Dubliette is referring to the thought-terminating cliché that every major US party doesn’t want to abolish capitalism (the economic system centered around capital, private ownership, etc.), ergo we’re all liberals.
I dunno how you can terminate a thought that never began
thought-terminating cliché
There’s no argument, it’s the definition of the word. Why do you assume there should be argument around the normal usage of a word?
A capitalist is someone who owns capital, not someone who supports capitalism. A liberal is someone who supports capitalism. I don’t think Linus is a liberal, given that he’s the Linux guy. But he’s obviously a capitalist, and that’s okay, that’s something you should strive towards if you live under capitalism, even if ideologically you oppose capitalism.
Lolbye
A thought-terminating cliché (also known as a semantic stop-sign, a thought-stopper, bumper sticker logic, or cliché thinking) is a form of loaded language, often passing as folk wisdom, intended to end an argument and quell cognitive dissonance.[1][2] Its function is to stop an argument from proceeding further, ending the debate with a cliché rather than a point. Some such clichés are not inherently terminating. They only become so when used to intentionally dismiss dissent or justify fallacious logic.[3]
