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Civil rights are a favor that can be revoked at any time. Ultimately, there are too few who stand up for them.

Today I read an article by Bernard-Henri Lévy, a liberal intellectual. He downplays police violence, order must be restored, how is not so important.



That doesn't sound very liberal. ("Liberal" meaning "in favor of freedom for people".) It doesn't even sound very politically liberal, meaning "in favor of peoples' right to protest injustice" and "in favor of peoples' right to not be shot dead by police".

Isn't "order" the concern of the conservatives?

I've heard a number of times that politically left and right mean different things in Europe; is this one of those situations?


Wikipedia is not very helpful. Try this one:

https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/04/09/bernard-henri-levy-bhl-...

I liked Lévy's insistence on human rights but he became an ideological crusader.

And though he is as bourgois as possible he advocated in his article for social reforms (but no talking about police reforms).

(and by the way: his Sartre book is great)


It's not so simple. Without order there can be no liberty, but absolute order isn't compatible with liberty either. Liberty exists in a balance which may easily be lost.




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