Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of former Western Liberals

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete‎. ✗plicit 00:51, 9 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

List of former Western Liberals[edit]

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Not fully referenced and poor list of "former Western liberals". Does not have a clear inclusion criteria. Natg 19 (talk) 00:31, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Lists of people and Politics. Natg 19 (talk) 00:31, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - WP:INDISCRIMINATE Very little of this is sourced. Is anybody surprised to know that Ivanka Trump claimed to be a Republican the day her Republican father handed her a White House position? Or how about how the liberal President Franklin Roosevelt had one or more advisors who thought like he did? Most of this is not sourced, and likely only interesting to the person who compiled the list. — Maile (talk) 01:41, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - Poor sourcing of an article can be fixed, but the title implies hopelessly vague criteria: what exactly is a "liberal", and how do we judge when someone is a "former" one? Is someone a "liberal" if they support fiscal liberalism, but not social liberalism? Is Gladstonian liberalism included, or is it just "liberal" in the currently pejorative sense used in the US? Should the list include Thomas Piketty, who has publicly moved from liberalism to socialism?

Article creator includes George Orwell, who remained a democratic socialist to the end of his life. Orwell was a stern critic of Stalinism, Trotskyism and many far-left parties, but how does that make him a "former liberal"? Article creator has twice included as the reference for Orwell: <ref>"See Mystery:Did George Orwell Become a Conservative?"</ref> [1].

The basis of the list is too vague to fix. People's political positions are often hybrid and complex, not easily boxed into binary categories. I'd recommend deletion on that basis. Wikishovel (talk) 02:13, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Conservatism-related deletion discussions. WCQuidditch ☎ ✎ 02:18, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete per above. All the users have laid the reasons out sufficiently. Geschichte (talk) 06:24, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. It seems too difficult to establish clear inclusion criteria, as some of these people were not prominent or their political views were not well-known at the time they were liberals. Besides, the political views that a liberal would hold in, say, 1924 are not necessarily those that a liberal would hold in 1974 or 2024, thus making the understanding of the word "liberal" elusive in this article. --Metropolitan90 (talk) 06:26, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete An WP:ESSAY formatted as a list, and full of guesses at political persuasions, not confirmed positions. The additional 'western' notation is derogatory rather than informative. Nate • (chatter) 15:35, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete: Western American liberals? We have liberals here in Canada from the west of the country. Non-sensical list. Oaktree b (talk) 16:13, 2 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete Expected to see former Liberal Western Australian premiers on here, honestly. SportingFlyer T·C 09:45, 3 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete This is a political editorial. It is not a list with verifiable criteria defined by reliable sources. Some entries even explain the original research that merits their inclusion. Wikipedia is not the correct venue to publish something like this. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 04:14, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. Per mostly all of the above. A list of people judged by their political views is clearly not appropriate to be on Wikipedia. 🛧Midori No Sora♪🛪 ( ☁＝☁＝✈) 06:31, 6 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete - Arbitrary list with no criteria of what constitutes a "liberal" or a "former liberal" — as if these things are binary in any event. Carrite (talk) 00:27, 7 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Delete. Per mostly all of the above too. What is there to gain from this. SpacedFarmer (talk) 22:46, 7 February 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.