Where is a good place to learn about liberalism?
Now I am a staunch conservative, and I am very vocal on my conservative stances. I find myself seeing disturbingly clearly that liberalism seems completely irrational, and seems to have little to no basis. However, I also recognize that there are large numbers of intelligent people who are liberals. (Although most liberals seem incredibly uneducated and have no basis). I am having a hard time understanding their angle, as typically in any discussion both sides have some sort of angle or basis, but the liberal angles seem disbunked in most situations pretty easily, so I felt the need to dig deeper and really understand what they want and how they think they can get there.
Now I met two people, one a college professor in Ecuador, one a PhD Candidate in Africa, who are both intelligent and to their liberal arguments, I can not disagree. They have both argued that liberalism will destroy america, everyone will be worse off, but that it is better for everyone to be worse off, than to have what we have. We agreed to the outcome, we just disagree on the preference. They are both socialist or something off, but the viewpoint was that essentially the world would be better if America self-emploded and people around the world were equally dying in the streets.
Now once again, I disagree that that is the preferred outcome, but we all agreed that IS the ultimate outcome. I cannot tell them they are "wrong" because what it comes down to is I prefer a world where people can life, succeed, and make the best of their lives, and they don't. How can you argue with a fundamental differing in the basis of what is good?
American Liberals, even intelligent ones however, don't seem to agree this is the preferred outcome, so I have a hard time understanding their basis
Now when I go back to classical liberalism, the likes of John Locke and traditional liberal arguments, many of them seem to be... well... modern conservative arguments (or more accurately, often libertarian ideals). When I look into modern liberalism, it seems to be based on unalienable rights, however this doesn't seem accurate as the basics of most liberal arguments is the exact opposite- That we should impose on individual rights for the "greater Good". Basics such as "separation of church and state" don't seem to be basics at all, as modern liberalism seems goes against the ability for government to control churches, and freedom of religion clearly isn't a real basis either because liberals believe law should control religion.
Without crude responses, What is their basis? How can I figure this out?
