Yes. Liberalism was historically progressive insofar as it represented the suppression of feudal aristocracy and the rise of the bourgeois capitalist class. But it is historically regressive insofar as it represents the suppression of the proletariat, the suppression of anti-imperialism, and the entrenchment of the bourgeois capitalist class. It is simultaneously possible to recognize liberalism as historically progressive and revolutionary, but currently reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Just like it is possible to see abolitionists in the United States as historically progressive for being against slavery, but to recognize a lot of them as racists by modern standards (for example, many abolitionists were against slavery, but in favor of segregation).
Simply making an appeal to the common etymological roots of "liberty" and "liberalism" is lazy. Liberalism as it stands is the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the global domination of the imperial core. Read Domenico Losurdo's Liberalism: A Counter history.
Also, liberals have long since abandoned cherishing the legacy of things like the French Revolution.
Yes. Liberalism was historically progressive insofar as it represented the suppression of feudal aristocracy and the rise of the bourgeois capitalist class. But it is historically regressive insofar as it represents the suppression of the proletariat, the suppression of anti-imperialism, and the entrenchment of the bourgeois capitalist class. It is simultaneously possible to recognize liberalism as historically progressive and revolutionary, but currently reactionary and counter-revolutionary. Just like it is possible to see abolitionists in the United States as historically progressive for being against slavery, but to recognize a lot of them as racists by modern standards (for example, many abolitionists were against slavery, but in favor of segregation).
Simply making an appeal to the common etymological roots of "liberty" and "liberalism" is lazy. Liberalism as it stands is the class dictatorship of the bourgeoisie, and the global domination of the imperial core. Read Domenico Losurdo's Liberalism: A Counter history.
Also, liberals have long since abandoned cherishing the legacy of things like the French Revolution.