Cultural liberalism


Cultural liberalism is a liberal view of society that stresses the freedom of individuals from cultural norms and in the words of Henry David Thoreau is often expressed as the right to "march to the beat of a different drummer".
Cultural liberals believe that society should not impose any specific code of behavior and they see themselves as defending the moral rights of nonconformists to express their own identity however they see fit as long as they do not harm anyone. The culture wars in politics are generally disagreements between cultural liberals and cultural conservatives as cultural liberals are strongly opposed to censorship or any kind of oversight of spoken or written material. They believe that the structure of one's family and the nature of marriage should be left up to individual decision and they argue that as long as one does no harm to others, no lifestyle is inherently better than any other.
Because cultural liberalism expresses the social dimension of liberalism, it is often referred to as social liberalism, especially in countries such as the United States. However, it is not the same as the broader political ideology known as social liberalism. In the United States, social liberalism describes progressive moral and social values or stances on socio-cultural issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage as opposed to social conservatism. A social conservative or a social liberal in this sense may hold either more conservative or liberal views on fiscal policy.