• HomerianSymphony@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        Liberalism is a political ideology that arose in Europe in the late 18th century amongst intellectuals of the newly emergent middle class. They believed in individual rights and were opposed to the authority of the church and monarchy. (People who supported the church and monarchy were called Conservatives.)

        Liberals later opposed the more collectivist ideologies that emerged in the late 19th century, like socialism and Communism.

        Liberal ideas are so ubiquitous in the Western world, that you might not even realize them as part of an ideology, but they are.

        For a long time, English politics was a rivalry between Liberals and Conservatives, and so those terms have been imprecisely borrowed to describe the Democrats and Republicans in the US, but that usage is incorrect. The US has never had a state church or a monarchy. Both sides of US politics are liberals.