I think there is 2+1 different uses on American forums:
economically liberal: support free (libre) market
socially liberal: support social progressiveness, like human rights, workers rights, freedom from church interference in personal life, women rights and LGBTQ more recently.
American politics liberal: whatever Democrats party supports.
In the 18th century (maybe until Marx?), most people who were economically liberal, were also socially liberal, it was a general movement for more freedom everywhere at the same time.
But now both notions are spread differently along the political spectrum. You have far left who is socially liberal but against free market, you have traditional right who are socially conservative but pro free market, populist right who are social conservative and mildly against free market because they just bundle the most demagogic subject together as a Frankenstein program to get votes, and you have social democrats who defend free market with social progressiveness to compensate for the negative side effects.
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I think there is 2+1 different uses on American forums:
In the 18th century (maybe until Marx?), most people who were economically liberal, were also socially liberal, it was a general movement for more freedom everywhere at the same time.
But now both notions are spread differently along the political spectrum. You have far left who is socially liberal but against free market, you have traditional right who are socially conservative but pro free market, populist right who are social conservative and mildly against free market because they just bundle the most demagogic subject together as a Frankenstein program to get votes, and you have social democrats who defend free market with social progressiveness to compensate for the negative side effects.