Lemmy is populated by far left Americans who were banned from Reddit for extremism. Strict ideological conformity is required or you’ll get actual death threats. Don’t go there unless you want violent communist revolution and hate discussing interesting ideas.
Liberal, to me, is the opposite of authoritarian. No idea what other people consider it to be, but IMO it’s entirely disconnected from the left/right spectrum. You can have authoritarian left, right or center, same way with liberal.
Like in, “liberal democracy.” But consider what “the opposite of authoritarian” means in the context of financial policies. The predictable movements of money are punishing to those who don’t own capital in a self-perpetuating vicious cycle that ends with a few wealthy people and millions of people suffering poverty. A lack of regulation of finances results in total authority of capital. Neoliberalism seeks to reduce the authority of the state while increasing the authority of capital.
It is not just finances, a lack of regulation is a problem in a lot of areas because the naive capitalist idea that people will be able to vote with their wallets doesn’t work for 90% of product issues (anything you can’t see, anything you don’t purchase often, anything you can see but lack the expertise to judge, …).
I think it’s connected to unregulated capitalism in the eyes of its opponents here.