My parents used to called corned beef stew "Pig soup" so my brother and i would eat it. That doesn't mean it was pork in there.

A liberal believes capitalism is broken and needs to be fixed.

A socialist believes capitalism is working as intended and needs to be destroyed.

In the US political media 'Liberal' is deliberately used to reference the policies of the Democratic Party, which is demonstrably Neoliberal. This confusion is working as intended.

Thanks Rush Limbaugh and all the hellspawn you've enabled.

The very idea that a liberal can't be socialist and a socialist can't be liberal is nonsensical. They are orthogonal concepts.

The division between liberals and socialists is plainly promoted in order to divide people.

That's absolutely not what it means

In the very closest definition, liberal means "if there isn't a law against it, you're allowed to do it"

liberal more broadly is just as simple: "if it doesn't hurt me, you're free to do it"

I mean, what do you think a "liberal democracy" is? The majority of Europe is made up of liberal democracies while also being social-democratic. France is a liberal democracy despite being heavily unionized and having huge welfare. How does that work?

It works because that's not what liberal means.

Socially-Liberal, for example, is when you are liberal (freedom-loving / diversity-loving) in social aspects. You support gay marriages, you support freedom of religion, you support cultural diversity. Other Examples include religiously-liberal, culturally-liberal, or even politically liberal (you support the right to different political opinions than yours)

What comes closest to what you think it is is economically-liberal. Which essentially says that "as long as it doesn't hurt me, you're free to do what you want economically". But even that isn't what you mean. Is Pollution and accelerating Climate change harming me and therefore not protected under liberalism? yes, says the absolute majority of liberals.

Is lobbying harming me by making my Voice less weighted? Yes, say a lot of us.

So not even economically-liberal is a good term to describe what you mean.

I don't know, what a good term for it is. But it isn't Liberal. So please, for the love of god, stop misusing it. Words have meaning. Invent a new one if you have to, they all began that way anyways.

In Americans politics, and you guys are completely bonkers.

how is it more often used?

Look up liberalism for liberals.

I wasn't aware Americans made up their own meaning. Now I understand why upvoted comments mentioning "liberal values" receive a flurry of downvotes while I'm asleep, Americans have lost the meaning of another word, probably due to their media.

Though, just checking, the American dictionaries seem entirely correct still. Are you all confused?

But the definition doesn't really change. Take universal healthcare. A liberal idea that's considered common sense in Europe and left wing in the US. Obamacare would be something you expect from a center right European and a left American. Both are called liberal.

And if the meme was from an exclusively American pov, it wouldn't specify "American Republicans"

It isn't just about it meaning something else when 'going to another country'. 'Liberal' has an actual definition with a history.

I'm honestly kind of confused about american liberals digging their heals in on this definition when it has historically been taken to mean something they don't seem to agree with anymore.