What's the definition you have of "liberal"

[yugo23]

Regressives is a quite appropriate term coined by people on the left who are tired of these people and I think I'll use that because even calling these twats progressive is pretty ridiculous.

Yeah especially considering how corrupt they are...

Most left politicians represent nothing and certainly not the great socialist ideals.

[KiwiParty]

liberal is a multi faceted term.
the word is derived from the latin word freedom, libertas.
So you could say it is a synonym for freedom?
well, yes and no.
First, there are historical events the term liberal is explicitly used for.
for example laissez-faire in context with constitutional matters,
or neo liberalism regarding economic science.

It always implies less contraints in comparison to most other comparable "concepts".
the idea behind liberlism is more accessible to those with knowledge & education,
as they are aware of its conceptual relevance.
libaralism is more like a foundation for freedom.

[Macukica]

Hey people.

This forum is mainly American. Or at least the "politics and society" part is divided mainly between Americans and Europeans.

Americans keep calling lots of Europeans "liberals". But the thing is that most of people called this way are not. I'm really not sure Americans have the same definition of the word "liberal" than Europeans.

So here the official Oxford definition (in a political context):
favouring individual liberty, free trade, and moderate political and social reform
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/liberal

Clearly, lefties aren't liberals, at all. From this definition, most Americans are strong liberals, and Europeans are much less liberals. Especially from an economic point of view.

So is that your definition of liberals? if no what do you means by "liberal"?

Liberty is individual freedom and rights. Bitcoin is very liberal, fiat is not liberty.

Liberalism is the common name for a political ideology that advocates the state organization aimed at the greatest possible individual freedom achieved through the democratic process under the protection of the rule of law . One of the alternative definitions of liberalism as an ideology according to which the aim is to achieve the freedom of the individual at the expense of social equality and social stability.

[Mike Christ]

There's two forms of freedom here: freedom of being (social liberty, left) and freedom of action (economic liberty, right.)  Liberalism, as far as it goes in the states, refers only to freedom of being, but abhors economic freedom.  In other words, something like homosexuality or transgenderism or any religion or culture whatsoever is a-ok with the liberal ("tolerance", multiculturalism etc.), but running a business however one sees fit is not.  This is largely in part due to the lefties taking full control over the term, who are wholly blind to the benefits of freedom of action, for whatever reason.  Conservatives are the liberal's opposite, supporting freedom of action but abhorring freedom of being; the limitation is intended to preserve tradition.  Libertarian is essentially what the liberal used to refer to, which supports both freedom of being and freedom of action; as the root of the word liberal is liber which means freedom, it makes sense that it ought to support freedom period, and I'm sure this is what it means outside of the insanity of US politics.  In contrast, authoritarians abhor both freedom of being and freedom of action, which is fundamentally similar to being a slave; of course, such an advocate can only intend to be the slave master, e.g. dictators and the fools which elect them.

With that in mind, the influence of the left and of authoritarians has grown immensely lately while the economy suffers.  Just saying, they're connected.