... but an awful lot are.
Another one: disabled people aren’t “differently abled”. That makes it sound like they are equal to able bodied people which is a terrible lie and deeply patronising.
I’m against that. But the people who are loudly against it are really against disabled people. They don’t see why we have things like Motability. Or accessibility. Or equality laws which stop companies openly discriminating against the disabled.
They’re the kind of people who shut down Remploy whilst advocating a market solution alternative whilst doing all the can to ensure the market can’t provide an alternative. Disabled people should simply go away and shut up. But no, lack of support for disabled people isn’t the issue, it’s a small number of morons using “differently abled” to describe them.
CENTRISM!
Just grown up, unfussy, sensibleness. Cant fail
Fears over espionage from Beijing have led defence companies to advise staff to exercise caution if they own Chinese-built cars
https://inews.co.uk/news/dont-charge-phones-chinese-electric-cars-3660462
This follows the MoD banning Chinese EVs from car parks at sensitive sites.
It may also be relevant to our discussion on an earlier thread about trusting or hacking self-driving cars for terrorism.
Happily now we can have people seeking a “MAGA pope”. A pope who can shout damnation onto people because of their sexuality and perspectives on society. A pope who can take God’s authority and say it how angry white men think God would want it, especially when you set aside all that Jesus woke DEI stuff.
The world is going to miss Francis a lot.
However it seems to no longer be available in the UK (and has comments turned off):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flSS1tjoxf0
Where is the (very divisive) politics in this picture I took this morning? Location is in South Yorkshire.
Enough said.
Had Burnham won the Labour leadership in 2015 he may well have beaten May's Tories in 2017 and won most seats and become PM.
Corbyn however fell short despite gains and was heavily beaten in 2019 and probably cost Labour at least an extra 5-7 years out of power as a result
And therefore people of a certain political persuasion chose to leave.
Pretty much any criticism of Blue Sky is also true of Twitter, just from the opposite political point of view. (With the exception, of course, that Elon is quite happy to silence right wing voices too, if they have the temerity to argue with him in public.)
- at university I helped organise student demos. Nearly all were things I disagreed with. But I thought it was my job as a union officer to help them demonstrate safely.
- some little time later, a friend was a tree climbing environmental protestor. I was worried about the equipment (or lack thereof) - so I bought her a climbing harness and gear as a birthday present. The chap in the shop was pretending that he wasn’t a protestor himself… the look on his face when I paid with an oil company corporate card was something.
- my eldest daughter got into the BLM thing. I ended up defending her going on a demo from my youngest - who isn’t a follower and pointed out that importing US politics into the U.K. is usually bollocks. In the end helped her and her friends with transport and budget (ha!)